NEIGHBOUR CROSSED THE BOUNDARY BEFORE EXCHANGE

[MummyToBeAgain1]

Hi

I need some advice please.

We're buying a semi detached property and due to exchange and complete in a week or 2.

Over the weekend we drove past the property to find a fence being built between our garden and the property on the right. I suspected they had come in to our garden at a glance so drove past again yesterday.

The fence had fully been up and clearly it crossed in to our garden (to be). I've attached a quick drawing which shows what I mean. The red line is the fence the neighbour has put up.

Just for some context this is a auction property as the owner has died and the children wanted a quick sale. This means that we have a deadline for completition which makes things more stressful.

What do we do now?

Tia

From the OP, it sounds like the CFs waited until the original owner was deceased before making their play when nobody was around to stop them.

I can’t help but think the sellers are being CFs here too. They’ve given you a reduction, sure, but also a headache to reach the final resolution. Personally I’d not have touched the place (surprised your solicitor didn’t intervene more with a possible breach of contract?) but I’d so be tempted to claim the land back. This really might cause you more headaches if you sell or neighbour CF starts pushing more boundaries.

Congratulations OP, you must be thrilled! Glad it worked out for you. As for the sellers, I'm gutted for them. I'm also gobsmacked this can happen. The UK must be kne of very few civilised countries where neighbours could get away with it. I mean, this just does not happen elsewhere. It just doesn't. You'd go knock the fence down, tell the CFs to f off and that'd be it. I hope those CFs leave you alone ro enjoy your amazing new home 😊🥂

These are not neighbours I'd want to be making friends with - at the end of the day they are sneaky thieves.

It will cost you time and money to sort out the property line dispute, that is what the price reduction is for. You don't have to actually change the property line when you own the property, you can pursue the return of your land according to the deeds.

I'm glad you're getting your house, OP, but there's no way in hell I'd be getting the place resurveyed and changing the land registry, and I can't imagine why anyone would suggest that as a solution, because it isn't one! From your point of view, there's zero benefit and considerable cost/hassle to that course of action - it benefits nobody except the thieving neighbours.

If you want to negotiate an easement with the CF neighbours then all the costs should be theirs. Once you have bought the property neither the former owners nor the CF neighbours can make you change the Title. Just don't.

By sellers, I meant the people selling the house, not the deceased relatives. The family members who currently own the property. The family members who have now been made aware that the neighbours did a land grab.

Woah! I wasn’t expecting that. I would be having absolutely NOTHING to do with those neighbours from the point I moved in. I’d be seething even though I know it’s benefitted you in a round about way. I can’t abide thieves, particularly when they get away with it.

Thanks for the update.

The sellers have given you a reduction in the price to get the sale through, and the land dispute now becomes yours and not there's. I don't think they've sold you a property with less land - they've sold you a property with a boundary dispute which is now yours to deal with. Its the lesser of two evils, for them, and whilst they've lost out on some money, it's probably a lot less than what it would have cost them in legal fees to put it right.

Personally, as others have said, I would be letting the CFers know that you are aware of the land dispute and ask how they plan to resolve it as the borders do not match with the land registry documents. Let them know its not as simple as moving a fence and taking some land - the land is owned and registered.

Give them the option of reinstating the correct borders or buying the land from you and getting the necessary amendments done. Explain that you witnessed the change that they made to the property on one of several visits - in case they try and lie their way out of it - and that you have checked with all parties and no agreement was in place for them to do so.

Either that or wait until they're out and get the fence taken down and repositioned to the correct place. I'd do it whilst they were at home witness it, but that's just me 😆.

I think I'd have been tempted to just take the fence down one day when they were out and just say "oh, this is my fence, isn't it? It's on my property. I was going to put a different one in." Just pretend I thought it was built by previous owner. If they objected then it'd be time to say "oh, sorry. Well I've got the deeds here. If I'm wrong then I'll put it back up again".

They will have to refund if they can't give you property vacant on possession eg they will have to refund your deposit

I've just re-read OP's update. First time I somehow thought it was being changed on the registry, but now I'm thinking it's possible to take the reduction and still contest the land grab.

I know nobody wants a neighbourly dispute but I'm not sure I could let the CF get away with it.

You have purchased what is on the deeds. The reduction is going to be for inconvenience. Go reclaim what is now your land.

I agree that something still seems amiss, the neighbours have got off Scot free (did they even know they’ve been rumbled?), you have a smaller garden albeit cheaper and sellers have lost out hugely all in a bid to make the date. Neighbours needed to pay for the land really and what happens after completion is really only your business? I’d try a dn get land back I wouldn’t be running to land reg to hand it over

Brilliant.

You will need to make sure your property insurance reflects the new, reduced size of your property. Otherwise, these CFs could conceivably make a claim against you for an injury suffered in the patch of your property that they've fenced off for themselves.

Think I would wait until the neighbours are away, then they might find there was a massive storm which blew the fence down and actually you would be willing to pay for the new one, so will have a survey done to get boundary correct....

Just saying

Could you explain why you decided it was not possible for the neighbours to move the fence and take up the stuff they had put down?
And now gong ahead, will the sellers sue the neighbours for the money they had to lose out on?

Between a rock and a hard place with this, I can understand why you have came to this compromise but my worry would be what the CF neighbours do next after getting away with this. They’re definitely not the kind of neighbours I would want.
I guess it boils down to how desperate you are to live there because you would definitely have had cause to dispute this with the auction house- you are not getting what you bid for.

Absolutely this.

What a stressful time @MummyToBeAgain1
Get the sale done, but do not let those CFs keep their ill gotten gains. Right now they’re sitting there smugly thinking no one even knows. As soon as you’re in, make it crystal clear you know exactly what they did and get it rectified.
As PPs have said I really don’t think you have any obligation to alter the deeds, no matter what the Sellers have said, and like others I think you’ve probably misinterpreted their ‘advice’ as a requirement

Sounds like good advice to me

Beggars belief anyone would want to live next to people like this. Anyone else would have just pulled out. Ridiculous outcome. They've got away with theft.

Sometimes people have put up a fence into their own land - someone near us has which is silly thing to do and then years later claim back the real land - we had two cases locally and in each case the fence that had been there for years was wrong and the newly reclaimed land was rightly reclaimed.

The problem is buying by Auction is pretty much 'buyer beware' and you can't 'just pull out' the way you can up until exchange on a normal sale.