Just moved in. Neighbour raising garden fence boundary issue

Zenno

We bought our first home, a semi detached property and moved in recently. There is a garden fence between my freeside and neighbour, which is erected by my seller. Our neighbour offered to replace the fence with solid wall as he is interested in building a lean to. We requested him to build the wall in his side of the property rather than to replace the fence. Later he claims that my seller has encroached his property and he wants us to move the fence by few inches. I feel that he should have raised this issue with the seller in the first place. Also I am gutted to lose the piece of land for no mistake of my own. How can I approach this? Should I involve the council? Do I need to speak to my solicitor? What could be the legal cost? Please advise.

ACG

Contact your solicitor who did the conveyancing, do that as a priority. Speak to them and get them to raise it with the vendor.

Davesnave

The council won''t be interested unless your neighbour lives in a council house.

What evidence does your neighbour claim to have regarding what they claim?Title plans probably won't help them, as they're not accurate to that degree. If they have no evidence, there's nothing much they can do, as you own the fence, it's in the ground and they have no right to touch it..

By all means speak to your solicitor, but don't get drawn into long discussions with the neighbour over this. Ask for evidence. If there's none, apart from what they say, that's an end to it.

It's not uncommon for things like this to happen when a new person comes to live next door to a bully. They will try things on and see how far they can go, but without very strong evidence that the fence is misplaced and a good reason why they didn't raise the matter earlier, they'll be on a hiding to nothing.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I assume by 'freeside' you mean the neighbour you are not attached to.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Unless there is something on site that obviously indicates the fence is in the wrong place and assuming you cannot determine from the title plan exactly where, to within a few inches, the boundary lies, I would tell the neighbour that as far as you are concerned the fence is in the right place, its your fence, and you do not want it moved.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Basically just repeat what you have already said, don't entertain any further debate and just see what your neighbour does about it.[/FONT]

Zenno

Thanks ACG. I have informed my solicitor.
Thanks Davesnave. You raised a valid point in terms of evidence.
Thanks Tom. You are right. It is the neighbour I am not attached too.

Mossfarr

It sounds to me that he is just trying to scavenge a few extra inches for his (lean to) extension.

Tell him you are perfectly happy with your fence and you will not even consider moving it unless he provides proof that it is in the wrong place.

Might be worth contacting the previous owners to see if he's tried this before. Worse case scenario - there may be a previous dispute over it that they have not declared!

jbainbridge

Does sound like this is either an ongoing dispute or the neighbour is trying to catch you off guard - given that you're just moved in and probably don't want to upset anyone! Be careful!

foxy-stoat

All disputes need to be disclosed on the contract - so i assume the seller ticked no for that one.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'll go with Davesnave on this one - some neighbours do try it on with a new neighbour and lie their heads off to get what they want.

One of the things my next door nfh tried was saying that MY wall in between us was a joint one. Fortunately - I knew very well it wasnt:D.

I'd be willing to hazard a guess that your neighbour is:
- a local and you aren't
OR
- noticeably older than you
OR
- less well-mannered than you
OR
- been living there for ages
OR
- thinks they are "Somebody" within your community (ie as it's a "small pond" and they think they are/were a "Big Fish" in said puddle).

or quite a variety of other reasons why they are telling themselves they "matter" more than you do.

Whichever "reason" they are quoting to themselves = tough! The facts are the facts and I bet they are lying to you.

paddy's_mum

If he keeps on with his transparent land grab and nothing you can say will persuade him to be reasonable, you could suggest that HE employs a surveyor to look into the matter...at his own expense and with no obligation on you to accept the surveyor's findings.

This will cost him £3 - 4 thousand pounds and may make him think twice.