Help needed - legal advice??

ricoman72

Help please. My neighbour is alleging that part of my garden belongs to him. He is alleging this 18 years after he bought his property with no change to the boundry in those 18 years. My soliciter has suggested that I need to get a site survey done so that he can pass it to my neighbours soliciter to "take the wind out of their sails". Why do I have to spend this money when I'm not disputing the boundry? Any advice would be greateful. My soliciter has of yet not answered this simple question. Also, 18 years after he (my neighbbour) bought the proprerty, does he have any legel redress? The boundries were clearly indicated when he bought his house. I & my mother & father before me have had use of this land for 50 years irrespective of the boundry. Does anyone think my soliciter is acting on my behalf? I'm asking for nothing only that things should be as they have been for 50 years & that my neighbour should leave me alone. It is my neighbour who is driving this & I don't understand why I should be put out financially when all he has done is made an accusation through his soliciter. All my soliciter has said is that they are proceeding with 'the matter'. No one has even told what exactly is being persued with respect to how much of my garden he believes is his. I'm really at my wits end. Any help would be appreciated.

Golden_Anemone

If your neighbour believes you are in "adverse possession" of part of his land then the only legal way he can re-claim this is by issuing a writ in the High Court for lawful possession. Has he done this? If not then I'd sit tight for now.

Is the area in dispute fenced off as part of your garden?

Was the fence there when he moved in 18 years ago?

If this is the case then even if the land was ever part of his property the law on adverse possession says that he needs to re-claim his land within 12 years. It would appear he has failed to do this so cannot re-claim the land.

absoluteutopia

In the old days you just would have gave him a slap and told him to wise up, everything is soliciters now

Pretani

Let us know how it works out for you.

Witless

ricoman72 wrote: »

I & my mother & father before me have had use of this land for 50 years irrespective of the boundry.

TBH, that choice of wording doesn't imply ownership at first sight; not sure if the timeframe make a difference though.

jtk174

Just because you have had use of it, does not mean it is yours. Land boundaries get confused for a variety of reasons. You can go into the Land Registry office in Belfast and get a printout of your land boundaries.

I once owned a house that had a fence around the rear garden, but at one corner it went at an odd angle, due to a steep slope. It left a gap between my fence and the fence to the rear of my house. However this meant that at one corner the neighbour to my right could access the gap and he used it to dump garden waste.

After a while of wondering what was going on I asked the neighbour if he knew why the gap was there. He said that the lady who previously owned my house had asked him to erect a fence. In order to save himself a few problems because of the slope, he ran the fence along the bottom of the slope, rather than the top!

Anyway, he added 2 fence panels to our joint fence and I removed the fence along the slope and gained about 40 square feet!

The last house I bought had an issue with land registration. I found out about a week before I signed the contract thankfully. A trip to land registry and a couple of letters to the previous owner sorted it out, but I did need a solicitors help.

The bottom line is, it's not worth getting worked up about. It should be pretty easy to resolve, even if that means the land you currently use is not legally yours. You can contact Land Registry yourself and they are quite helpfull, although they do have a small fee. See this link ; http://www.lrni.gov.uk/static/staticFrame.jsp

hazelc56

Ask your neighbour to prove it, that way he will be the to maybe have to be out on legal costs.Your's till proven otherwise i say.

Mistral001

Is there a ditch or bank at or adjacent to the boundary? Often one these features denotes where a boundary exists and not necessarily a hedge, fence or wall.

Also there could be a mistake made in your neighbour's Land registry map.

However, you need to know where you stand and perhaps a surveyor is probably going to be worth the money you pay out at this stage. You could ask your neighbour to pay the cost of your surveyor. It is possible to do this if you get the neighbour to agree to your choice of surveyor and put in writing to you that although he will be paying your surveyor, you will be his/her client and the neighbour will not be entitled to see the report (even though he's paying for it) unless you wish him to do it The solicitor will not like this arrangement as it is not straight-forward, but it can be done as far as I know. If you can afford it pay the surveyor yourself, then you will not be in way in obligement to the neighbour.