HELP! Neighbour has moved fence during COVID lockdown and taken land

Gerard55

Hello, I'd appreciate any help or advice you all may have.

I have a property which is currently vacant. I have been made aware by some friendly neighbours that the neighbour on the other side of my property has it seems taken advantage of (i) the coronavirus lockdown situation and (ii) the fact that we currently do not have tenants and the property is vacant.

It has come to our attention that the said neighbour has trespassed onto our property. Whilst in lockdown, he has removed the fencing (inc. removed ivy on fence and cut out holes in fence) towards the back of our property and relocated it, taking a chunk of approximately 3ft of our land, including about 6 mature trees. He has also committed criminal damage as he has chopped down some bushes at the back of our property (and left the tools behind!) and removed and repositioned a gate which leads onto the parkland which the garden backs onto.

We are currently gathering all documentary evidence we have.

Some info which may help you in advising me:

• We bought the property in 2011 
• Have since been renting it out
• Have my own personal photos and also a video which shows the trees on our side and fencing as it was when we bought the property
  
• Have a 1:200 scale (good detail) site plan of the property including fencing from 2008 (when previous owners sent plans to council)
• Have plans submitted in 1999 for the neighbours house which clearly show the trees drawn on our land (but scale is not good and it is a rough drawing)
  
• Have title plan (which I know is inadequate for determining boundaries due to OS inaccuracies and scale)

We need to arrange a meeting with him - while of course maintaining distance - or a call to discuss 
This is pure hand grabbing and he is a greedy sod that won't be persuaded (had problems in the past when we wanted to replace the old fence)

But wondering if I can get advice and where I stand with the evidence I have? 
Cheers,
Gerard

shaun_from_Africa

Do you have any legal assistance with your house insurance? If so, that may well be a good first step.

buglawton

Get a Google Earth image showing the trees.

FreeBear

Duplicate thread - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6137279/help-neighbour-has-moved-fence-during-covid-lockdown-and-taken-land

TELLIT01

As your property is empty, I would have thought occasion visits to check the place would be considered essential travel.  Once your are there, rip the fence down and mark the proper boundary line again.

Davesnave

TELLIT01 said:

As your property is empty, I would have thought occasion visits to check the place would be considered essential travel.  Once your are there, rip the fence down and mark the proper boundary line again.

What, like Catherine Calderwood? She thought she had good reasons to visit her second property....   Mind you, she did it more than once.

OP is 75 and unlikely to be performing Tarzan-like moves in the immediate future.