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Boundary Dispute and encroachment.
mysty60
Posts: 23 Forumite
I put in an offer for a house and everything was going fine, till the next door neighbour claimed that the lean to shed on my property was encroaching on his garden. It seems that there was encroachment but no way to really prove by how much the encroachment was as the land registry plans cannot be used to determine boundaries. In any case, it was decided that the distance between the two semi detached house would be taken and divided equally and the boundaries moved to the centre of the two properties. This would mean that I would have to move in my boundary from the back, including the new fences and the neighbour who is encroaching slightly at the front will have to move this also. We got a quote for all this work and it came to over £2600. The vendors refuse to contribute to the cost (even though I am getting less land now and also losing out on my shed, which gave me more “kitchen” space), as they say they were not aware of this encroachment when they bought the house 3 years ago. As the neighbour profits mainly from this we thought the cost should then be equally divided. He obviously doesn’t seem to be too keen on sharing the cost although in the lease it says that the repairing and maintaining of the fence is the responsibility of both parties, who have to share the cost. This has taken up a lot of time and it seems that we may have to just come to a gentleman’s agreement with moving the boundaries and hope he will pay half of the cost. We can’t sign any legal contracts as we are not the legal owners yet. What do you guys make of all of this? Any suggestions? Has anyone encountered anything similar and have any advice for me, I would really appreciate that. Many thanks in advance.
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Comments
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Sorry, but I find your post very difficult to read.In case you hadn't already worked it out - the entire global financial system is predicated on the assumption that you're an idiot:cool:0
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if you are only at offer stage I'd just walk away.Starting debt @ LBM: £8436.51 (8/5/7)
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Aim: To Clear Barclays OD by Nov 2007! Realistic DFD: August 20090 -
Tell the vendors to either drop the price by £2,600 or you will walk.
If they don't drop the price walk.
The vendors will then just have to find a buyer whose solicitor doesn't do their work properly.
If the neighbour doesn't want to pay and refuses you will have to get solicitors involved. This costs money , is loads of stress and is a dispute.
You do not want to get into a dispute with your neighbour before you even move in. You will not enjoy living in a house where you have to avoid your neighbour. You will have to register the dispute when you sell the house.I'm not cynical I'm realistic
(If a link I give opens pop ups I won't know I don't use windows)0 -
fistfullofdollars wrote: »if you are only at offer stage I'd just walk away.
Welll its not just at the offer stage, we had all our searches done, all the legal work is technically done and we were at the stage of exchange, and its the land issue thats causing the hold up.
Maybe we should have walked away a long time ago, but we didnt know it would be like this or take this long.0 -
Have I read this right?You do not even own the house yet you are in discussion with the next door neighbour about a boundary issue?"Reaching out to touch the stars dont forget the flowers at your feet".0
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Welll its not just at the offer stage, we had all our searches done, all the legal work is technically done and we were at the stage of exchange, and its the land issue thats causing the hold up.
Maybe we should have walked away a long time ago, but we didnt know it would be like this or take this long.
Losing a thousand pounds or so is much better than losing or damaging your health due to stress and living in a place where you can't go into the garden if your neighbour is there, can't go out of the front door if you neighbour is there etc.I'm not cynical I'm realistic
(If a link I give opens pop ups I won't know I don't use windows)0 -
I read it over another twice to make sure.You should not even be talking to the neighbour about this,its not your problem to fix.It is the vendors problem and you absolutely should not go any further with this property until the current owner has sorted out the boundary dispute.
I don,t know where you live but in Scotland a property which is in dispute over the boundary like this cannot be sold anyway until it is resolved.
I totally understand that you want the house to be yours,but it,s not as yet.Tell the vendor that any offer you made to buy is on hold until they sort out their boundary issue with their neighbour.
Ask them to keep you informed of progress and leave it at that."Reaching out to touch the stars dont forget the flowers at your feet".0 -
Its a more expensive issue to fix than just the fence being moved too.There have to be lawyers involved and new plans have to lodged with land registery and possibly even deed documents ammended.Its not your problem though.Let the current owner sort it out.
You won't lose out on the house because really,who else would by it under such circumstances anyway?"Reaching out to touch the stars dont forget the flowers at your feet".0 -
I had a similar problem with a shared drive (the right to drive over the neighbours half had not been registered at the land registry).
As soon as it came to light I refused to continue until the vendor sorted it out.
There was much huffing and puffing and threats to put the house back on the market, but eventually they got the necessary agreements from the neighbour, and the sale went ahead.
Stick to your guns. The vendor should be sorting this out. They will lose much more if you walk away, especially if they are buying another house as it will cause lots of delays and could even lose them their new house.
Insist they sort it out (they may have a claim against the solicitor who acted for them in the purchase, but that's their problem)I'm a retired employment solicitor. Hopefully some of my comments might be useful, but they are only my opinion and not intended as legal advice.0 -
zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »I had a similar problem with a shared drive (the right to drive over the neighbours half had not been registered at the land registry).
As soon as it came to light I refused to continue until the vendor sorted it out.
There was much huffing and puffing and threats to put the house back on the market, but eventually they got the necessary agreements from the neighbour, and the sale went ahead.
Stick to your guns. The vendor should be sorting this out. They will lose much more if you walk away, especially if they are buying another house as it will cause lots of delays and could even lose them their new house.
Insist they sort it out (they may have a claim against the solicitor who acted for them in the purchase, but that's their problem)
The vendors live in USA, and the lady has come out to sign the paper work. She didnt want to pay for moving the fences etc, but I've foudn out she will pay a measly £500, guess its better than nothing. But she is willing to put it back on the market or even rent it out, as she doenst really have much to lose, as she has a house in the states...
My solicitor is trying to draft a letter that the neighbour can sign to say the bondaries will be moved and taht he will pay half. If he believes that the boundary is joint then I guess he will pay half, otherwise i dont know.
You are right tho, I shoudl have just told the vendors to get it sorted....0
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