Adverse Possession of a basement

ceridwen

I've just thought "What would I do if I were a squatter looking to steal someone else's property?" (NOT a thing I would do in fact - but a good starting point to work out what the would-be thieves might do...).

I came up with:

http://www.urban75.com/Action/squat.html

So - i think a useful way to occupy a couple of hours would be for you to try and put yourself into their "mindset" and work out what you would do if you were in their position - and then you should be a lot clearer as to what to do in YOUR position.

NB: the squatter claiming "all previous owners were aware of the arrangement"!!!!!! Yeah right - pull the other one - its got bells on. If he is coming up with a weak statement like that - then there is a very good chance he hasnt got a leg to stand on.

Hmmm...what else? Hmmm....
1. Have you actually moved into the main level of your property yet? If not - then you might have options for 24/7 heavy metal music or the like coming down through the floorboards "driving the squatter nuts" with lack of peace and quiet (but that DOES depend on whether it would also disturb your neighbours in the process - which is something you wouldnt want to do...).

2. Find out how big a bribe the squatter requires to move and resign yourself to it being a LOT cheaper than solicitors fees - say £5,000 might be sufficient to get him out??

3. Pest controllers use all sorts of very toxic chemicals to do their job - so I might personally decide I had some sort of pest (of the non-human sort) - rats/dry rot/whatever in my home and it needed to be treated all the way down to basement level and make sure I wasnt living there myself at the time of this "necessary" treatment....I would give the squatter reasonable notice that there were about to be LOTS of toxic chemicals in their vicinity and if he chose to stay put during the "treatment" on his head be it..

Without knowing the full circumstances I cant say exactly what is the best method to get him removed - only that my absolute first step would be to get that private detective to find out everything useful he could about the situation - so that you can better assess "which way to jump".

princeofpounds

the 'squatter' claims that all previous owners of my house were aware of the arrangement, which cannot be good for him

Any chance of getting this off him in writing, perhaps an email? Saying that previous owners knew and gave him permission? He probably thinks it helps his case, when in fact it harms it. I wouldn't try to 'prompt' him into communication until you speak to a solicitor (mainly to check relying on this doesn't cause other problems regarding easements), but I might be tempted to do this before getting an official letter sent, if it will help. If he speaks to his own solicitor after getting anything official then he might be made aware this claim would undermine his possession.

- the other thing that I am confused about, how can he claim 'adverse possession' of the basement, when that would mean that he would essentially own my house! (if he were issued with deeds) - as the basement is basically 80% of the footprint of the property...

Not sure to be honest, probably just gets a flying freehold and yours gets made into a flying freehold too.

poppysarah

When considering how to gently get them out of the basement, remember that water obeys the rules of gravity.

HolyNougat

The problem is that he is not living in the basement, he uses it as a utility room - his house is next door to mine (otherwise I quite like the idea of getting a massive subwoofer and playing rage against the machine at full volume for a month!)
I think he probably has been down there for a LONG time... as you say though, can he prove it? - I am sure that he probably has some pictures of it dating back a while.
I think what I am going to do is go to my solicitor, get him to send a letter saying 'Dear Mr Man, - My client no longer gives you position to use his basement, please remove all your stuff by xxxx date at which time he will be digging up his floor and coming down through the roof!' - this will either make him leave, or he will contest and file for adverse possession, and which point the fun can really begin!

ceridwen

On a totally different tack - I would be very quickly assembling proof of what similar houses in similar locations sold for. Just in case I had to bring a claim against the vendor - ie I would have the proof that I had paid a comparable price for the property to similar houses minus a squatter IYSWIM (as obviously a house with resident tenant would fetch a LOT less on the open market than the exact same house without a resident tenant).

HolyNougat

poppysarah wrote: »

When considering how to gently get them out of the basement, remember that water obeys the rules of gravity.

I am not sure that this is a very good idea.....

ceridwen

Ah right - gotcha..."uses it as a utility room". Well - the blessing to that is that it wouldnt cost so much in the way of a bribe to get him out as it would if it were his "total home" IYSWIM. Make that £2,000 bribe to clear out then - not £5,000.

Well - if its his "utility room" then he wont HAVE any proof of any description that your property is his:D.

Put like that - I'd just get on and brick up the wall.

NB: Did you get any price reduction at all on the house - compared to what that type of house in that area would have fetched otherwise? (as in this provision for utility room for neighbour MIGHT be considered reasonable if you hadnt been able to believe your luck at getting your house for £10k less than you would have expected to...ie the too good to be true argument).

HolyNougat

ceridwen wrote: »

On a totally different tack - I would be very quickly assembling proof of what similar houses in similar locations sold for. Just in case I had to bring a claim against the vendor - ie I would have the proof that I had paid a comparable price for the property to similar houses minus a squatter IYSWIM (as obviously a house with resident tenant would fetch a LOT less on the open market than the exact same house without a resident tenant).

Yes - I should have thought that they should have disclosed this on the 'pre contract questionnaire?'

ceridwen

HolyNougat wrote: »

Yes - I should have thought that they should have disclosed this on the 'pre contract questionnaire?'

Well - I think we would ALL have expected that such an important fact was made clear to us at the time we bought the house.

Errr...come to think of it...did you actually have a full look round every bit of the house at the time you agreed to buy it? (Okays - I know that very few of us would expect to check out the loft of a house, for instance, before agreeing to buy it - I certainly didnt:o). What sort of access is there to this cellar from the rest of your house? Is it a case of go down a flight of steps from the ground floor of your house to get to it or is the entrance somewhere outside?

(I am just wondering about this - because I took it for granted when I bought my house that I owned the entire "vertical space"/that we ALL own the entire "vertical space" on our house. THEN I found out that I own it all going downwards - but I dont own the airspace over my house.....and that it seems to be the law in this country at least that one DOESNT own the airspace above the roof of the house...darn it...). Though - of course - owning your own house right down to its foundations is a very different kettle of fish...

Certainly it is the case that occasionally the foundations of a house have some sort of structural problem that needs sorting out - and, in your position, then just who would pay to sort out those structural foundation problems - you or your squatter?

kazwookie

Did you not see the basement when you went to view the property before purchase / what did the survey say about it?