Neighbour erected fence on our driveway

Aylesbury_Duck

Silver_Shark said:

If that fence has been in place for 12 years or more the neighbour can claim that land by what is known as adverse possession.

If I were you I'd walk away from the house purchase.

Or proceed, and accept the limitation that fence creates.

sheramber

  The sellers are claiming ignorance as this was their parents home who bequeathed it to them and as such they have not lived there in recent years. On the conveyance questionnaire they have ticked the boxes next to “has a boundary been moved in the last 10 years” and referenced this fence. 

 So they  know the boundary has been moved but don't know how or why?
Presumably, they could ask the neighbour about it.

Grumpy_chap

Buy the house and accept the boundary, or buy a different house.

Jenni_D

Carrot007 said:
As such these deeds are often just indicative and not definate.

So you're the 4th man!

user1977

Mde00435 said:

Is the neighbour allowed to this? Are we allowed to contest this or have it removed. I am just trying to understand what kind of potential minefield we are walking into. 

You've already got a solicitor dealing with this for you - what's their advice?

Flight3287462

Who build a detached house without access around all sides of the house.

If privacy and security are a big issue perhaps that's the wrong area for you?

lemondrops69

Hunyani_Flight_825 said:

Who build a detached house without access around all sides of the house.

If privacy and security are a big issue perhaps that's the wrong area for you?

Modern estate built homes from what I've seen. Allows them to squash a few more in

bris

You don't have to walk into any minefield, let the seller sort it, walk away or accept the situation for now and worry about it later, but no one is forcing you onto this mine field.

lincroft1710

Carrot007 said:

lincroft1710 said:

Carrot007 said:

.

Boundrys are not measued to the inch. You will be lucky to ghet it to the metre and ity appears less. However the plans should be obvious if it is the wall. But as a non straight edge I doubt it.

All it would raise for me is a "this is not the right house for me" realisation.

As some properties are less than 5 metres wide, one would hope boundaries could be measured much more accurately than to the nearest metre!

Back in the old days of pre Land Registry, house deeds would show boundaries measured to actual feet and inches. I used to see plenty of these deeds in the 1970s

They may have claimed to be that accurate ;-) However boundries are a "living" thing and do move. As such these deeds are often just indicative and not definate. This does cause many land grabs and expensive arguments, however it really cannot be any different. If more people understood why it has to be that way it might be better,

Not to mention that many changes occur and people do not change the deeds. For instance there was an outhouse opn the back of this house with and end into each other garden, say a metre at the house and the back and a metre into mine for theirs, same building on a semi. However when I got here they were both end on and the boundry was straight (quite clearly a thin door beign why it was done that way origionally the other way).

Unfortunatly many things require reasonable poeple beign reasonable and it is not possible to do (cheaply) any other way. Not to mention the many ridiculous things people belive about upkeep of fences and such.

So in essance. On a fastly spinning ball with constant change where things move all the time such things are not possible nor should they be expected to be, which is where the problem often comes in. (some places will always be obvious though like in OP's case where that fence was always the real border)

There will be some properties where oddities such as you describe may happen, but for the vast majority hoping a boundary is accurate to the nearest metre is not a practical proposition.

Jenni_D

bris said:

You don't have to walk into any minefield, let the seller sort it, walk away or accept the situation for now and worry about it later, but no one is forcing you onto this mine field.

Exactly what I thought after reading the OP vs the thread title ... 

Neighbour erected fence on our driveway

... erm, it's not your house OP - at least not yet.