Rebuilding fence beyond boundary line

[anonymousanne]

In the last big storm the fence blew down, we are having it replaced end of April. There is this little bit of land behind the fence that belongs to the WMC next door. Obviously they do not do anything with it and it ends up overgrown with weeds (which come up though the fence). What would we need to do to request this land? Debating if it would be worth it anyway, the back wall is lower than our garden and therefore I’m not sure how we would make it level if included in our garden 🤔 does anyone have any ideas at all.
I’ll add some pics to comments

Pics

Obviously you’d have to offer make an acceptable offer, presumably of market value or above, and have that offer accepted before doing anything

There are no pics but you can’t steal land. You could offer to buy from the wmc.

I don’t want to steal land. The question is how do I go about sorting it out? Do I just approach the owner? Do I need to consult a solicitor? And moreso, looking at the pics (which have hopefully uploaded now) if anyone has any suggestions on what I could do with the land to make it seem included in my garden.
I’m thinking it’s all going to be too much hassle, but the end of the fence runs slightly into the neighbours, they will need to replace their back fence in the near future and wanted to extend into this wasteland bit if possible so it would make sense for us to do so too to make the fences all in-line. They just approached me today about it so haven’t considered the how’s before today and I’m clueless on this stuff! Ta

Ah ok. Then step one is probably for you and your neighbour to write to the owners asking if they’d be willing to consider selling for market value. If they are then you can look into setting the wheels in motion with valuations, offers, solicitors and all that.

WMC means working mens club does it?

It looks like they own that retaining wall. I suspect when the plots were created they gap was left so the fences weren't onto a retaining wall. If they let you but it they'd probably want you to take on responsibility for the wall too.

What is the governance / ownership of these clubs? Who would need to agree a sale?

Not sure the WMC own the retaining wall. The building at the back of the fence is a building containing 3 flats. The WMC is to the left. Suppose my main concern is that if they did agree to sell us this bit, the wall would need to be higher to support the addition of more soil to level it all out.
Ultimately it all sounds like a lot of work, and time consuming to sort it all out and with having small kids I’m just desperate to get the fence replaced so it’s all probably a no go really

@OwlBasket

Obviously you’d have to offer make an acceptable offer, presumably of market value or above, and have that offer accepted before doing anything

Why on earth would you 'obviously' offer above market value for a strip of land that is of absolutely no use to anyone else?

think you'd then own the wall as well, which means you need to check if there's any issues with it as you'd be responsible for maintaining it. tbh I think it's likely to be a nightmare.

What you probably could do without anyone complaining is dig out the top few inches, lay down triple thick weed membrane and cover with gravel before you get your fence fixed. might stop the weeds coming through and I doubt anyone would complain

YetiTeri
Why on earth would you 'obviously' offer above market value for a strip of land that is of absolutely no use to anyone else?

Because the owner has a very valuable use for it. It allows the land owner to carry out engineering works on the retaining wall.

The back of that wall will (should) have a system to safely remove the water moving down hill from the OP's garden.
Without the water removal the wall is holding back heavy water filled soil which wants to flow down hill.
Down hill is their property.

If they sell it to the OP.
They will have more soil and no control over the engineering works as the wall/fence is being built. And would have to give the OP access for the works to be carried out from their property.

Rule of thump with building works, if it costs time and money to put in, ask why was there a reason it happened.

SolasAnla - yes, ‘obviously’ was indeed for exactly those reasons.

@SolasAnla

YetiTeri Why on earth would you 'obviously' offer above market value for a strip of land that is of absolutely no use to anyone else?

Because the owner has a very valuable use for it. It allows the land owner to carry out engineering works on the retaining wall.

The back of that wall will (should) have a system to safely remove the water moving down hill from the OP's garden.
Without the water removal the wall is holding back heavy water filled soil which wants to flow down hill.
Down hill is their property.

If they sell it to the OP.
They will have more soil and no control over the engineering works as the wall/fence is being built. And would have to give the OP access for the works to be carried out from their property.

Rule of thump with building works, if it costs time and money to put in, ask why was there a reason it happened.

Thank you, that was a really helpful explanation.

Nothing obvious about it.

YetiTeri hang around property forums long enough and someone will post about their neighbours property migrating to lower ground.
⛰
If the landowner is lucky its only part of the garden not the house 👀 🙈

Thanks for the responses. I’m not entirely sure who the wall belongs to, that building in the photo is a set of three flats behind our house (WMC to the left of the picture). However, I do not want to take any ownership of this wall and I do not want to cause damage/prevent any maintenance work down the line so we are not going to make any enquiries about this land and we are just going to replace the fence to the original boundary line.