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Legal matters

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Neighbours made driveway over new home’s boundary.

185 replies

BraOffPjsOn · 22/05/2026 19:54

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?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
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BraOffPjsOn · 26/05/2026 17:40

So I got a reply and it seems they will look into it fully now:

I am going to immediately raise this with the seller’s solicitor – the title plans should not at any point overlap like this, so I believe firstly that the Land Registry may have made an error in the first place.

I will ask the solicitor to investigate matters fully before we proceed further, as we may need to vary the boundaries if this has been done incorrectly upon first registration.

So I’m sure how long this could take now though? Looks like it’ll be a chink in what could have been a very simple chain!

OP posts:
Boreded · 26/05/2026 18:29

Another2Cats · 26/05/2026 11:35

I'm afraid that you are mistaken. This is England and you are not required to put up sign or anything at all like that.

There are two different processes depending on if the land is registered or not (almost all houses in England & Wales are registered).

Presuming that the land is registered then the squatter must occupy the land for ten years. They can then make an application to the Land Registry to claim the land.

Land Registry send a notice to the registered owner. This notice then gives the owner 13 weeks in which to reply. The owner can agree to give up the land or can oppose the application.

If the owner opposes the application then the Land Registry writes back to the other person saying don't be such a CF, you aren't getting the land.

If the owner doesn't reply within those 13 weeks then the other person gets the land.

So, as long as the owner opposes any application in time then the other person cannot gain possession (usually).

However, there are certain circumstances when the squatter may gain the land even if the original owner opposes.This is where the squatter reasonably believed that the land belonged to him/her.

This is laid out in paragraph 5(4)(c) of Schedule 6 to the Land Registration Act 2002:

(c) for at least ten years of the period of adverse possession ending on the date of the application, the applicant (or any predecessor in title) reasonably believed that the land to which the application relates belonged to him, and

An example of this might be where there are neighbours and after many years they find out that the boundary is in the wrong place, but they had thought that it was in the right place. In that situation, the court is likely to say that the wrong boundary line is now the actual boundary.

Or, in the case of the OP, if the neighbour had genuinely believed that the bit of land where they built the driveway was indeed part of their property.

In fact, there was a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court last year on just this point, Brown v Ridley [2025] UKSC 7.

The Supreme Court said that if a neighbour genuinely believes for a period of ten years that a piece of land, which is adjacent to their own, is theirs and they treat it as such then they will be entitled to be registered as the new owners.

In Brown v Ridley, they were neighbours and a previous owner of the Ridley's house had enclosed some of the garden belonging to the Brown's house.

The Ridley's were unaware of this. They obtained planning permission to build a new house that was partly on the land that belonged to the Browns, which led to the court case.

.

This is totally different from where a person deliberately takes control of a piece of land knowing that it is not theirs.

But they have taken over a piece of land that they know isn’t theirs…one day they didn’t have a drive, then they built one 🤷‍♀️ they hired someone to do that presumably

Another2Cats · 26/05/2026 19:34

Boreded · 26/05/2026 18:29

But they have taken over a piece of land that they know isn’t theirs…one day they didn’t have a drive, then they built one 🤷‍♀️ they hired someone to do that presumably

"But they have taken over a piece of land that they know isn’t theirs"

I'm sorry, but where in any of the OP's posts does it suggest that this is the case?

nevernotmaybe · 26/05/2026 19:49

Boreded · 26/05/2026 18:29

But they have taken over a piece of land that they know isn’t theirs…one day they didn’t have a drive, then they built one 🤷‍♀️ they hired someone to do that presumably

You do not need to notify anyone for the set time of usage. You just need to he using land and be able to prove you had exclusive usage and didn't have permission. Official notification comes later. But if you made a genuine mistake and assumed the land was yours, with land that is attached to your own property, then the process is automatic and guaranteed to give the land to you. It has seperare rules for this scenario. Putting down a driveway, and using this driveway as yours, and this driveway being treated as yours by everyone for that period is going to be very strong evidence for this seperate rule.

And it's a tiny bit of land, OP is being over the top a little. We don't automatically set boundaries in the country because it isn't a big deal for them to be unknown or shift slightly. Mortgage companies know this, and unless the land issue is massive won't care. You buy land with houses as seen generally. The neighbour is the only one who could get screwed from this situation in theory, if the house and land as sold wasn't correct and could be smaller and more difficult to access than the mortgage company was aware of and it was valued based on (they don't value on the exact plans).

In this case I dount a boundary would be officially determined as not being where it is by a surveyor if OP wanted to waste thousands. If the neighbour didn't try and go for adverse possession, which if they demonstrated would be guaranteed and can't be challenged unless OP has definite proof those who did it knew it was wrong.

Boreded · 26/05/2026 21:36

Another2Cats · 26/05/2026 19:34

"But they have taken over a piece of land that they know isn’t theirs"

I'm sorry, but where in any of the OP's posts does it suggest that this is the case?

you realise you’ve assumed the opposite too by giving the squatters right rules. But given that one minute the person doesn’t have a drive that wide and the next moment they do, I think on balance of probabilities they would notice the change and know they’re taking up more land than they had.

Allseeingallknowing · 26/05/2026 21:57

Another2Cats · 26/05/2026 19:34

"But they have taken over a piece of land that they know isn’t theirs"

I'm sorry, but where in any of the OP's posts does it suggest that this is the case?

OP says they’ve taken a chunk of their land!

Another2Cats · 26/05/2026 22:01

Allseeingallknowing · 26/05/2026 21:57

OP says they’ve taken a chunk of their land!

The question is, did the neighbours reasonably believe that it was their own land?

ACynicalDad · 26/05/2026 22:04

I’d tell the current owners that to proceed you will need ac fence or wall put in. Can you look at old google images to see how recent this is?

PrettyPickle · 28/05/2026 00:08

WhaleEye · 24/05/2026 16:04

I’ll say it for a 3rd time…
You don’t have to lose the land as everyone is suggesting. Rather than getting into a massive boundary dispute, deeds just need to be altered to say your neighbour has right of access over it to get to their home. Plus something similar on their deeds.
If you love the house you’ll find a way to overcome the situation and it can be done in an amicable way. Meet with the neighbours, have a discussion 🤷‍♀️

Not always that simple if the mortgage offer was made on the basis of a certain sq footage, the vendors need to sort this not the OP. The mortgage company may reduce amount they offer for the mortgage and so will need to get the house price reduced - its all subject to discussion.

Wiaa · 30/05/2026 06:47

I agree with the pp, the neighbours have built on the square of their own land ( was probably grass previously) so their path is now their driveway.

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