Adverse Possession? Neighbour using land

perc

Hello

There is a thin strip of land which is owned by me between my house and my neighbours drive. When they had an extension built about 7 years ago they took the small fence down and asked if they could buy this piece of land. I said no as I wanted to ensure that my house remained detached but that I was happy for them to use it to put their bins on.

About a year ago I discussed it with my neighbour and he said that they would be having the drive paved and would put a fence back where one was previously as I wanted to start storing my ladders down the side of my house.

They are now having their front garden done and I spoke to the builder today who said that he was putting a fence in but leaving a gap so that they could still store the bins on my piece of land.

I was a bit shocked as this was not what we had discussed and I had not been asked about this in advance.

I am going to speak with the neighbour tomorrow about this as it was a bit of a surprise that the fence was not going to be complete and I am worried about Adverse Possession where they can claim the land as their own if they have use of it unopposed for 12 years.

I would like to ask if anyone had any experience of this? I don't want to fall out with my neighbours over this but equally I am not going to lose this bit of land because of ignoring a problem. Has anyone gone through something like this? I was thinking of asking them to write and sign a letter acknowledging the land is mine and they are grateful to be allowed to use it suffice to block any claim on the land as I read the following:

Generally speaking, if you have been occupying lands that you do not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use in excess of 12 years (or in the case of Crown lands 30 years), without any objection from the registered owner, you can claim what is known as “adverse possession”.

Thanks for any help you can give.

glasgowdan

You have to tell the neighbour they can't do this. No way to skirt around it.

TheCyclingProgrammer

I’m no expert but I believe if there has been a previous agreement between you for them to use that land with your permission and they accept that you have given them permission then they have effectively acknowledged your ownership and they cannot claim adverse possession.

I would simply tell them to not leave a gap and that you are revoking permission to use the land. You can’t make them put a fence up but there’s nothing stopping you from erecting one on your side so they’d be silly not to.

bris

As above, adverse possession is strict, it needs to be unchallenged and ignored for 12 years. You have allowed them use it, with condition's that's, not going to qualify for adverse possession.

Davesnave

While it won't help them gain adverse possession, we had a thread on the house buying forum recently where a wall, erected before the true boundary, was causing a problem with a sale.

Don't let them do it. Mark the boundary with something low that a bin will go over, but keep things unambiguous.