What is the process of removing someone from encroaching on piece of land that I own?

ProDave

Another trick is to offer the disputed piece of land for sale to your neighbour for a nominal sum.  As soon as he accepts your offer to sell it, he has admitted that he does not own it.  Then say you have changed your mind, please stop trespassing on my land.

Bendy_House

As I understand it, issues of harassment and nuisance ARE LA matters, and they have departments to deal with this. Largely, this covers 'neighbour disputes', but I suspect in a case like this they wouldn't become involved in the legal technicalities of the boundary line, but more about any threats and perceived harassment - like a letter threatening to keep moving the fence for as long as it takes.... (Your neighbour is an idiot, amongst other things).

Based on what you have said, mad'pot, this a'ole neighb is trying it on. They have moved their fence, they know they've done this, and are BSing in that hand-delivered letter. 'Bogus' ma botty.

That letter does not appear to have any legitimacy behind it, and carries no legal weight. It has clearly been put together by them, since there is no legal basis for "We'll just put it back as many times as it takes..." Anyone who reads that letter will chuckle.

What YOU have done, however, IS the correct procedure, and DOES carry weight - it is the correct initial legal action to take before action. 

I can tell you with near 100% certainty, that if you now remove their fence - which is what you SHOULD do - they will NOT call the police, as they know they are in the wrong, and they do not have any way of justifying their actions. In the remote chance they do call the police, you calmly show them the LR plan showing the 'more' correct line of the fence, and your 'letter before action'. You also show them the neighb's BS letter - I hope they'll smile at this - and you can mention that another neighb 'reluctantly' confirmed (understandable that they don't want to become involved) that it looked as tho' the fence had been moved as part of more extensive garden works.

The police will clock that you have carried out the correct procedure, make an assessment that the situation is more likely to be as you claim, and tell you both to sort this out the 'proper' way - which you, of course, have been doing, whereas the neighb has not. Do a Google now and see if the images cover your house after it was built - see what the boundary looks like. It should, of course, follow the LR plan in shape at least. Print this out, too, and add it to your docs.

The police won't, of course, become involved in the actual 'legalities', but they will/should have a gander at what you show them, and will very likely make a judgement, certainly as to whether you have caused 'property damage' by moving the fence, but they should conclude very quickly that you are reasonable, can show LR (and ideally Google) plans, and have given the neighb the correct notice of your intentions. They will similarly note that the neighbour's letter is a pile of utter s***.

They will almost certainly conclude with a quiet word to you both, but what they'll say to the neighbour will hopefully be along the lines of, "Looking at the plans, it would seem as tho' the fence HAS been moved, but we are not confirming it is correct as we simply don't know. You were, however, given the correct notice of your neighbour's intention to recover the land, so what YOU need to do - if you truly believe this is your land - is to set in process a proper legal claim, and not just move fences. Meanwhile, desist from any repeat action, moving of fences, or anything else; just sort it properly and legally..." Summat like that.

It would be worth pointing out to the police again the part of the letter which threatened to just carry on moving the fence, and that - if they try and carry out that threat - YOU will be calling the police out because this WILL be property damage and trespass.

It's as simple as this - provided your plans, deeds, and Google images confirm with decent accuracy that the correct line is as you claim, then what the neighbour has done was criminal property damage and trespass. If they interfere with your fence again, then it'll be a repeat of this, and the police will become cross. On the other hand, what you have done/will be doing, is not criminal in any sense. So you can call the police if the neighb tries to interfere again with your fence.

Get your facts together now - LR, measurements, Google, your LBA, the neighb's daft response, and you also need to start taking photographs of the fences, and any changes that are made. I'd also have your phone set to 'record' when you have any dealings with this neighbour, but don't shirk away from this - just be calm and measured and state your case. Let THEM rant - it'll count against them.

Silly Q - do you have Legal Protection on your house insurance?

madteapot

RS2OOO said:

Have you looked on Google Maps?

Since my land and the land before being built mostly had overgrown trees and plants etc the google satellite images don't show any clear boundary for historical images. For the development phase again these were the last houses to be built so either has greenery in the satellite image or construction site with no real fence. At the moment google satellite image only shows construction site and hasn't been updated.

brianposter said:

When my neighbour moved his fence I was told that I should start by asking the council to intervene.

I could give it a try but not sure what council can do. Both of the properties in question are privately owned and there is no adjacent council property either side.

Woolsery said:

I think I'd go down the surveyor route. His opinion on whether encroachment could be easily proven would be of interest.

This parcel of land sounds as if it's quite large and a grab of a couple of metres needs consideration in context. In a modest private garden it would be noticeable and possibly of great detriment, but in a field the impact would be far less. The cost of recovering it needs weighing, and action to prevent any further loss will be covered by the survey. 

Yes my land runs parallel to the new estate and 10 houses back onto it with total length of approx 90-100 meters. The trees/woodland does go to about 30-35meters deep and since there is no dedicated pathway through I only go for walkabout every year to check if the trees are ok and the land is dry to walk through.

This has been going on for over 12 weeks now, first 4-6 weeks have been me trying to get in touch with them in person. Most times they would be not home or simply not open door even if in. Only once I manage to see a man in person and straight away closed door on my face saying he is too busy before I could say who I was. Did leave a note saying I was land owner at the back and wanted to have a chat whenever convenient but no joy. Only at this point I went with letter before action approach. 

I am considering the costs of pursuing this specially since survey alone isn't really binding if they don't engage. Court is likely to cost a bunch of thousands which is not likely to match the price of said land if I wanted to sell. I will look into the costs of survey and if it is not extortionate will get it done even if I decide to not pursue in the court. Cutting my losses is definitely on the table 

For now I have walked the entire perimeter of the land with video camera recording the current state of boundary and adjacent fences, including distances from specific trees etc to avoid this from any further houses pulling the same stunt. I will also have to increase the frequency of inspection I carry on the boundary as I suspect this might not be the end of it. 

What a sorry state of affairs!

400ixl

Can you request a copy of the deeds for the property in question from the Land Registry? This would then tell you what they have bought and give you the evidence you need?

TBagpuss

As well as downloading the plans from the LR you could also have a look at the council's website - they may well have the plans etc submitted by the developers, and even if those are no longer on the website then you may be able to get the relevant application number(s) and request copies from the council. 

It's worth checking whether your home insurance has legal cover to get some initial advice. 

the process is then likely to be to apply for an injunction to prevent them from trespassing on or causing damage to your land or fence.

UnderOffer

This has been going on for over 12 weeks now, first 4-6 weeks have been me trying to get in touch with them in person. Most times they would be not home or simply not open door even if in. Only once I manage to see a man in person and straight away closed door on my face saying he is too busy before I could say who I was. Did leave a note saying I was land owner at the back and wanted to have a chat whenever convenient but no joy. 

I think that approach from the owner would indicate they know exactly who you are and why you were knocking.. 

Slinky

^^ Agree totally with this. If he'd have engaged even the slightest bit I may have had my doubts.

sidneyvic

So am I right in thinking you have absolutely no use for this very small piece of land and appear to own a substantial plot. You only traverse it once year to check on the trees. someone has moved their fence by a few meters to make good use of a very small part of this land that you have absolutely no use for. 
And you really feel it is worth going to war over and spending substantial amounts of time and money to get a fence moved back by a few meters ? Why apart from your sense of entitlement that it is your land so humbug ot anyone else making good use of it.....

steampowered

madteapot said:

I have checked land registry plan for mine, their and their neighbours property and it does to some degree confirm my suspicions. But land registry plans are not to scale so I can't rely on it solely. 

You say that the fence was moved - and that the fence is now 3m away from the trees, whereas the old fence was 5m away from the trees.

That may be true - but that does not necessarily mean that you own the land. It is entirely possible that the old fence could have been built 2m into the boundary of the neighbour's property. 

I don't really see any way of resolving this other than getting a professional opinion to establish whether you own the land or not.

I would want to be pretty sure that I owned the land before I started moving fences or taking court action. 

Sistergold

Once sorted you need to reclaim this land and make it obvious it’s yours. A brick wall would be best.