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

madteapot

Thank you all for responses, very useful. 

I hadn't thought of going through the original planning documentation. I will be doing that for next few days to see if I can find some clear information. I looked through the developers website for old site/floor plan documents but most only contain the dimensions for inside the houses not for the garden. 

Also gave a call to legal protection on my house insurance and they mentioned boundary disputes would be covered but they will need to assess the documents and situation first to see if it is worth pursuing. They have assigned a case-worker who will get it touch with me in coming weeks. Have also requested for some boundary survey quotations, based on what I get from legal protection case-worker I might have to get the survey done. 

princeofpounds

Let your legal protection insurance handle this - it's what they are there for and it's bread-and-butter work for them. They will sound a bit non-committal initially because they need to be confident that you have a case, but once they establish that you do they should move ahead with drafting the necessary letters and moving for an injunction if required. You will win - assuming your description of the situation is accurate - but it will take time. With some luck, the neighbour will back down as soon as the solicitors make an appearance and they realise that they may become liable for your insurer's costs.

Sapindus

sidneyvic said:

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.....

Is there some recourse in the law that if someone doesn't appear to have any use (by your standards) for a piece of land someone else can just nick it, then?  If OP wants this land to remain as semi-wild woodland, that's entirely their prerogative.    They don't need to demonstrate that they are "making good use" of it. 

The very good reason for taking action at this stage is that once one person moves their fence, the next person moves theirs as well and because the fence line then looks the same shape it becomes increasingly difficult to prove exactly where it was or is.  And then before very long you have lost a considerable amount of land.

penners324

The original planning with drawings will be on the council planning portal.

Bendy_House

Madpot, if you, er, look over this new fence, is there any evidence of an old fence line or boundary, or have they landscaped the area completely?

Section62

madteapot said:

I hadn't thought of going through the original planning documentation. I will be doing that for next few days to see if I can find some clear information. I looked through the developers website for old site/floor plan documents but most only contain the dimensions for inside the houses not for the garden. 

One of the first jobs in a development project is to get a topographical survey done.  This will map features on the development land and nearby with an accuracy of a few centimetres at worst.  You would expect the fence lines and position of trees (especially TPO ones) to be included in the survey.

Site plan(s) with this information on are almost always submitted as part of the planning application.  Usually the file name will be something like "...Topo..." or "...Existing...".

If you can't find them in the most recent application, check for 'linked' or 'related' applications - in some cases the developer will make more than one application (e.g. 'Outline' then 'Full', or a speculative high-density one followed by something more realistic) - a detailed Topo plan may only be included in one of the earlier applications.

The topo data is used in an digital model of the site (CAD) on which all subsequent work is carried out.  Thus the developer will have a digital model showing the positions of the houses and boundary fences related to the site as it was before the development.  The same digital model is usually used to produce the transfer plans when the houses are sold, and this goes on to be part of the LR record.  The developer will have a data retention/archiving policy which means it is unlikely all their information about the development will be erased so soon.

So there will be highly accurate records of where the boundary should be, the problem you'll have is that only the copies submitted as part of the planning application are freely available public documents.

It might be worth having a word wih your legal protection people about whether you may also have a case against the developer - if the house owner denies moving the fence then it implies the developer put the fence in the wrong place, and therefore benefited financially from selling land that actually belonged to you.  I don't think you'd have much chance of winning that claim, but raising it as a possibility might work as a tactic to get the developer to share information with you as 'proof' that they put the boundary fence where the original one was.

Bendy_House

Very good chance that any sizeable trees at or near that boundary will be shown on these plans. When we had a single-room extension built, a surveyor used an electronic (laser, I think?) scanning thingie to detail that side of the house, and the surrounding area - all our trees were outlined on it.

Could this be something Madpot could get direct from the developer under FOI request, even? But, it surely should be on the planning portal.

Section62

Bendy_House said:

Could this be something Madpot could get direct from the developer under FOI request, even? But, it surely should be on the planning portal.

Unfortunately you can't FOI a private company, which is probably what the developer is.  And I don't think a topo plan of part of your garden would meet the tests for SAR.

Hence my suggestion about a possible legal claim against them....