Adverse Possession

aishahepton

At the rear of my property there is land for parking. On our deeds we have one space and our next door neighbour has one space, however there is a space between that is 'unclaimed land'. We have used this space for the past 18+ years to park our second car.
Unfortunately our neighbour passed away, and her daughters are now selling the property. We have received a solicitors letter asking us to remove our second car (parked on the unclaimed land) to ease the sale of the property.
What I want to know is, could we claim the land via Adverse possession???
Any advice would be appreciated. I have looked at the Land Registry website, and it appears we could, but the application forms seem very complicated???

Slithery

If you haven't fenced the land off for the last 12+ years so no-one else can access it then no, you can't.

G_M

just parking there is not enough to claim AP - You need to use it as your own to the exclusion of others.

As Slithery says, if you'd fenced it off or erected bollards so that no one else could park there, you might have a case.

I'm, surprised the neighbours have arranged a solicitors letter for this request. Surely a friendly, neighbourly chat would have been a better approach. Solicitors letters always worry recipients and are more likely to put their backs up? So if you ignore the letter, or refuse, I'd quite understand!

Of course the other obvious question is: who owns the land?

babyblade41

As above, just gone through AP, the land claimed in our situation had been fenced off to the exclusion of all others for 30 plus years, it was still a long drawn out process, so just using it will not be suffice I'm afraid.

Even if you had done this you would need the advice of a good solicitor to take you through the process and not DIY

AnotherJoe

Who owns the land?
Would you want to buy it before the new owners do rather than get into a parking battle with them?
The solicitors letter would seem to be pointless or even counterproductive since it's brought to your attention something that needs to be fixed and they have no jurisdiction to force you to keep off and indeed by not parking there, possibly give the impression that they own or can use it. Or is your second car a rust heap that's letting down the tone of the neighbourhood? Perhaps even looks dumped ? Serious question.
Are there any covenants that actually do not allow parking there but there's no one to enforce it ?
Would it be an issue for you if you couldn't park there?

konark

The can only tell you to remove your car if it's their land, if it's not then it's a bit cheeky.

Davesnave

Is your car parked there SORNED and in a state? Sounds as if it might be. People don't usually go to the expense of a solicitor's letter without good reason.

Having had a sale blighted by a perfectly legal, rusting, bay-windowed VW camper, which was never restored by its owner, I could have some sympathy, but your neighbour has no case, unless the land owner decides to act against you.


OTOH, if the car moves, who knows what might suddenly take its place!

AnotherJoe

Davesnave wrote: »

Is your car parked there SORNED and in a state? Sounds as if it might be. People don't usually go to the expense of a solicitor's letter without good reason.
Having had a sale blighted by a perfectly legal, rusting, bay-windowed VW camper, which was never restored by its owner, I could have some sympathy, but your neighbour has no case, unless the land owner decides to act against you.

Yes, this now reminds me of a few years ago, on the road fairly near me a car was parked but It looked to be in a right state, it didn't move for days and I assumed someone had dumped it there.
Before I got round to contacting the police a handwritten notice was fixed to it which said "this car has not been dumped it's parked". After a few weeks it went. Most likely scenario is that it was parked near a relative or friends house who had taken them to the airport (we are about 30 minutes drive away). Point being there must have been at least one other person who thought this car had been dumped given its outward appearance. Maybe OP's is the same because otherwise why go to the lengths of a solicitors letter if ut just looks like a normal parked car
Fess up OP ! Let's see a picture !

LandyAndy

AnotherJoe wrote: »

The solicitors letter would seem to be pointless or even counterproductive since it's brought to your attention something that needs to be fixed and they have no jurisdiction to force you to keep off and indeed by not parking there, possibly give the impression that they own or can use it. Or is your second car a rust heap that's letting down the tone of the neighbourhood? Perhaps even looks dumped ? Serious question.

'House comes with two parking spaces' in the description.

Norman_Castle

As above, contact the daughter, solicitor or estate agent to find out who they think owns this parking space.

aishahepton

Thank you for all your comments. We park two cars there, that are both running vehicles (not rusted/ SORNED vehicles as suggested)
The land is big enough for three cars, however our deeds and next door neighbours deeds only show one parking space each. The land in-between is unclaimed, and as far as I am aware no-one owns it?
We have therefore used this space, as opposed to parking our second vehicle on the nearby street.
If the land has not been fenced off (which it hasn't, otherwise we couldn't have parked on it) then it looks like we are facing a losing battle.
Many thanks for your advice everyone!