garden boundary query

[PrincessScrumpy]

My neighbour is saying that she owns part of our front garden as it lines up with her house - it's a small rectangular patch and she thinks she owns 2 feet by 1 foot of it (slightly less - I've rounded up).

We live in a 7-year-old house and it just seems daft to me that they would have allocated a fraction of a garden to another house but on checking the deeds it only makes the back garden and house lines clear - these are fenced and we're in a terrace so it's fairly obvious. She says it's in her deeds - is it likely as it's not in ours? Is there a way of finding out for free? I don't care all that much but she's causing problems and has started putting broken bricks on "her" bit of the garden, on top of plants we put in 4 years ago (at which point she didn't mention her ownership).

Any ideas? I'd like to know the facts but don't want to spend money.

Can you check and compare your deeds and hers? If there's a discrepancy then you may need to go to the land registry documents.

I don't really want her to know I'm querying it as she is a very difficult lady and I'm trying very hard not to fall out with her.

Contact the land registry and get office copy entries of the title and plan to her house. And remove her bricks. She's being rude simply dumping them. She can't expect you to agree with her on her say-so. You are entitled to assume that the fence denotes the true boundary.

Ask her to show you her deeds. We had an anomaly at our previosu hosue owing a square behind our rear brick wall ! Needless to say subsequent neighbour have claimed it. Do you have the developer's paperwork ? For a small fee you could look her deeds up at landregsitry.gov but she could just show you the basis of her claim

There's no fence - it's basically a flowerbed in front of our house then there's a path. We're on a corner and the land goes up to a path leading to her house. We'd always assumed the boundary went up to there as it would look odd to split the flowerbed but basically there was a dandelion over her side and she's worried it looks scruffy. She's about to rent out her home and felt our lack of weeding would affect her value - we seriously are talking about 2 dandelion plants! At 8 months pg with twins and a toddler running round I haven't put it as a priority.

Such a pointless argument - I just want to know the truth.

Sorry i think ive read another thread from you on this issue and dint want to upset you bit I think if I was her I would have assumed it went in a straight line from my house walls, why should you own land in front of her house?
If all she is trying to establish is who has responsibility to maintain this land and she wants to because she feels you aren doing it properly, why not let her, it's less for you to do.
Get a copy of the land registry maps for your house and her's , you might be able to work it out from that.
Would there ever be a issue with building a boundary wall or putting a hard standing for a car on it? If that's not likely to happen ( your deeds may say you aren't allowed) then what's the problem. Let her maintain it if she want to.
It's probably best to to get into a dispute with her as you would have to declare it if you ever sold.

Not to get into a dispute..... I mean

we're talking about her owning about 11 inches by two feet of a rectangle of garden so it seems odd they would split it like that. It's the same the other side of us and I've chatted with my lovely neighbout that side and she's going to check her deeds too. I've always assumed the neighbour the other side of us owns the few inches in front of our house. It's hard to describe but does make sense.

Have a look or even post on www.gardenlaw.co.uk under their forums and boundary disputes, there should be loads of information relevant to you.

She is clearly a bully, remove the bricks back onto her garden and ask her to "prove" the land is hers.

Don't involve solicitors it just costs you money. You can get a copy of her title deeds for about £6 direct from Land Registry.

To be honest it is seriously not worth her hassle especially if she intends to rent her house out.