Neighbour encroaching my garden

Apodemus

Duckdoodles said:

Bendy_House said:

If that was an alleyway they had no entitlement to, then - yes - they have taken over a fair chunk of it. But, so has green-cross :-)

You ready to upset TWO neighbours?!

But, if you can show that the ex-alleyway IS either a RoW or is still owned by the council, for example, then it is surely the only lever you will need to sort this. You can now tell the neighbour to SHIFT her compost heap AND reinstate the correct fence line, or else you will 'be obliged to take this further', and 'that will likely expose other associated issues which I fear will impact on the other neighbour too'. 'And it will all have been caused by YOUR trespassing, and YOUR refusal to sort out your mistake in a reasonable way.' "Man, I wouldn't like to be in your shoes if this needs to go 'legal' - I suspect your neighbour will be quite upset at what you've done..."

(Ie, not 'coercion' or 'blackmail', but a simple statement of unavoidable fact.)

Make it clear that you are adamant about sorting this boundary for the two reasons mentioned before; (a) it's the right thing to do, end of, and (b) it'll prevent any future boundary disputes whenever either of us comes to sell. Ie, you are super-reasonable. They are twits.

She said something about the council having given the alley way to the homeowners some time ago- apparently, it used to run down the bottom of all of the houses on my row of houses. Green cross- seeing as it's showing on my deed, maybe they had that approved?

It's the bit above the dotted line that doesn't look like it's been formally done, because it's been fenced into her garden but isn't showing on the boundary lines deed above. At the end of that dotted line is the end of my garden so in theory people could walk up to my garden from the back if the alleyway were still there. I guess I could call the council to check.  

Unless these are ex-council houses, there may have been no involvement of the Council.  I know that most people expect all unoccupied urban land to belong to "The Council" but in practice that is rarely the case.  And in many places former back lanes went through a period when they were seen as more of a security risk than an access benefit, so where they were unused and overgrown it was not uncommon for householders to casually fence and adopt them.

Duckdoodles

Okay, I'll avoid the council for now and just write to her with copies of the deeds and google screenshots if I can find clear ones. Thank you! 

Bendy_House

Do you have LegProt on your insurance? If so, that's where to go for legal advice if you feel to need to take this forward. If they reckon it's 'open and shut', they will also hopefully act for you, and a solicitor's letter can be quite persuasive.

But, give her the chance to do the right thing first.

Duckdoodles

I'll try to assume there was some misunderstanding and it was accidentally done for now, but yes, it isn't subtle    

I have only the boundary lines on the deed to go by for certainty. I could probably write to the previous owner to ask whether she remembers anything, but I don't really want to bother her after 6 years!

DanDare999

It's not 100% clear but is the area the compost heat is in at the bottom of your garden and how wide is it? 

If its at the bottom have they taken part of the alleyway that was never part of your property? 
A previous owner of your property has then taken the remainder of the alleyway. Years later it looks like you've had land stolen. 

Duckdoodles

Bendy_House said:

Do you have LegProt on your insurance? If so, that's where to go for legal advice if you feel to need to take this forward. If they reckon it's 'open and shut', they will also hopefully act for you, and a solicitor's letter can be quite persuasive.

But, give her the chance to do the right thing first.

I just rang to check and no, no legal protection except where the tenant claims against me for injury. But they do have a legal helpline they said.

I'm just reading through everything from the sale. The law society property information form asks about informal agreements with neighbours, whether there's anything different about the boundary as shown on deed, etc. and the seller ticked no for everything. 

Duckdoodles

DanDare999 said:

It's not 100% clear but is the area the compost heat is in at the bottom of your garden and how wide is it? 

If its at the bottom have they taken part of the alleyway that was never part of your property? 
A previous owner of your property has then taken the remainder of the alleyway. Years later it looks like you've had land stolen. 

Did you see the picture of the deed? It's a rectangle, there's no alleyway at the bottom of my garden (anymore at least- it's dated 1986). Their garden is also straight at the bottom, there's no angle according to the deed. They have taken over the alley way to the right of their house, and shown in the deed, but that ended before my garden according to the deed.  I think it's about a 1.5m squared the bit that's been fenced off. 

DRP

so have they, in effect, taken the alley for their own and extended the end of what was the alley, into your garden and taken that as well? 

DanDare999

Duckdoodles said:

DanDare999 said:

It's not 100% clear but is the area the compost heat is in at the bottom of your garden and how wide is it? 

If its at the bottom have they taken part of the alleyway that was never part of your property? 
A previous owner of your property has then taken the remainder of the alleyway. Years later it looks like you've had land stolen. 

Did you see the picture of the deed? It's a rectangle, there's no alleyway at the bottom of my garden (anymore at least- it's dated 1986). Their garden is also straight at the bottom, there's no angle according to the deed. They have taken over the alley way to the right of their house, and shown in the deed, but that ended before my garden according to the deed.  I think it's about a 1.5m squared the bit that's been fenced off. 

Prior to 1986 where did that alleyway go? It may have gone along the back of your row of houses. 

There is is a possibility your property is 1.5 metres short than you think.

Duckdoodles

DRP said:

so have they, in effect, taken the alley for their own and extended the end of what was the alley, into your garden and taken that as well? 

Yes, this is exactly what it is as far as I can tell!