Adverse possession

[strawberryshortcake1]

Our neighbours have given it large for a long time about how they have adverse possession of a strip of land between our properties, we know this to not be true, they've never applied for it with Land Registry and we would have rejected if they had applied. They sent us a legal letter months ago threatening to take us to court, but never followed through, does the fact that they have not followed through mean that they know they don't have a case? anyone know how these things work?

@strawberryshortcake1

I wouldn't worry about that now, as you're going legal route with solicitors (through legal assistance on your house insurance?) which it was always going to head for given how your NDN are acting, so it'll all come out if their last two solicitor letters are faked. You can include copies of those letters in the legal pack.

@strawberryshortcake1

Thank you for the picture, it helps to make a lot of sense of the situation. (always love a photo and plan)

There are a number of ways to approach this.

We have been here since 2017, we have since found out the previous two residents had problems too. I cannot emphasise enough how verbally aggressive, him physically aggressive, manipulative, narcissistic and gaslighting they are.

Frankly, unless this is your absolute dream house (although with neighbours like that I doubt it) then my advice would be just to sell up and get the hell out of there. Life is too short to put up with neighbours from hell like you describe.

I have no idea what the letters you mentioned refer to but it does seem very odd indeed that they are claiming adverse possession.

If I understand this correctly there is a bank between the two properties which is the boundary. They have been dumping their rubbish over the bank onto your property and claim that this gives them adverse possession of the part of your property that they have been dumping rubbish on. Is this correct?

If this is the case then this is absolutely absurd. Dumping your rubbish on somebody else's land does not give you possession of it. It is actually an offence - fly tipping. Both the local authority and the Environment Agency have powers to tackle fly-tipping and if you want to go head to head with your neighbour then tell them that you will be reporting them for fly-tipping.

You purchased the property in 2017 and there have been a couple of other owners in the, presumably, recent past. Your property will definitely be registered and if the neighbours ever try to make a claim for adverse possession then HM Land Registry will contact you to see if you object. You will have 13 weeks in which to register your objection.

Even if they had fenced in that section of your garden they would have needed to do this, and have evidence of doing it, for at least ten years and done something to prevent you and the previous owners from using that part of your garden.

From your description, that has not happened and they appear to have no basis for what they are claiming.

Personally, I would suggest:-

1. Move
2. Move
3. If you really don't want to move away then consider putting up a 2 metre fence on top of the bank along the line of the boundary to lessen any contact with your neighbour.

@2catsandacomputer lol we have tried the council re fly tipping in fact we've tried police and council and if we touch the crap we get told off honestly you could not make it up.

We run a business here and the location is perfect, all other neighbours are lovely. We thought about renting it out.

Oh and we tried erecting fence, they sabotaged, called police and police stopped contractors from working. We then put some panels up in a different form last Dec and had to employ a security guard to protect our contractors and us, police were useless.

You are entitled to fence your property to the boundary and the police have no right to interfere with that. I would fence it to assert your control over your land.

Sell it to them. They can never get adverse possession. It will always be a property and neighbour dispute between you and so you won’t be able to move easily and if doesn’t look like you’re getting to use the land anyway.

If I was you I’d get your mortgage company involved who will investigate & instruct solicitors on your behalf. They won’t want to let an adverse possession claim go through as it will affect their security. Even if you were to sell you’d have to notify prospective purchasers of any dispute.

Good luck.

They have never fenced off the land in contention, but they have used extremely aggressive behaviour which then needs police involvement, police don't understand civil matters but have still waded in with their size 9s and that's a whole other story.
As it is we can't sell and move because of these issues and yes it is/was/ is our dream house.

Who knew you could claim adverse possession by heaving junk onto a piece of land!

It sounds like anything you do needs to be backed up with private security guards which is ridiculous in the UK!

I would also pursue a complaint against the police in preventing this harassment. The fly tipping, boundary, legal possession etc is one thing but aggression and harassment are another. Are you able to buy a discreet body cam for whoever works on the boundary or for any conversations with the aggressive neighbours?

@Chimley we never have conversations with them now. We are pursuing complaint with police, we have a previously upheld complaint of bias. Our neighbours seem to be teflon. Nobody in authority will tackle them and nobody has any solutions.