To be annoyed that neighbours have stolen a foot of my garden?

[LeopardPrintFleece]

I live in a mid terrace cottage with a long narrow garden. I recently had some work done on the roof and the roofer commented that the boundary of our garden is different to where the roofs join - it’s obvious when you look.

Turns out that before I lived here neighbours had a conservatory built so decided to borrow a foot of my garden so that it would fit.

I’ve no idea why this never came up on a survey and there’s clearly not much I can do now but AIBU to be annoyed that my quite small garden should actually be a foot wider?

So you bought it like this?

If so how do you know they stole it? Maybe the previous owner agreed to it.

Lots of garden boundaries are different to the roof lines.

How do you know the previous neighbours weren't compensated for it?

You purchased the property as it is.

Also as a pp said, rooflines don't always match up to the garden boundary.

Turns out that before I lived here neighbours had a conservatory built so decided to borrow a foot of my garden so that it would fit.

You can't just take a foot of someone else's garden so you can build a conservatory. It's not a quick process, and the old occupants of your house will have definitely noticed.

It's much more likley that the garden already belonged to the neighbours, or previous owners of your house agreed to sell them the land.

It was never yours.

Look at the deeds

Before you let this anger settle, make sure what has been said is right! It is not always roof lines, you need deeds and to also check that nothing was agreed when the conservatory was built.

I feel a bit like it wasn't "your" garden when the work was done, you were happy to buy in spite of the conservatory and garden... your anger feels a bit misplaced and will just make you miserable.

Do research if you must but I think you need to let it go.

I'm sorry but this isn't how things work. Conservatories are built to fit the space. It's not like buying a sofa.

Get your property documents out and check the boundaries...

We have similar here. It doesn’t line up at all. Everyone else’s does.
While we suspect it might have happened at some point, we’d never be able to prove it & it’s absolutely not worth arguing over it for the small amount of garden.
Legally I also don’t think we’d have a leg to stand on as it was like that when we bought it & we’d not done any specific checks before exchange.
We’ve let it go.

As already stated, rooflines and not indicative of boundaries……the row of terrace houses could have been built that way. Alternatively, previous owners may have sold off part of their land to the neighbours to facilitate the conservatory. All this could have been shortly before you purchased your house or it could have been years previously.

Contesting the boundary now would be costly and infuriatingly long winded……do you really need that stress?

IMO, leave it alone and enjoy your home.

As everyone else is saying - it's not your garden and they didn't steal it!

Try to reframe it - "I'm annoyed I have a smaller garden than I'd like"
"I'm annoyed that at some point in history previous owners may or may not have sold off some of their garden"
"I'm annoyed I bought this house"

All of those are valid but no one did you wrong!

There is usually an outlined map on your deeds that might help you with this. My boyfriend has just bought a house and the solicitor compared the deeds to the listing photos as there was a discrepancy about the driveway boundary but not sure all solicitors do this

It will be in the deeds/paperwork you had when you bought the house.

If they genuinely have "stolen" a foot of your garden, then you have a legal case to get it back (or make them pay for it).
I suspect you'll find you just have uneven boundaries or there was some historic agreement. My parents used to live somewhere where their garden was shorter than everyone else in the street, meaning the border along the back of the gardens was a straight line with a weird kink at their house, which was because there was historically a strip of land behind the gardens which everyone in the road clubbed together to buy (so that they had control over it) and added to their gardens; and the people then living in my parents' house refused, so the bit behind their house was bought jointly by the other houses and became unused but owned communally.

The neighbour actually told us! Well her partner did - he was out there chatting to my partner when the roof was being fixed and explained that it happened when the property was empty. He clearly didn’t think it was an issue as he said it very openly.

I can’t do anything about it and it wouldn’t be worth the hassle as we normally get on well but I am slightly amazed at their cheek!

How long ago did it happen?
It might not be too late to take action

And it wasn't questioned by their builder/architect/building regs? Or agreed to by the (absent) owner? I'm struggling to believe they would not only be so brazen to do this but to brag about it to your partner. Are you sure half the conversation wasn't lost in translation?

@LeopardPrintFleece if you're resigned to maintain the peace, fair enough but no harm in researching the boundaries further.

Just don't be this woman!!

To be fair who would notice if the property was empty. One fence comes down and another goes up in a slightly different place. It could be done in a day.

OP if you really want the foot back then you can probably obtain it if the title plan with your deeds matches up with what you say but there will be a cost involved and your relationship with your neighbours will never be the same again.

Did you not get a survey on your property before buying it?

pre purchase surveys don't measure plots against title plans

You may be happy with this, but it may make it very difficult for you to sell in the future. Suggest you get it sorted.

When did it happen? When it was vacant before you bought it or even earlier than that?

It may cause an issue for your neighbours when they come to sell as their conservatory will be on land they don’t own.

You could point that out to them and suggest they engage a solicitor to officially buy it and change the boundary.

Did a solicitor not discuss the deeds and boundaries when you bought? I have a right of way outside my back door and my solicitor was practically jumping up and down in his urge to make sure that I knew I could never put anything across outside my back door. He went through the land boundaries with me very carefully.

Thinking about it, maybe he took so much care because the entire plot is squint, a terrace of 250 year old cottages built to fit in on old farm land so everyone's upstairs windows overlook their next door neighbour's garden more than they overlook their own.

I have this with next door's extension which was done I think in the 70s.

My garden had about a foot taken off it. I certainly didn't notice it, but a previous owner pointed it out to me. It's not something I worry about though, I bought the house with garden as is so after 11 years I don't think I will be losing sleep over that foot.