How do I cope living next door to this awful neighbour?

fezster

loveka wrote: »

Trying to keep it brief...

<snip>

We are also 10k out of pocket due to the sale falling through.

How on earth can you be that much out of pocket on a house you did not purchase?

adandem

I fear that you will have to disclose this dispute when you come to sell especially as it's not just verbal. If you don't and your neighbours tell the buyer I think they can bring a case.
http://www.problemneighbours.co.uk/what-you-have-declare-about-neighbours-when-selling.html

lstar337

Mojisola wrote: »

As well as the other good advice, change your solicitor.

I was gonna say after the first post, their solicitor sounds like a complete idiot!

loveka

fezster wrote: »

How on earth can you be that much out of pocket on a house you did not purchase?[/QUOTE

Clearly this hast ever happened to you! It easily adds up.

Solicitors
Survey
Electrical survey
Removals
A paid for cancelled holiday (we had had a previous sale fall through in December, also on the day of exchange, we have not had a lot if luck)
Partner had given up his job (we were moving geographically)
I am self employed, I turned down 2 weeks work abroad.

Our buyers incompetent solicitor had caused exchange to slip by 3 weeks. So exchange was happening only 5 days before completion. Our buyer wouldn't budge on completion, so everyone in the chain went along with it. Everyone in the chain lost money.

loveka

lstar337 wrote: »

I was gonna say after the first post, their solicitor sounds like a complete idiot!

We went to 3 solicitors who said exactly the same thing. We used a different conveyancing solicitor for our sale, who said the same thing.
Also phoned our house insurance legal cover helpline who said the same thing!

Boundary disputes are awful. It really is like someone is blackmailing you. If they decide to go to court what do you do? You have to defend your case so you start incurring costs. Most judges hate hearing boundary disputes over tiny bits of land, so they tend not to award full costs. It is SO unfair.

I just couldn't believe that this was true but I did loads of research, and it is. The average cost of hearing a boundary dispute is £30k per side. Even if we had been awarded partial costs it would probably have cost us 10k to keep a piece of land that was already ours!

another_casualty

loveka wrote: »

fezster wrote: »

How on earth can you be that much out of pocket on a house you did not purchase?[/QUOTE

Clearly this hast ever happened to you! It easily adds up.

Solicitors
Survey
Electrical survey
Removals
A paid for cancelled holiday (we had had a previous sale fall through in December, also on the day of exchange, we have not had a lot if luck)
Partner had given up his job (we were moving geographically)
I am self employed, I turned down 2 weeks work abroad.

Our buyers incompetent solicitor had caused exchange to slip by 3 weeks. So exchange was happening only 5 days before completion. Our buyer wouldn't budge on completion, so everyone in the chain went along with it. Everyone in the chain lost money.

You've had a tough time , to put it mildly . I know it may be a bit off kilter , but maybe have a word with c a b , or your mp? Extreme measures but anything maybe worth a shot

Davesnave

loveka wrote: »

We went to 3 solicitors who said exactly the same thing. We used a different conveyancing solicitor for our sale, who said the same thing.
Also phoned our house insurance legal cover helpline who said the same thing!

Boundary disputes are awful.

I can testify to this. Close relative had a neighbour make a totally spurious claim in an attempt to stop him building, so he had to defend it.

Although he won because the neighbour offered no evidence, it still cost in the region of £6.5k. That never actually reached court!

melb

It's not always necessary to be represented in court if you are telling the truth (as in this case). We defended ourselves against a solicitor and barrister in a full court hearing and our costs were less than £100 in solicitor's costs (2 x half hourly consultations to make sure we weren't off the mark in terms of our understanding of Land Law) and just over £1000 to engage a Surveyor to give us an honest assessment of where the boundary lay and to accompany us to court should his services be needed by the Judge.

The costs of the other side were £11,000.

This is because the other side were lying b*****stards, dragged us to court having refused mediation and the first words of the Judge were "this case has been brought on an untruth hasn't it?"

Their case was absolutely laughable and full of holes but what we did learn is that if someone is willing and financially able to drag you through the courts, then they are able to do so and the more hopeless and less principled solicitors will be happy to take their money - when their Solicitor came round to our house the night before the case was to be heard to hand us a copy of the costs (which we may have had to pay had we lost the case) he said "I wouldn't worry if I were you!" He probably knew then that the case should not have been allowed to go ahead.

This of course is no use to the poster, who has my utmost sympathy, but might give hope to others. Oh, and this was before we had internet/computer so my research was done in libraries and the local County Court in Leeds who allowed me access to their library so i could look through all their Landlaw tomes!

fezster

loveka wrote: »

Clearly this hast ever happened to you! It easily adds up.

Solicitors
Survey
Electrical survey
Removals
A paid for cancelled holiday (we had had a previous sale fall through in December, also on the day of exchange, we have not had a lot if luck)
Partner had given up his job (we were moving geographically)
I am self employed, I turned down 2 weeks work abroad.

Our buyers incompetent solicitor had caused exchange to slip by 3 weeks. So exchange was happening only 5 days before completion. Our buyer wouldn't budge on completion, so everyone in the chain went along with it. Everyone in the chain lost money.

I didn't mean to sound unsympathetic, but this is why nothing should be assumed until exchange of contracts, as nothing is binding until that point. I appreciate your circumstances are somewhat unique, but I'd advise insisting on a long enough gap between exchange and completion to allow you to put everything in place before you move.

Best of luck.

lstar337

loveka wrote: »

We went to 3 solicitors who said exactly the same thing. We used a different conveyancing solicitor for our sale, who said the same thing.
Also phoned our house insurance legal cover helpline who said the same thing!

Boundary disputes are awful. It really is like someone is blackmailing you. If they decide to go to court what do you do? You have to defend your case so you start incurring costs. Most judges hate hearing boundary disputes over tiny bits of land, so they tend not to award full costs. It is SO unfair.

I just couldn't believe that this was true but I did loads of research, and it is. The average cost of hearing a boundary dispute is £30k per side. Even if we had been awarded partial costs it would probably have cost us 10k to keep a piece of land that was already ours!

OK, but I think the solicitor gave some pretty wonky advice.

From your original post:

loveka wrote: »

Last year a new neighbour moved in who disputed the boundary in the back garden. He wanted to build an extension and said the fence gave us 8 inches wide more garden than we should have. Despite getting a sworn statement from the people we bought from in 1999 that the fence was like that when they bought in 1996 he wouldn't let it go, kept threatening us with legal action etc. In the end we agreed to split the 8 inch strip on the advice from our solicitor about not getting in to a boundary dispute.

I would have said "Ok, take me to court".

It was up to your neighbour to pay the costs, and it doesn't cost you much to prepare a bit of evidence to show that the fence was there when you moved in, and has been there ever since. Even if you had lost, you would still be in the same situation you are in now, losing the land anyway. TBH, I doubt the court would be too happy with the neighbour for wasting their time over 8 inches of land.

BTW, he saw exactly what he was buying when he viewed the house. If he was unhappy about the width of the garden, he should have moved elsewhere.

loveka wrote: »

He destroyed our flower bed, and took our plants and planted them in his garden! Again, our solicitor said there was nothing we could do apart from get an injunction which would cost £3,000. Police wouldn't be interested in the theft of some rose bushes. Etc.

So your solicitor advises that the Police are not interested in criminal damage or theft. SOunds to me like it was the solicitor who 'wasn't interested'.

loveka wrote: »

While we were away on holiday in April he took down the shared fence in the front garden and replaced it with a waist high fence with 5 foot posts.

This is tricky because I doubt it was actually shared ownership unless there was some paperwork to prove it, but if it was in any part owned by you then you could go down the criminal damage route.