Land theft

[NannyAnnieKnitsKnickers]

Not as dramatic as it sounds. Is there anyone out there among you lovely people who can advise?

My daughter bought a new build property and moved in last March. It is a row of three houses. Two three bed houses on the ends and a two bed house in the middle. The house was chosen because there is a drive alongside the house which can accommodate up to three cars and a nice lawn across the frontage of the house. From the drive up to the adjoining property is a lawn the width of her property. After the lawn is a path for the middle house then a tarmac parking place for that property. The property at the other end of the row has two tarmac parking spaces. Only my daughter's house has lawn outside.
Since the person who moved next door (middle house) has moved in she has had vehicles parked in two of the spaces (one doesn't belong to her property). Now the end house has sold the neighbour told my daughter that she has spoken to the site manager and they are going to take a portion of her lawn to accommodate another parking space for the middle property. My daughter said that she would object to that. My daughter saw the site manager who assured her that the fourth parking space would be put in at the side of the other property (not my daughter's side).
I arrived at my daughter's house today after picking up my granddaughter from nursery to find builders taking a metre of her lawn away. My daughter had no idea it was happening. The site manager I spoke to said he had knocked on the door yesterday about it but she wasn't in (she works full time). I said stop this work now - it's not been authorised. They ignored me (a mere female) that they weren't stopping until my husband and then her partner turned up. They then agreed to stop. I told them to put the property back to its original state. They said that they wouldn't because the original site plans were wrong and there should be four tarmac parking spaces. We then went to the site office and on the wall was the plans showing only three car spaces.
Does any know what we can do to stop them taking the lawn? They are not rented properties they are mortgaged. This seems to have been an issue since the 'person' in the middle house moved in. They have altered the plans to suit her at my daughter's cost. It will devalue her property. With the additional parking space the occupants of the car will be getting out of the vehicle in the middle of my daughter's lawn.
How is this right? What can she do to stop this action?

Bump.

And diagram please.

It sounds very unfair, no advice though.

Whats on rhe deeds or the plans at land registry?

Log on to the government land registry - it’s easy to do.

Purchase the deed plans online for your daughters house and also for the neighbours house.

You can do this in about 30 minutes online, and immediately see the exact land boundaries to prove your case, also keep a pdf copy on your computer to print off later.

Then hopefully you can see that they are “trespassing” and should cease work, make good and stop harassment.

If necessary ask a renowned local estate agent for local recommendations on solicitors who deal specifically in property law - if you need to garner further support.

The land registry title plans ought to do it for you though.

Sorry poor sketch - I have photos which include lots of builders items all over my daughter's lawn. But I don't want to identify the house.

Tell her to get in contact with her insurers to see if they will cover her for legal advice.

No that’s rubbish. The middle house being 2 bed, makes sense it gets 1 car park and the 3 beds have the 2 spaces. Don’t let them proceed until you’ve looked at the boundaries with land registry. CFs

Install a fence on the boundary, or plant something just to mark it out as your boundary.
i'd also erect a large sign saying "Private Property - Thieves will be prosecuted"

Then get a solicitor on to it asap.

In the meantime i'd stake out the garden whilst your DD is at work so they can't do the work behind her back....which is what they're planning on.
Cos once it's done and the neighbour starts using the parking space, it makes it that much harder and costlier to have it rectified.

So just don't allow them to do it sneakily.

The builders no longer have rights to do anything to her property without her permission, regardless of predated plans or otherwise!
When purchasing she will have received and signed a redline plan which sets out property under her ownership. This can't be changed without her permission (which she obviously won't give!) or sale of the land back to the builders.
She needs to contact a solicitor, preferably the one she used for purchase, but not if they were 'recommended' by the builder.
I would also contact the MD of the builders office to ensure they are aware of what's happening.
Take photos and temporarily fence off her boundary.

She needs to contact a solicitor for advice

I would go back to the solicitor she purchased through - ask them to check the boundaries and write to the builders

the solicitor she used to buy the house would have checked the deeds and flagged this up with her at the time of purchase if it was the case. As they didn't then clearly the site manager and builders are wrong.

Your daughter needs to use the land registry deeds to prove her point.

You need to have a copy of the title register and title plan for your daughter's house to hand. The gov.uk Land Registry is the place to obtain these. It will take you about 3 minutes (not thirty) and cost £6 for an instant download. The neighbour and the builders absolutely cannot just do this. If you daughter's purchase was registered before the neighbour's this means your daughter is in a very strong position.

Once the builders have started work then they are committing criminal damage to your daughter's property. She should call the police, but she needs to have the title documents to hand to prove what she is saying is correct.

Just looked at the diagram OP - that dug up section is clearly within the boundary of your daughter's property. No one in their right mind would think that was right. Only if the frontage was classed as shared would it be.

100% get the land registry plan.
I have seen some new builds where you dont actually own the front garden/parking spaces, just have the right to use them
One of my dd lives on a new build estate and every now and then they dig a hole in someones front lawn to add trees and shrubs

Definitely contact her lawyer urgently.

It actually makes sense for all properties to have 2 spaces to the front - doesn't really matter if they are 2 or 3 bed

It may be the at actual boundary of the houses is the front door in which case the parking spaces are allocated spaces and more of a shared drive if you will

Has she got a spare car that can be out of action for a few days? Park it on the lawn right up to the boundary. That'll stop them digging anything up while she gets this sorted.

Weird that people view a property, buy it knowing the limitations and then decide to take a bit of someone else's when they move in. CFs indeed.

When we bought a new build we signed a plan at the solicitors which had a big red line round the area we were buying. We had to sign that this was ok. I presume this was then used to register it somewhere.

Definitely park a car on it else they will be back again today to finish off!

I wondered that about the frontage Alexalee.

I'd get straight on to the original conveyancing solicitor. They will have knowledge of the transaction agreed and will be able to advise or suggest another practice that specialises in this area. I'd do it first thing, and advise the site manager that he must stop all works while legalities are clarified (put this in writing too)

Many thanks for all the input - much appreciated. What a can of worms!
Waiting for the solicitor to get back to me - we have the signed plans. The boundary is the wall between the properties. The stress has made us ill. My daughter is 7 months pregnant with a difficult pregnancy - not good.

Does it denote the land to the front as hers freehold or hers to use?

I was just about to ask that. Is the land in front of her house actually her land, or part of the estate? If it's part of the estate you're a bit limited in what you can do to prevent them from changing the use as it doesn't actually belong to her.

Another route to go down might be to check the planning permission for the development - quite often (certainly around here) it dictates how many parking spaces they can build as they want to limit car usage and encourage the use of local transport. Check to see if they have a transport plan and if it limits parking space numbers.