land boundaries issue

BISCUIT1

Glad to hear you got the result you needed...hope it goes well from hereon. We have a meeting with our neighbour tomorrow...all amicable so far ...not so sure if it will be when we disagree with his version of events! I may PM you at some point if that's ok re process as too paranoid to put further details on here!! x:cool:

pinkpiglit

BISCUIT1 wrote: »

as too paranoid to put further details on here!! x:cool:

Oh no! I've been following this thread with great curiosity. Am dying to know how it all finishes!!

pilavas

alan0356 wrote: »

From bitter past experience avoid getting solicitors and courts involved - we lived in an old victorian house for 5 years and spent £75,000 on renovating it only then for a new neighbour to take us to court after 3 years of disagreement re drive that went pass our houses - we ended up in court for 3 days - we lost and were left with legal bill of £96,000 because not only did we have to pay our own solicitor costs of £30,000 the judge agreed that we had to pay the other side solicitors their fees which were then doubled because the solicitors were no win no fee solicitors !.

Then our solicitor wasted another another 2 years advising us not to pay the other sides legal bill as he was negotiating a lower amount - in the end his company went bust and he extorted £14,000 out of us - took 9 months to get the money back through Solicitors Regulation Authority compensation fund.

Ended up giving evidence at his Tribunal ( which he did not attend ) and had the pleasure of helping him get struck off !

British justice ? - don't believe it - we had £50,000 legal cover that paid out but still left us £46,000 out of pocket - ended up renting property out for 5 years and eventually sold it for what we paid for it 10 years later ( therefore not only lost £46,000 in legal fees also lost £75,000 spent on renovations )

Therefore if you can settle in a friendly way please do.

Jesus !!!

How did you lose ? and why

Can you please elaborate ? My neighbour has been completely unreasonable I bought the house with a completely intact fence there knowing I have access o my garage, Now my neighbour knowing full well he has no right to move the fence or boundary done it hoping I would just agree and let it slide !!!!!!!!

I tried to reason with with on multiple occasion's he will not listen to reason and makes up !!!!!!!! excuses, now since the survey has come in my favour and he has been mailed a copy of the report and has 14 days to put it right what do I do if he does not put it back ?
Send him to court or put the fence back up myself and move on ?

I have already spent £1500 on my solicitor and survey money that could have gone into renovating my house.

He has been sent 3 letters and police have cautioned him twice and he still won't listen. Now if I go to court and I will lose ?

I have done my homework I am in touch with the previous owner and my solicitor says I got a good case and now the survey is in my favour, I just want my boundary back and move on with my life.

My neighbour is just dumb I tried to explain it to him but he just cordoned the area off again thinking it's his, I am dealing with a completely stubborn fool here and I have no choice but to take him to court.

How the hell did you end up with a 96k court bill and did your solicitor not realise you would lose ? would like to know the full details please.

pilavas

BISCUIT1 wrote: »

Glad to hear you got the result you needed...hope it goes well from hereon. We have a meeting with our neighbour tomorrow...all amicable so far ...not so sure if it will be when we disagree with his version of events! I may PM you at some point if that's ok re process as too paranoid to put further details on here!! x:cool:

Thanks Biscuit1

Message me anytime Not sure and I'm dying to find out how Alan lost his fight and landed a 100k legal bill.

I am now in two minds whether to just pay and put my boundary fence back up and move on or go to court, I hate legal stuff but If it has to be done then so be it.

alan0356

We lost because the judge awarded to the case did not take the case which was done by a judge who all the way through kept saying his expertise was in divorce and childcare - he had last done a conveyancing case in the 1980's and kept asking for information on the current law via the barristers. - Did not help that judge discussed neighbours young sons health problems for 45 mins and wanted to know from both parties why we were in court in his words - over a piddling piece of land !
Judge also based decision on the fact that in the 1960's - yes the 1960 's a friend of the family used to drive past the property to collect a neighbour ( even though the neighbour could not drive ) the judge awarded the right of way and we lost the case.
As the neighbour had used no win no fee solicitors under law the solicitors if they win the case ( which they did ) can ask the judge for an 'uplift' - ie up to 100% raise in their clients costs. At the court the judge asked each of the solicitors what their costs were - both sets responded £20,000 - therefore at worst we thought that we would be £10,000 out of pocket ( ie £20,000 x 2 for other sides solicitors plus £ 20,000 for our own ) - when the final bills came in other sides were £ 66000 and our solicitors £30,000 ).
Our solicitor then told us he would appeal other sides bill - but unbeknown to us he spent the next 2 years avoiding doing this, claimed the £50k buildings legal cover without telling us , claimed he needed £14k to settle outstanding bill and then his company went under leaving us to deal with other sides solicitor - and just for good measure our solicitor has previously went back to court and did not advise us needed to pay £22k as instructed by the judge towards outstanding costs which led to us having a £22k CCJ registered against us.
We eventually got our £14k back through solicitors compensation scheme and we attended court once more without legal representation and were able to prove to the judge we were unaware of the £22k awarded and managed to get CCJ removed.
A very stressful time in our lives and all down to a abusive neighbour - appearing in court is very stressful and costly - as I stated previously we ended up selling the property 11 years after we bought it for no profit - it was and still is the best house we had ever owned but in the end we could not live there because of what had happened.

Good luck with your neighbour - there are only one set of winners in legal matters - the solicitors - they get paid if they win or lose - it is not like on the television when solicitors appear to have an interest in you and the case - they don't - you are their money makers

If you can try and come to an amicable decision.

pilavas

alan0356 wrote: »

We lost because the judge awarded to the case did not take the case which was done by a judge who all the way through kept saying his expertise was in divorce and childcare - he had last done a conveyancing case in the 1980's and kept asking for information on the current law via the barristers. - Did not help that judge discussed neighbours young sons health problems for 45 mins and wanted to know from both parties why we were in court in his words - over a piddling piece of land !
Judge also based decision on the fact that in the 1960's - yes the 1960 's a friend of the family used to drive past the property to collect a neighbour ( even though the neighbour could not drive ) the judge awarded the right of way and we lost the case.
As the neighbour had used no win no fee solicitors under law the solicitors if they win the case ( which they did ) can ask the judge for an 'uplift' - ie up to 100% raise in their clients costs. At the court the judge asked each of the solicitors what their costs were - both sets responded £20,000 - therefore at worst we thought that we would be £10,000 out of pocket ( ie £20,000 x 2 for other sides solicitors plus £ 20,000 for our own ) - when the final bills came in other sides were £ 66000 and our solicitors £30,000 ).
Our solicitor then told us he would appeal other sides bill - but unbeknown to us he spent the next 2 years avoiding doing this, claimed the £50k buildings legal cover without telling us , claimed he needed £14k to settle outstanding bill and then his company went under leaving us to deal with other sides solicitor - and just for good measure our solicitor has previously went back to court and did not advise us needed to pay £22k as instructed by the judge towards outstanding costs which led to us having a £22k CCJ registered against us.
We eventually got our £14k back through solicitors compensation scheme and we attended court once more without legal representation and were able to prove to the judge we were unaware of the £22k awarded and managed to get CCJ removed.
A very stressful time in our lives and all down to a abusive neighbour - appearing in court is very stressful and costly - as I stated previously we ended up selling the property 11 years after we bought it for no profit - it was and still is the best house we had ever owned but in the end we could not live there because of what had happened.

Good luck with your neighbour - there are only one set of winners in legal matters - the solicitors - they get paid if they win or lose - it is not like on the television when solicitors appear to have an interest in you and the case - they don't - you are their money makers

If you can try and come to an amicable decision.

Thats quite unfair however how did you end up in a disagreement with your neighbour in the first place.

I know what you mean But in my situation I just moved in and the following day while I was at work he removed my fence.

I don't really want to go to court as it will consume time and money, I even don't know what my neighbours motive really is because had he substantial evidence that he owned the land he would have taken me to court, he is probably making me waste my money over all this.

He received the survey report on the 23rd and my solicitor has given him 14 days to put it right and If he doesn't we will start court proceedings. I feel he will just ignore the letter as he has done so already.

But I already have the ball in motion for court proceedings and numerous witness statements to hand. I know I will win but it's just the hassle of having to do all this for something my neighbour done sneakily hoping I would let it go.

BISCUIT1

Based on your situation could you just take him to the small claims court to recover costs of you re-doing the fence/drive? Might be a cheaper way to recover some of your money with out the full court case of the boundary dispute??

alan0356

It is hard to advise you of the set up but basically our property once formed part of a larger property that over the years became 5 properties - it had a drive that went round the front of the 3 of these properties - nos 1, 2 &3.- we were advised when we bought the property that we ( no 3 ) had the right to go pass nos 1 & 2 but nos 1 & 2 could not pass us at no 3.We normally did not use our right to go pass nos 1 & 2 but did so on occassions.
A new Neighbour moved in at no 2 and for first year all was fine with all neighbours using own driveways as previous years. Then after 12 m he let his 8 year old son cycle across our driveway followed by him and his family walking across to get to his house no 2 - this led to us having words which led to neighbour showing his true colours and he got very abusive. - this lead to him obtaining solicitors letters etc and in the end we locked gates adjoining our properties to stop him using our drive and to stop the verbal abusive we received every time we stepped out of our property.
We double checked our rights of way with the original solicitor who put it black and white that no 1 & 2 did not have the right of way across no 3 - on this basis when faced with court action against us initiated by the neighbour we went to court - where the judge decided no 2 did have the right and ordered it changed on the deeds of 2 & 3.
We complained to our original solicitors who had twice given us the wrong information but did not get anywhere with them. Also the solicitors / barrister that acted for us in court did not advise us at any point regarding the possible uplift to no 2 solicitors costs.
Hopefully your case is a bit more cut and dried than ours and you go on to win - just a little advice if you do go to court try and remain composed when answering questions from barristers / judge - I am a mortgage broker and the other sides barrister questioned me in the court for 45 minutes trying to get me to admit i knew land law and I merely kept reminding him I paid and took legal advice when purchasing the property .
Good luck - this will be my last entry on this subject as I prefer to put the experience behind me as we eventually sold the house in March of this year some 6 years after the court case. - my wife in the last 6 years never went back to the house as the neighbour still lives there - I am advised by the new owner that problems have again started regarding access and closing of gates with no 2 so history looks like repeating itself ( new owner rented property from me for 12 months before buying it and was fully aware of the court case and history of the case ).

pilavas

alan0356 wrote: »

It is hard to advise you of the set up but basically our property once formed part of a larger property that over the years became 5 properties - it had a drive that went round the front of the 3 of these properties - nos 1, 2 &3.- we were advised when we bought the property that we ( no 3 ) had the right to go pass nos 1 & 2 but nos 1 & 2 could not pass us at no 3.We normally did not use our right to go pass nos 1 & 2 but did so on occassions.
A new Neighbour moved in at no 2 and for first year all was fine with all neighbours using own driveways as previous years. Then after 12 m he let his 8 year old son cycle across our driveway followed by him and his family walking across to get to his house no 2 - this led to us having words which led to neighbour showing his true colours and he got very abusive. - this lead to him obtaining solicitors letters etc and in the end we locked gates adjoining our properties to stop him using our drive and to stop the verbal abusive we received every time we stepped out of our property.
We double checked our rights of way with the original solicitor who put it black and white that no 1 & 2 did not have the right of way across no 3 - on this basis when faced with court action against us initiated by the neighbour we went to court - where the judge decided no 2 did have the right and ordered it changed on the deeds of 2 & 3.
We complained to our original solicitors who had twice given us the wrong information but did not get anywhere with them. Also the solicitors / barrister that acted for us in court did not advise us at any point regarding the possible uplift to no 2 solicitors costs.
Hopefully your case is a bit more cut and dried than ours and you go on to win - just a little advice if you do go to court try and remain composed when answering questions from barristers / judge - I am a mortgage broker and the other sides barrister questioned me in the court for 45 minutes trying to get me to admit i knew land law and I merely kept reminding him I paid and took legal advice when purchasing the property .
Good luck - this will be my last entry on this subject as I prefer to put the experience behind me as we eventually sold the house in March of this year some 6 years after the court case. - my wife in the last 6 years never went back to the house as the neighbour still lives there - I am advised by the new owner that problems have again started regarding access and closing of gates with no 2 so history looks like repeating itself ( new owner rented property from me for 12 months before buying it and was fully aware of the court case and history of the case ).

Very strange case indeed and the judge had the right to change the title deed to give your neighbour access is just appalling whats the point of having the title plan\deed in the first place.

pilavas

Quick update guys,

Found out on Thursday that my neighbour was carded and he never went to collect the letter from the postal depot, Now we waiting for the letter to be returned and this time gonna deliver it myself.

On another note He has got into a dispute with the other neighbours regarding an extension they are building. He has hired a surveyor to serve them notice to stop everything they are doing for a month.

So clearly he is just looking for trouble with his neighbours lol.