Advice on effect of neighbours actions on my potential to sell my home.

EB75

Hi,
I am hoping for some much needed advice on the way forwards to my family, which will not cost us huge amounts in legal bills. 

My next door neighbour has previously built his extension without party wall notice, he has built structures in his garden without gaining planning consent(which he has now taken down), and he has trespassed on our land. After seeking legal advice and paying for surveys to be completed, we have been told it would be too costly to take him to court and the amount on land taken would not be worth it. 
My neighbour also backs onto the canal and it now seems he has also built on the canal towpath, fencing off an area, putting tarpaulin down and putting chip bark over the tarpaulin. I am pretty sure the waterways have picked up on this, and he has now stopped work and the area of land has not been touched for several months, but is running into disrepair- his fence on the canal towpath is falling down and being supported up by wooden pallets on his side of the garden. 
As you can imagine, we have worked damn hard to afford our family home in an area our children can enjoy their childhood, we are now concerned about the impact of our neighbours actions on our home. We can't afford solicitor's fee's to sort out other peoples actions and would rather spend our money on our children- can anyone suggest how we can get advice on this?
Our neighbour is very hostile, so talking things through doesn't appear to be an option, plus to be honest he doesn't seem to care.

Thanks,
Bev

Fionargh

Do you have legal protection as part of your home insurance?

theoretica

Are you looking to sell now, or just thinking about some unknown time in the future?

EB75

I am thinking of the future, our neighbour next door did try to sell his house recently, however the buyer pulled out after the survey, and he has now taken it off the market.

user1977

Sounds like only the party wall point has anything to do with your own rights - any encroachment onto British Waterways' land is up to them to sort out.

Ramouth

This isn’t what you want to hear but by the sounds of it you can’t change your neighbours behaviour so the best thing might be to put your efforts into accepting it.  If it is really upsetting you consider some counselling.  I know it isn’t fair, but when you can’t change the circumstances you find yourself in then the second best thing you can do is change your emotional reaction to them.

Gavin83

I'm a little confused by what you're asking. Are you saying he's taken some of your land and you're asking about options to recover this, or have I missed something?

In terms of the title question while it's not what you want to hear your neighbour is likely to have a significant effect on your house price. It's extremely difficult to put a price on this as it depends on an individual buyer but I'd expect it to be somewhere in the region of 10%-20%. 

Bendy_House

EB75, can't suggest much except to say that there IS an issue here that you are aware about, so accept that and please don't try the advice that's often given of "Don't do anything - you don't want a 'dispute'..."

Instead, don't let this a'ole off with anything. If you haven't already done so, report the encroachment on the waterways bank to whoever is responsible for it.

If/when he moans that you must have shopped him, look him in the eye and say, "You are stealing land that isn't yours - what did you expect?!"

Q - what can he do to you?!

(Oh, perhaps time to buy a small pocket video recorder, around £13 on eBay. They are worth their weight...!)

Your neighbour is 'hostile', but won't actually do anything physical to you (or is extremely unlikely to...). So please, please, please do not be intimidated by him. Don't speak to him if you don't need to, but don't avoid an approach either should it be needed. He has almost certainly got away with folk backing down before, rather than face his intimidating manner, so it'll come as a shock if you are not 'bothered' by his manner, but are prepared to simply state facts. (I know what I'm talking about...)

If he DOES show aggressive or unacceptable behaviour, call the local police. He CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH THIS.

If he discovers that his bullying behaviour isn't working, is no longer intimidating, and will be challenged, he'll be more likely to move. As long as he feels he's 'lording' it, he's more likely to stay.

GDB2222

I read all the posts in this thread, but I still don’t know what Bev wants to achieve? 

The encroachment on the waterways land is their problem, and although unsightly it is up to them to sort it out. Personally, I’d be on to them about how awful it looks.

The building of the extension and other works is all in the past, and Bev is not going to take action. 

So, what advice is being sought? 

DE_612183

I would think that if he has taken land which is shown on the title deeds as Bev's - then when they come to sell they may have an issue - unless you get the deeds amended to show that land is no longer with the title of the house - not sure how you do this but a solicitor will know.
At the end of the day you'll need legal advice and it will cost money ( not a lot and may even be free if included in your house insurance ).

GDB2222

DE_612183 said:

I would think that if he has taken land which is shown on the title deeds as Bev's - then when they come to sell they may have an issue - unless you get the deeds amended to show that land is no longer with the title of the house - not sure how you do this but a solicitor will know.
At the end of the day you'll need legal advice and it will cost money ( not a lot and may even be free if included in your house insurance ).

Bev did not say how much land was taken. If just a few cms, it would  not need any change to the title plan, as those are not that accurate.