I feel sick - solicitor has been negligent. Please help!

Ghost

I am really intrigued by this thead and sincerely hope that everythings works out well for you, foreversummer.

I am also wondering why the builder initally sold the house/plot and then reserved this small piece of land for himself. Or perhaps I've just lost the plot and have not fully read/understood the situation.

Keep us posted!

foreversummer

Hi Nicki

Nicki wrote: »

You need to be careful though. If you decide to ask the owner whether you can buy it off him, you have acknowledged his right to the land, and it will then be more difficult to argue that you and your predecessors have appropriated the land as your own. This is why the whole area is a minefield, and why you need to get specialised advice on the way forward.

Yes, I can kind of understand that, but he knows that we know that it is his land because in one of his solicitors letters back in 2000, he gives the Land Registry Title Number. The other thing is what do we do if he knocks on the door? Personally, I've always felt that it would be a good opportunity to have a chat with the guy and possibly invite him in for a cup of tea and approach it in a friendly way. But are you saying that this would jeopardise our case for adverse possession?

I have just come in so have missed the post this evening, but I will write to the solicitor tonight to chase him up.

Hi Ghost

We are pretty intrigued by the situation ourselves. No-one seems to know how the problem arose. Our solicitor says that it may have happened by mistake when the house was built and the boundaries marked out, but I would have thought this unlikely as surely he would have noticed it then. I wonder if the person who bought the house from him moved the boundary during their time here (although they swear in a statutory declaration that they did not). At that time there were no other houses on that side just land, so they could probably have moved it quite easily without being spotted. The house next door was not built in 1990.

I must admit we did not realise that this sort of thing can happen. Obviously everyone has heard of boundary disputes with neighbours, but we did not know that little pieces of land can somehow get trapped between properties, and you can end up in a boundary dispute with someone who lives miles away. It certainly took us a while to get our heads round it.

Foreversummer

Nicki

I am nervous about giving definitive advice about this, forever, as it is not my area of expertise. I would say that him having registered the land is not conclusive but you need to get an opinion from an expert on this.

If he knocks on your door, the best thing to do, I think, is to play completely dumb. Tell him that your understanding is that you own this land, but listen to what he says in a very friendly way, ask what he is proposing, then say you'll need to get legal advice about the whole thing. MAKE SURE YOU DON'T MAKE ANY ADMISSIONS OR CONCEDE IN ANY WAY THAT YOU KNOW OR BELIEVE HIM TO HAVE A CLAIM TO THE LAND. You can do all of this in a very friendly and approachable way. If he's not asking for very much money, then you can think about taking him up on the offer, but only with legal advice. The worst case scenario is that he turns up and offers to sell you the land for a fiver, you agree, then he laughs in your face, refuses to sell to you, and relies on your acceptance as evidence that you know the land to be his in a future claim for AP.

As for why it happened, if the houses were not all built at the same time, maybe he kept a strip for access purposes to other adjacent plots, or to preserve the view from adjacent properties, or as a ransom strip to make some extra cash in the future?

foreversummer

Hi Nicki

I very much appreciate your post, but I certainly do not expect you to give us definitive advice as I realise that is not possible in such a complicated case.

It is certainly interesting that you have pointed out to us that we should deny all knowledge of the land if he knocks on our door. Bearing in mind that is exactly what he has done on occasions before we moved here, you might have thought that our solicitor would have warned us about this.

I am sending the Senior Partner a letter today, so hopefully it will be on his desk on Monday morning. I will ask him to respond to us within the next seven days with a plan of action (that will have given him 28 days altogether) which I think is fair enough.

A good weekend to all.

Foreversummer

foreversummer

Just thought I'd update.

I was feeling pretty down this morning - 28 days today since we first complained and no proper response. So I took the bull by the horns and he told me that he is writing to us today to suggest a meeting.

Bottom line is he wants to meet here at the house so he can see the land in question. He is coming on Sunday morning.

Hubby feels abit overwhelmed at the thought of him coming here but I think that as long as we keep clear heads and have a list of questions/comments ready we should be OK.

I will report back after the meeting to let you know how it went.

Foreversummer

silvercar

good luck. No need to feel overwhelmed, he is only an ordinary bloke trying to sort out a mistake. He is meeting you on your territory so you should feel in control.

Immediately he has gone I would suggest writing down everything that was said while it is fresh in your mind.

[Deleted User]

Best of luck!

Nicki

Good luck. It should be fine but if you are feeling at all overwhelmed or intimidated by this, then arrange for a third party to be there too (a friend or neighbour would be ideal). They can give you some tacit moral support, and can also help you to write a note of the meeting afterwards, which you should both sign and date, which will help you remember later on what was said, and also prove any possible case for negligence if it comes to that.

foreversummer

Thank you all for your words of encouragement.

Yes, it is a positive step and I am really hopeful that he will be able to come up with some sensible suggestions of how to proceed.

I guess he must be a bit apprehensive himself. We are certainly not going to give him a hard time. All we have ever wanted is to keep our lovely front garden intact and if he can achieve that we will be very happy. He has had a month to familiarise himself with the file, so he can surely see the mistakes that have been made.

I'll report back.

Have a good weekend.

Foreversummer

benood

Be slightly on guard - ready for him to try and pin it on you - the reason I say this is that when we were buying our previous house at one stage the solicitor sent a plan of the house and garden out to us - the boundary was demarked in red - and it had half the garden missing! I spotted it and asked him to check - sure enough it was a clerical error but had it gone down the same route as yours I wonder if the boss would have said "well you confirmed the plan was right" to us so it's your problem?

Good luck and hope I haven't put the wind up you!