Garden boundary

Lozzaloula_2

My partner and I have just bought a property and when I went to the estate agents to pick up the keys, they gave me a letter from my new neighbour. The letter was a copy of an agreement between my neighbour and one of the old occupiers of the house from 10 years ago. It states that our neighbour planted a new hedgerow in our garden which he paid for. I can only assume that we have received this letter in an attempt to let us know that the hedge is his property and we don't have the rights to remove it. We have attempted to speak with our new neighbour about the letter, but he never answers the door! The planting of the hedgerow is clearly on our garden and is in a bad state. We eventually want to remove it and replace with something healthier and nicer, however we are worried about the legal implications. Does anyone know where we stand on this matter?

sevenhills

Lozzaloula wrote: »

My partner and I have just bought a property and when I went to the estate agents to pick up the keys, they gave me a letter from my new neighbour.

I thought the time to disclose issues was way before picking up the keys.

Mojisola

Lozzaloula wrote: »

My partner and I have just bought a property and when I went to the estate agents to pick up the keys, they gave me a letter from my new neighbour.

The letter was a copy of an agreement between my neighbour and one of the old occupiers of the house from 10 years ago.

It states that our neighbour planted a new hedgerow in our garden which he paid for. I can only assume that we have received this letter in an attempt to let us know that the hedge is his property and we don't have the rights to remove it.

The neighbour has done you a favour by making it clear that his hedge is on your land because permission was given.

After ten years, he could have started a claim for adverse possession of the land but that's not possible if the owner of the land gave permission.

Debbie_Savard

> Does anyone know where we stand on this matter?<

Speak to your solicitor, could be the tip of the iceberg of problems the seller hid from youi

martinthebandit

I would be tempted to dig up the hedge up and give it back to the neighbour, job done

TheCyclingProgrammer

You need to speak to your conveyancer. This kind of thing should have been dealt with during the conveyancing.

IANAL, but I’m not sure you can be bound by an agreement made by a previous occupant unless there’s a covenant on your deeds.

Speak to your solicitor but I imagine the correct course of action would be to give written notice to the neighbour that permission to plant anything on your property is being withdrawn and that you are giving them reasonable notice to move the hedge onto their property otherwise it will be removed and returned to them.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Just to add, if you can speak to them over a friendly chat first that might be a better way to start a relationship with your new neighbours but I imagine the sort of person who communicates with his new neighbours by passing on a letter to the estate agent probably isn’t going to be that receptive.

Unfortunately for you this is only going to end you and your neighbours not getting along.

I would be furious that the previous owner did not disclose this to his solicitors.

Lozzaloula_2

Agreed. The solicitors claim that the neighbour neighbour went in with the letter the day before we picked the keys up. We had already completed by then.

Lozzaloula_2

I can't get my head around how he can make claim to something that is on our land. I'm most definitely going to be seeking legal advice.

Lozzaloula_2

I'd love nothing more than to do that!

Lozzaloula_2

The EAs said that he came in with the letter after we had already completed. It doesn't sit right with me. I'm even wondering if the EAs kept it back from us so we wouldn't cause any more issues for the vendor. We had already raised many areas of concern that we wanted rectifying before we completed.