Garden in dispute

Catblue

Agree with the others - his beef is with the landlord. Unfortunately, that doesn't help you any. He's had lots of occasions in which he could fetch his stuff from the shed but has chosen not to do so, so I would deny any further access.

If you go to the police, or make a ruck with the freeholder then obviously you will have to disclose this if you want to sell in the future so bear that in mind. As a protected tenant, the likelihood is that you will be moving on before he is.

In the meantime, you need to secure your garden properly. A decent lock on the side gate and the fence panels made as secure as possible. Trellis or that anti-vandal paint that never dries on top of the fence to prevent someone climbing over also. CCTV if he persists.

Have you ever thought about getting a dog? :whistle:

ValHaller

olly300 wrote: »

Just to throw another spanner in the works everyone is presuming the tenant has a written tenancy contract.

He may not due to:
1. When the tenancy started, and,
2. The fact that tenancy agreements can be verbal.

This means it's up to the tenant and the tenant's landlord to each prove their position and absolutely nothing to do with the OP.

This means it's imperative that the OP keeps reporting the tenant to the police if he harasses her and then in turn reports this to the freeholder. (Make sure you keep copies of every written complaint, mention prior complaints in the letters and send some of the letters to the freeholder by recorded delivery.)

If this continues too long i.e. more than 6 months there would be grounds for legal action against the freeholder.

All well and good for OP to take the position that it is between tenant and Landlord. But we have not yet dismissed the possibility that OP may be tenant's Landlord in respect of the garden.

I am beginning to think that OP needs to get a solicitor to write a stern letter to the tenant telling him to behave, but asking him to state a justification for believing that he has rights over the garden.

Looking at it from OP's perspective, she either has an issue with the tenant for misbehaving over imagined rights he does not have or with the LL selling the garden to her unencumbered when in fact it has a tenant.

I know that the standard advice is not to go legal with neighbours because you have to declare it if you come to re sell. But I think there is probably an art to choosing the situations where you do involve a solicitor. This looks like a good one to involve the solicitor, because OP already knows enough that she cannot sell without declaring a dispute and issues anyway. In practice, I think she would do better to resolve this even at the expense of losing the garden, because it will be easier to sell on and raise a better price with a resolved dispute than with a live dispute.

carefullycautious

I agree with others you must report these incidents as he is really not being rational. He is threatening you and this could escalate.

What a terrible start to living in your new home. A lesson to everyone to check out every avenue before buying.:(

olly300

Catblue wrote: »

If you go to the police, or make a ruck with the freeholder then obviously you will have to disclose this if you want to sell in the future so bear that in mind. As a protected tenant, the likelihood is that you will be moving on before he is.

You make sure you move on once the issue is sorted.

Then you just write there was an issue over ownership of the garden when I moved in but it was sorted out etc.

olly300

ValHaller wrote: »

All well and good for OP to take the position that it is between tenant and Landlord. But we have not yet dismissed the possibility that OP may be tenant's Landlord in respect of the garden.

Nope.

She won't be.

Her freeholder and the tenant's landlord are the same person.

If the freeholder incorrectly gave the garden to her then he needs to compensate one party.

As I stated I doubt there is even a written tenancy agreement in existence between the tenant and the landlord (freeholder).

ValHaller

olly300 wrote: »

Nope.

She won't be.

Her freeholder and the tenant's landlord are the same person.

If the freeholder incorrectly gave the garden to her then he needs to compensate one party.

As I stated I doubt there is even a written tenancy agreement in existence between the tenant and the landlord (freeholder).

Obviously http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=62065327&postcount=36 went past you

If tenant had a valid tenancy over the garden, OP herself may be Landlord for tenancy of the garden. It is a bit of a nightmare for OP - if this is the case, some of her actions might be construed as harassment of the tenant.

For OP's sake, I would like to see this one dismissed cleanly and quickly. But I fear that it will not be dismissed as a matter of law (that OP could not become LL in this way) - it has to be dismissed as a matter of fact (that the tenant never had a valid tenancy over the garden). As you raise the possibility of a verbal tenancy, this is going to be a hard one to deal with.