Buying a house - searches have revealed that "our" land continues beyond the back garden wall into the neighbours' garden - implications?

[KindleMum]

As the title, really. We got the draft contract from the solicitor yesterday and the covering letter says they are concerned that the land registry shows that some of our land is in the garden of the house that backs on to our garden. It's a fairly sizeable chunk. Also that there is a covenant making us responsible for the wall - which I suppose results from "us" owning the land either side of the wall.

Are the implications here that I'm not seeing? We are very happy with the garden as it is, I don't need the extra land. On the other hand, the house behind is up for sale and if their new buyer wanted to buy that strip off us, surely that's an unexpected bonus? I can only see positives, rather than negatives, to this.

We'll talk to the solicitor on Monday, but what am I missing here?

Was your issue the same way round as ours, Sue?
I am going to look into indemnity insurance once we've seen the solicitor about this on Monday. At the end of the day, I'm happy with the garden that is within the walls and that's what I expected to get.

It wasn't the same issue but it has parallels. Sounds like you're happy to go ahead so good luck with that and I hope it works out for you.

So kindle you want them to pay the legal fees

What happens if they say no?

You will then have a dispute on your hands

A little while ago, we'll I think possibly three years maybe four a house and garden were sold I. A nearby street

The people buying the house and garden knew there was a builders yard at the back and thought this was also in with the sale

They purchased house to knock down and build four houses two in one street and two in the street behind as they planned on knocking down the builders yard

On purchase they gave the builders yard notice to quit

Imagine their surprise when the builders yard didn't quit so they asked why
The builders owned the land

The solicitor and the estate agent never told them

So what would happen if the house is sold for seven k and then someone starts building on your land

Will you then think everything is ok

Are you sure that their boundaries don't show they own that bit as well? We had that over one section of land. It was apparently overlapped on two titles you can get their title plan for just a few pounds online without anyones consent for your own information.

The four months should be really 60 years and four months to be completely acurate. The previous owners brought four cottages ajoing our neighbouring chapel during WW2 and had been in disagreements with the chapel over boundaries ever since. Their estate dealt with the chapel in the end and agreed to do what ever was necessary to have a saleable property.

We had situation when buying we couldn't fine out who owned our drive,eventually we found builders just hadn't coloured it in correctly and for a fee of £1 it was signed over and amended at land registry.

If you think boundary disputes aren't fraught then I suggest you have a look at GardenLaw forum where some boundary disputes go on for years and years.

gardenlaw bounday forum

The fact of the matter is if that land has been walled off for 12 years or more then it falls under adverse possession.

This changed recently because of problems such as yours. Land was often sold on without land registry being notified or any paperwork being done. So that land could well have been considered to belong to the other property for 100 years.

So nowadays if someone wants land that isn't part of their title they register their interest with land registry (LR) and LR then inform the legal owner who has 2 years to dispute the claim and take the land back. If at the end of those 2 years the owner does not object then the plans are re-drawn and the title is changed.

In your case if the land has been fenced/walled off for exclusive use of the other house then it will fall under the historical adverse possession and the title to the other house would be re-drawn to show your extended bit of garden in their title. People tend to have photos and aerial maps to back up their claim these days.

I personally think the neighbour would fight you on this. I will give you an example, the land is yours, yippeeeee, you tell the neighbour, he immediately erects a 6ft fence on his side of the wall.

If you touch that fence trying to get your land back, he can call the police and have you prosecuted for criminal damage. The only way to make him relinquish the land would be to take him to court. Not only do you have a boundary dispute on your hands you are about to pay thousands and thousands of pounds for your land. A little bit different than you imagining someone paying you for the land.

Personally, having been witness to how horrific a boundary dispute can get (name calling, deliberately trying to provoke a response, shouting over fences) I wouldn't touch a property until the issue was resolved.

The biggest winners don't forget are solicitors, who make money from legal disputes :)

Obviously the status quo is in your favour and if you genuinely don't want the land and don't want paying for it (as the existing/new owners might not want to pay for it) and are happy to live with that, then fine. But if there is any way you think that you would ever want to make a claim to that land ( neighbours plant leylandii on it, build a garage, or huge overlooking platform play frame on it, etc etc and you don't want that) then the fact you 'own' it would be a problem, and could lead to a dispute, and disputes with a neighbour rip the heart out of your enjoyment of a property, and have to be declared when you move house, putting off buyers.

Also the fact that so many on here have said walk away suggests that 'bad title' is very off putting when it comes to buying a house, even if the bad title is in your favour. You might not mind, but others would. I would suggest getting neighbours title to check there isn't a duplicate registration of the land, in which case get land registry to decide and do a boundary rectification in your neighbours favour for free. If neighbours have no official claim to the land, get the muddle sorted now, before you own, with the current owners, because if it does get at all nasty, at least that's a dispute you won't have to declare when you sell (assuming they do sell the house!). As you say, the neighbours are going to find it nigh impossible to sell the house (if its picked up) so I would expect they would hand the land back for you to enclose, or pay you for it.

Something to bear in mind...if the neighbours' house is going to be bought by developers and you sell the strip of land to the developers, or it turns out that the neighbours actually do have the title to the land, that land could be built on. You could have 3 story flats or a care home close to your boundary overlooking and overshadowing your garden. Obviously they would need planning permission but you can't guarantee they wouldn't get it.

If this wouldn't matter to you, fine, but it may be worth considering.