boundry dispute

covlass

We purchased the bottom of our neighbours garden years ago, he always insisted he owned the property. We replaced all fences and erected a large shed on the land. Being younger at the time we took his word that he owned the house and di not realise we had to have the land transfered. The house got repossed last March I got my solicitor involved straight away. We payed the mortgage company to valuse the land as requested which they never did, the house was sold STC but fell through. The house went up for sale with another estate agent and sold with enclosed rear garden. Then out of the blue we got aletter telling us to remove the shed or the new owners will do it. We havent and our solicitor told us not to.
Does anyone have any idea if there is a chance we may lose this land or how we stand as the house was sold with an enclosed rear garden and our solicitor had started procedings with land registry.

hethmar

Did you not have any sort of written legal agreement when the guy sold it to you? Why did you contact the mortgage co to value the land if you already believed you owned it?

How long has the fence and shed been there?

Suzy_M

Somebody with more legal knowledge will be along but in the meantime -

How many years ago did you acquire the land?

Can you prove you bought the land?

covlass

hethmar wrote: »

Did you not have any sort of written agreement when the guy sold it to you? Why did you contact the mortgage co to value the land if you already believed you owned it?

How long has the fence and shed been there?

Thankyou for your reply

We have the letter and reciept that both us and our neighbour signed. The motgage co requested that they valued the land when it was repossed by them. I paid them £274 but they never did value the land.
We have now had the land for just under 9 years.
My sol has told us to leave it with him and not remove the shed but Im worried that this could prove expensive and then we still end up losing the land.

chinagirl

I think if you can prove you have been using the land for 7 years, without dispute, then its yours.

hethmar

I dont understand still why the mortgage company would have anything to do with the piece of land when you owned it and the fence was in place. I think you have to leave it with the solicitor, remember it will be just as costly for the other side if they dispute it too.

It would seem strictly speaking the other guy should have told the mortgage coy what he was doing and you should then had a proper transfer.

Afraid there isnt any such 7 year rule

Go to Garden Law website for further advice.

chinagirl

We had a similar case. For 9 years, we rented a Housing Association house with a big square garden with a large apple tree 6 ft away from the back window, which always seemed strange, as the garden was about 30ft deep, although about 40ft wide.

We then went on the buy the house which ran at right-angles to our rented house. Our solicitor told us that years ago, all the properties were Council Houses, and the gardens were very different. Our large square garden was infact a thin patch of land running along the back of the house, only 6 ft deep, hence the apple tree being planted at the 'bottom' of the garden.
Our new house had a narrow 20 ft wide, but very long garden, about 100 ft which ran along the back of the old garden. It seemed, the previous tennants had come to an arrangement, the old man in the first house wanted more land to stand his greenhouse on, and the young couple with a small baby could not cope with such a large garden, so fenced off the bottom 40 ft.
Smiles all round, however, the old man died and his house was bought by the Housing Association we rented it from, and the young couple excercised their right to buy and theirs became a private property. When we bought it, (after it had changed hands a few times over the years) we reclaimed the long bottom bit of our new garden, by taking the bottom fence down, and putting up a new fence along the side of the garden, running along the back of our old house, just this side of the apple tree, so the tree was once again at the bottom of a very short garden.
Our solicitor said, we were in a unique position, as we had used the segment of land in question for the previous 9 years, rotavating it, turfing it, growing shrubs and flowers in the borders, even maintaining the 2 fences which ran along the 2 far sides of the land. This meant, that we had, almost the same as 'squatters' rights', and the fact that we had now bought the new house, we could excersice our right to reclaim the garden because we were the people who had used it for in excess of the last 7 years.:T

Any enquiries would also show that originally and historically, the land did indeed belong to the new house, and the new tennants who moved into our old house were none the wiser, as they never saw the gardens until after we had moved all the fences round.:rotfl:

We were really pleased with the outcome, as it enabled us to build a large conservatory on the back of the new house, and we still have a lovely long garden, plenty of room for the kids to play, ( oh and when we moved, we never had to move the shed:D )

Unfortunately, the tennants in our old house have really let the place go, and have been told by the Landlords to 'clean up their act' and ordered to sort out the mess in the garden (forced to rent a skip ), so its a good job the size of their garden was reduced. I am so pleased to have kept our beloved garden, it was like taking the garden with us when we moved.

hethmar

There are 12 year and 10 year rules - check out the land registry and Garden Law. Even with those years usage its still not straight forward. So China Girl Im afraid you were misled and I do hope said solicitor has registered this extra bit of land otherwise you may find yourself in a dispute later on.

(Id add we are into our 4th year of a dispute despite using land for 20 years)

chinagirl

Hi hethmar, Thanks for your comment, however, luckily the land reverts back to belonging to the 'new house', as origninally on the plans, it is showing as being the garden.:T

It seems that whilst we were in our rented old house, we were innocently using garden space which did not belong to that house, and were lucky nobody took the trouble to ask for the land back then, as we would have been in no position to stop them.

The people we bought the house off, said they were aware of the quandry with the garden, but had often looked over the fence and seen our children playing happily in it, and as they were newly-weds both out working, they said they didn't need to regain the garden, as the smaller size garden was plenty big enough for them for sun-bathing and BBQs. It was them who mentioned it to us, as they too could see what a unique situation we were in, being in both properties at the same time. (We continued living in the rented house for a good 6 months before actually moving in, whilst completing some renovation work).

I do hope you find a solution to your boundary dispute soon though.