Dispute with neighbour

[Unsure1984]

DH and I are currently in the process of moving house, we have just received the information form from the solicitors and I’m wondering how much detail we need to put in about problems with our neighbour at the back.

We are end of terrace, the house attached to us owned a driveway at the side of our house but they never used it so we bought it off them back in 2013 (obviously went through solicitors and land registry so all official, we have the deeds etc), we then erected a garage on this land. Anyway, we shortly after received a letter from the council saying they needed to come out as they had received a complaint from a neighbour that we had built on land we didn’t own. So the council came out, checked it all over and agreed everything was fine. Since then the neighbour at the back is constantly making comments to DH saying that we don’t own the land, it wasn’t our other neighbours land to sell and it isn’t owned by anyone including the council He has threatened to sue us on several occasions but nothing has ever come of it, he has also been threatening to my DH but is nice as anything to everyone else. Should we write all of this on the form or just that we had the inital complaint and the council confirmed all is ok?

Thanks, I am really worrying about this as don’t want to end up getting sued further down the line.

I would refer to the fact the neighbour queried ownership of the land your garage was on with the Council (date). The council investigated but as you had solid legal evidence of ownership, it came to nothing. Their solicitor can see the evidence him or herself.

I don't think that it's an issue unless you have had to involve the police for an official report.

The buying solicitors will conduct their own land searched and see that you did everything legitimately.

He is just a grumpy man and you will be glad to go. With luck the new owners will get on with him.

If there are on-going matters you may benefit from an independent professional report setting out the facts and referring to the land registry records and your legitimate purchase and so on. I deal with contentious property matters regularly and am in practice covering London and the South East. I am unsure if it is considered acceptable to wave my professional flag on here but if you search for Chartered Surveyor Expert Witness in the south east you will very likely find my firm. if you are further away that that then find somebody local. such a report will usually assist in defusing and depersonalising the matter and in the meantime you ought to declare it rather than be sued by the people who buy your house for misrepresenting matters. you are required to declare disputes with neighbours. Ultimately there is the threat of claiming damages from the neighbour under the Protection from Harassment legislation but that is a lot further down the road than most neighbourly gripes. Good luck.

By the way, it isn't correct that you only have to disclose a dispute if police have been involved. Anything documented or recorded in any way needs to be on the form. It is also supposed to include anything likely to cause a dispute, which in most cases wouldn't have documentary evidence.

I too would get a surveyors report on the land and show it to the neighbour to try to end the dispute about ownership.