Neighbours made driveway over new home’s boundary.

[BraOffPjsOn]

So we’re buying a house and have received the boundary doc.
It shows very clearly where our land would be and we also brought the neighbouring plot’s boundary doc.
When we were there and from Google satellite view you can clearly see they’ve taken a chunk of ‘our’ land to make themselves a driveway (without it they only have a tiny path to their house and no space for a driveway). The solicitor is not giving much advice but I am pushing.

what would others do/suggest?

I suggest getting on to the estate agent and saying that you are withdrawing unless the vendor sorts it asap

You could try and claw back the land from them using the boundary documents, which would likely mean a feud with your new neighbours from the off - plus who knows what other shit they will pull in the future.

Or you could just give it up as gone and keep the peace, although as previously stated if/ when you go to sell it might be aproblem for future buyers.

Depends on how much it bothers you.

Yeah we definitely don’t want issues with neighbours.

I’ve cropped the images to try and hide some details but feel like it might help if you guys see it.

Tell the vendors to sort the issue pdq, ask for a reduction in the price by £50,000 so they are motivated, and get a proper solicitor who has teeth and good attitude towards your purchase. You can do this tomorrow morning.

What no one has pointed out is that if you haven't bought the house yet, you can't do anything. Its up to you or your representative to raise it with the seller and for them to sort. You have two choices. One is to raise the issue with the seller either directly or through representatives and the other is to pull out of the sale. If you don't own the house, the neighbour doesn't have to speak to you.

Run

Yes, in this position I would accept I’m not getting that bit of land back and would decrease my offer price to reject this. The seller can claim the money back from the neighbour

I can’t work out your photos op but if it’s going to bug you don’t buy it. We bought a house and only afterwards found out the overgrown back garden was triangle shaped because the neighbour behind had borrowed a chunk for his driveway. Eventually agreed on an informal licence to use, and got an email to that effect.

Thanks for this, but it is still a little bit confusing.

Is the house that you are proposing to buy the one that is number 8 with a circle? And is the triangular shaded part, the bit that the next door neighbours have claimed?

Also what is the relevance of the house with the number 7 in a circle?

Don't buy the house,

The vendors will need to get this sorted out before they sell; it is their problem to resolve the boundaries issues with neighbours. They can't sell a house if some of the land has been developed by the next door neighbour.

Also, as a pp said, it's an indication of the sort of people who live next door. I would not touch with a bargepole.

This!

was it advertised with that bit? Did it bother you at the time? Are you happy to proceed with or without it?

because it sounds like, you viewed, offered, and liked what you saw. Then got plans. Now that’s another matter. Which is not ok.

so you either walk away, or raise it.

And for what it’s worth it’s cheeky fuckery and it’s not ok. But do you want to live next to people like that? After raising it?

This would be a no from me.

Literally said within the first couple of posts 🙄

There’s absolutely nothing your solicitor can do! You will be the ones taking action if you buy it but they will almost certainly advise you not buy it. Plus it’s not a land solicitor I expect, it’s a conveyancer.

You have two options, walk away or buy it. If you buy it, court is ludicrous. Look at the costs and you will pay their costs if you lose! Utterly foolish. The sensible advice is that the owners sort it out. However they cannot be bothered but no one will buy in these circumstances! You shouldn’t buy it.

You say the house has been through probate, perhaps the neighbours asked the original owners and they agreed to this. Doesn’t help your situation but they may not have stolen it at all and actually had permission to do so!

so we’re buying number 8 - the pink shaded isn’t anything apparently.

the issue is at the top - so our boundary goes from the fence almost straight up leaving a tiny curve for their pathway to their house. As you can see in number 7’s boundary lines they don’t have access from the road to their front garden or only a tiny path. So they’ve built (see photo from Google) a brick paved pathway - either with or without the knowledge of the old lady who lived there.

Oops

So in that case there would be a legal document stating that and they just need land registry to update?

possibly but what I mean is neighbours could have approached the old owners of the house your looking to buy and said we would like to lay a drive to our property but would need to go across this section of your garden. Likely if probate the people were elderly. Perhaps they didn’t mind and just said yes! So not legally correct but also not stolen just done with permission!

This could be the case.
So in that instance - what do we do?
Request they change the deed so they have it?
I don’t know what steps to take at all.
Even if they took some money off we’d still legally need the boundary lines accurate wouldnt we.

Everyone’s assuming the neighbours have somehow stolen this land. Has no one considered that the deceased owners may well have given the piece of land to the neighbours at some point but failed to update the deeds?
To be honest from looking at the photo and plans, it doesn’t seem to me like the land their driveway is built on doesn’t belong to you.

you don't know and I think its not something you need to get involved in unpicking. There may actually be no document recording anything and this may either mean its because the neighbours didn't ask or because the previous owner gave verbal permission and it was never made "official" Honestly, its the responsibility of the seller to sort this. I mean yeah you can just go ahead and buy it anyway but it is likely to come back and bite you when you sell.

what you do is go back to the seller. Its up to them to sort it. You can't get the Land Registry to do anything and the neighbours can tell you to jog on.

if you want to live there forever then it could be ok but if you want to sell at any time in the future, it would be hard without clear evidence of who owns what. A quick qoogle of ‘Daily mail land and neighbour property disputes’ would quickly show how expensive / messy a boundary dispute can get.

It does or it doesn’t?

I’d be relieved in a way if they hadn’t as we do want this house!