Morning mumnetters
I'm seeking some advice from the collective wisdom of Mumsnet. I also want to sense check that I'm not going mad. I'll try to get as much info as possible in the opening post so strap yourselves in.
We (partner and I) purchased a Victorian semi detached house a few years ago. It's a standard Victorian layout with 2 reception rooms and kitchen at the back. It's the third Victorian semi that I've owned and they've all had a brick outhouse to the rear of the kitchen. In the other properties it was attached to the house. In this one it is a few feet from the house. The outhouse in this property (as with the others) is attached to an outhouse in our attached neighbour's property. So far so good - standard Victorian set-up.
Once we moved in we had a look in the outhouse (it is accessed through a door which faces the back of our house) and noticed that the rear half was bricked up. We thought that was odd but these are old houses so didn't think much too it and planned to open it up at some point for extra storage.
A few months later and I was collecting a ball from our attached neighbour's garden (with their permission) and saw that the rear of their outhouse had been opened up to give them access to what we thought was our property.
Checked the deeds and the boundary line goes straight down the garden following the fence and the ridge line of the outbuilding roof. What they accessing is clearly in our garden.
We mentioned it a couple of times but we had a baby they had 4 babies(!) and we didn't want to bother then as we know what a stressful time it is.
Our new year's resolution was to get it sorted as we think it could be a problem if we wanted to sell in the future as any potential buyers might want to knock down or renovate the outbuildings.
I sent out neighbour a very nice message asking for a chat about it and got a very snotty message back. They claim that the outhouses have always been this way and refuse to discuss further.
Sone further info:
- I have downloaded their deeds from land registry and they show the same as ours - a straight boundary line.
- the land registry deeds do not show the outhouses.
- their is no record of boundary changes or easements etc giving them right to access.
- the outhouse has a tiled roof. If tiles came off on the bit that they claim they own they would have to access our property to undertake repairs.
- the bricks that have been used to block up the side look newer than the bricks used to build the outhouse and the grout looks more recent - suggesting that the outhouse was not built like this.
- the properties were under common ownership at some point in the past (but not for decades).
My thinking is that we right them a letter explaining that it is on our property according to the deeds and giving them a deadline to demonstrate that they have legal ownership. If they don't do this then we will look to reinstate the boundary (i.e. unblock our side and brick up theirs). Or invite them to remove the part which is in our garden and rebuild on their own property.
Does this sound reasonable? Has anyone experienced something similar and been able to resolve without an expensive and stressful legal dispute?
I know that diagrams are like catnip to Mumsnet users so I'll attach below.