Boundary dispute with neighbour

spu98amj

Hello
I am having an issue with a neighbour who is claiming my fence is in his garden. I need help with what if can do to stop him moving it as he has threatened to do soon. Then hi is going to bill me for the pleasure!

The wooden fence was replaced 18 months ago with a new fence, and since the start of April the neighbour now wants us to move it into our garden by 12 inches.
The fence in question has stood in the same place for around 20 years, we have photos of my wife in front of the fence aged around 14 when she was living in the house. The neighbour has owned the house for 10 years and the fence was in the same position when he purchased the house.

My wife’s parents have both passed away and for nearly 5 years we have lived in the property that she grew up in. The house was initially purchased in 1995 by her parents. Sometime soon after 1995 the wooden fence was erected into the same place that our new fence stands. I have photos showing the positon against the wall of the old fence and new, you can count the bricks from the edge of the door to the fence is the same.
I am wondering what I can do to stop my neighbour moving my fence to a position along the party wall. Which is 12 inches into our small garden, but the gate post in the other corner stays the same.
I would like to find out as much info regarding an adverse possession claim of the small strip of land in question. I like to think the 3 main statements are with me,
I have no knowledge of why the fence is in that position,
I assumed the land is ours as it has been in our side of the fence for over 12 years.
It has been locked away behind a locked gated and fenced garden and no one else has had access to the land.

I would like to get an idea of what is needed, do I need to get a statement signed by a solicitor?
Do I need a surveyor to measure up my current garden before anything gets moved?

Or is there any other ways around this to save time and money?

Hope anyone out there can help

Thanks

Andy

Pricivius

To clarify...

You live in terraced/semi-detached and therefore share a wall of the property with your neighbour.

There is a fence dividing up the garden which is 12 inches to the neighbour's side of the wall you share.

So your houses are 20ft wide but your garden is 21ft wide and the neighbour's garden is 19ft wide?

Are there any other features to explain why the fence does not run along the line of the wall? A tree in the way, or a hedge or lamppost etc.?

What does the plan on your land registry entry suggest? And your neighbour's? Do the lines of your house and garden line up, or is there a kink? I appreciate entries are not definitive and are to a big scale, but it is worth looking at just in case it helps.

spu98amj

Yes the house is an end of terrace and the fence is between my adjacent neighbour.
Yes the fence starts off 12 inches from the centre of the 12 inch party wall, but ends in the correctly placed gate post.
I did forget to add that to my original post. Sometime after my parents in law bought the house the neighbour at the time installed a new boiler against the outside wall and installed the flue along the internal party wall. (I think it!!!8217;s under the 300mm building regs).
But this flue meant the guttering downpipe which runs down the wall needed to be kinked to avoid the new flue. The kink in the downpipe went onto my side of the boundary and the retuning section of the downpipe was below the level of a normal wooden fence. This meant there may have been some agreement with the old neighbour that a wooden fence was placed on the other side of the guttering downpipe.


The title plans of both houses show a fence following the party wall but the detail and scale cannot accurately show how wide the gardens should be. But I did get a newer scaled outline plan with an OS map reference and scale which does show my garden is about the correct width.


I will attempt to get a photo on here to show the old fence.

loveka

We had exactly the same situation as you. Or fence made an 8 inch dog leg from the wall into the neighbours garden. It was the same fence that had been up when we moved in 18 years ago. We had photos, a sworn statement from the people we bought from 18 years ago.

If you go for adverse possession and your neighbour contests it you are locked into a boundary dispute. You then have to either give up, or spend money on solicitors and potentially going to court.

I had 18 months of absolute hell with mine. I ended up on anti depressants and putting the house on the market because I just couldn't take any more.

My neighbour insisted that this 8 inch strip was his land. Despite 'buyer beware', i.e. he saw what he was buying, he viewed the boundary where it was and still bought the house, he wanted that strip and was willing to go all the way.

Look on the land registry website for information. Also try posting on the garden law forum for advice.

Hopefully your neighbour is not an intransigent bully like mine is and will see sense.

G_M

Although the LR Plans (have you looked at both Plans?) are of a scale that makes 12" hard to specify, you should be able to see whether the fence aligns with the properties' party wall, or not.

If it does, then I think your neighbour has the upper hand.

You could always retaliate by threatening to force removal of his flue and/or downpipe.

ProDave

LR plans are of limited detail, but where clear reference points can be established they ave some meaning.

In this case it shows the boundary as the centre of the party wall. That is a clearly definable feature.

If there is no kink or step shown on the plans, then the garden boundary will follow the clearly defined line of the party wall.

So it's a foregone conclusion the fence is in the wrong place.

Do you really want to fight an adverse possession claim, !!!!!! off the neighbour and have a boundary dispute to declare should you sell the house? Or just let him get on and move the fence to where it should be? What is special; about this strip that you think it's worth so much trouble?

Clutterfree

loveka wrote: »

We had exactly the same situation as you. Or fence made an 8 inch dog leg from the wall into the neighbours garden. It was the same fence that had been up when we moved in 18 years ago. We had photos, a sworn statement from the people we bought from 18 years ago.

If you go for adverse possession and your neighbour contests it you are locked into a boundary dispute. You then have to either give up, or spend money on solicitors and potentially going to court.

I had 18 months of absolute hell with mine. I ended up on anti depressants and putting the house on the market because I just couldn't take any more.

My neighbour insisted that this 8 inch strip was his land. Despite 'buyer beware', i.e. he saw what he was buying, he viewed the boundary where it was and still bought the house, he wanted that strip and was willing to go all the way.

Look on the land registry website for information. Also try posting on the garden law forum for advice.

Hopefully your neighbour is not an intransigent bully like mine is and will see sense.

We had a very similar situation that went on for years. Neighbour was arrested for criminal damage but got off with a caution.
I too ended up in anti-depressants.
We have since moved and what a relief that was!

OP if there is any way to avoid this dispute then take it.

You really have NO idea how much this could take over your life.
We didn't.
Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary but it feels like a prison when you've got the neighbour from hell.

Try to reach a compromise if at all possible.
It really isn't worth it.

Badger50

I think I would explain to the neighbour that while he might be able to insist on me removing the fence I on, the other hand, have no obligation whatsoever to put it back up and if he wants a fence at all he will have to pay for a new one with the supports on his side of the boundary. (Any restrictive covenant requiring you to fence applies only to the original purchaser and not successors in title).

scd3scd4

Badger50 wrote: »

I think I would explain to the neighbour that while he might be able to insist on me removing the fence I on, the other hand, have no obligation whatsoever to put it back up and if he wants a fence at all he will have to pay for a new one with the supports on his side of the boundary. (Any restrictive covenant requiring you to fence applies only to the original purchaser and not successors in title).

Me likes! ;-]

sevenhills

loveka wrote: »

If you go for adverse possession and your neighbour contests it you are locked into a boundary dispute. You then have to either give up, or spend money on solicitors and potentially going to court.

If a neighbour got some part of garden via adverse possession, I think those neighbours would be at loggerheads for years, would it be worth it?

Davesnave

I would let the neighbour have the land to remove any possibility of a dispute, but not the fence which presumably he said nothing about when it was being erected.

I'd use it somewhere else, or if there isn't an alternative use, offer him first dibs on it when it goes on Gumtree.

Then I'd start planting.....;)