My ongoing boundary dispute ordeal/odyssey (advice sought)

pobjoy

Apologies for the following lengthy narrative! My year-long dispute has some unique characteristics and twists and turns.

In September of last year, without warning me in advance, my previously trustworthy/friendly neighbours began turning their front garden into a resin-topped parking area. On the first day their contractors removed a shared concrete path that defined the boundary between our front gardens, and installed a cement-like base, and brick surround. Realising something was amiss but, at the time, not entirely sure of the boundary position (the concrete path - an original feature - isn't explicitly mentioned in the deeds, and a hedge wholly in my garden visually confuses things) I went round the following day and made them aware that there could be a big problem. Unfortunately they ignored my concerns and ploughed on. A week later, the contractors turned up again and laid the resin surface.



In the weeks that followed I researched the boundary position, sought advice, and attempted to explain to my neighbours that they had a) destroyed an important boundary feature, and b) effectively purloined a strip of my property. When they refused to accept this, insisting in emails and letters (they'd stopped talking to me in person by this point) that their project had made no difference, and didn't take up my mediation suggestion, I eventually paid around £1000 for a local solicitor to send them a letter of claim for trespass along with a letter suggesting possible alternative solutions (reinstatement of the path, or purchase of the strip of my land they'd encroached on).

They responded by asking for proof that the boundary ran down the centre of path as I claimed (the boundary position was, on reflection, crystal clear from the adjacent rights-of-way 'strips' defined in the deeds and shown as blue and brown stripes sandwiching the red boundary line in the accompanying Land Registry plans). I duly gave them evidence including old council plans (the houses are semi-detached ex-council properties) showing the red boundary line within the path. I also explained that I'd taken advantage of the free RICS helpline to talk to a boundary surveyor and this surveyor had quickly confirmed my boundary interpretation after examining the deeds and looking at photos of the disputed area. My neighbours refused to give me any evidence to support their mercurial boundary assertions.

With the letter of claim deadline ignored, frustration/expense mounting, and my neighbours accusing me of harrassment for daring to post a hard copy of the above evidence through their letterbox (they didnt acknowledge receipt of the emailed evidence summary so I thought it wise to take this precaution) I stepped back for a few weeks, returning to forceful-but-polite lobbying after Christmas. Early in January I received a brief email from them saying they were "pursuing purchase" which seemed like progress. However, my optimism evaporated when I finally winkled an offer out of them on Jan 31. That offer - £50 for the land and the surrender of my access rights to their half of the path - clearly wasn't acceptable. Hacked off and having consulted local estate agents, I wrote back asking for £6000 and expecting a negotiation phase.

The negotiations failed to materialise, but in March I received something novel - a letter from a solicitor representing my neighbours (previously they'd communicated directly). It included another request for boundary position evidence, and a denial that the parking surface had encroached on my land. Fast-forward another half a dozen weeks/emails, and there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel at long last. After I threatened to commission a totally unneccessary £1600 boundary survey, and add the cost to the price of the piece of land, they offered me £4500 if I would sign a boundary agreement stating that I didn't own the path area. I rejected this suggestion, insisting that the matter has to be settled through an above-board land transfer, and pointing out that trading land via a boundary agreement is unlawful. Eventually they seemed to see reason, and, at the start of May, I was put in touch with their conveyancer. He confirmed that the £4500 deal would take the form of a conventional land purchase, and indicated that the process would begin ASAP. 

Initially, there were encouraging exchanges with the conveyancer, who promised to keep me well-informed during the process, but as the months passed and questions about completion dates and progress went unanswered, I started losing faith that the transaction would actually occur. Three months after conveyancing allegedly started, I notified the solicitors that I was willing to wait another three months for completion but no longer. If the deal wasn't done and dusted by November 15, I would withdraw my offer to sell them the land, and commence a (doubtless long and costly) legal action. My deadline elicited yet more feeble excuses (the plan drawn up in May wasn't fit for purpose... the clients' lender was dragging their feet...).



Obviously it has occurred to me that my neighbours might be deliberately time-wasting in the hope that I lose interest (There's zero chance of this as the destruction of the path has rendered certain clauses in my deeds nonsensical, and the dispute has probably made my house almost unsaleable) but recently while re-examining the council's online planning permission map I noticed another possible reason for the delays. My neighbours' new parking surface doesn't just encroach on my land, it covers a piece of council-owned land between the road and legal boundary of their front garden. The road-end of the old path - and the land either side of it - was/is owned by the local Highways dept, while the remaining two-thirds of the path is divided longitudinally between my property and my neighbours'. I think it's quite possible that my neighbours only realised this quite recently, and are now in something of a quandary. Obviously, while I can sell them some of the land on which the path once stood, I can't sell them all of it as a portion belongs to the local council.

My present intention is to give my neighbours another month to purchase my bit of the path (until November 15) then, if nothing has happened, bite the bullet and commission a boundary survey from a firm with Party Wall Act expertise (I think it's quite possible the removed path would be considered a 'party structure' in law) and maybe contact the council asking if they intend to take action. Right now I have no real idea of the best/cheapest way to use the courts to get the path reinstated. Hopefully the boundary survey firm I use will give me some advice on this, but if anyone reading this has any suggestions, I would be very interested to hear from you.

Thank you for reading this wall of text! 

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update #1 (November 16)

The completion deadline I set back in August passed yesterday, and, disappointingly, I'm still waiting for my neighbours' solicitor to furnish me with an acceptable TP1 and plan (docs I need to sign before the dispute-ending land transaction can go ahead).

There seemed to be real progress recently. On November 5 I noticed a surveyor measuring outside the house and went out and had a chat with them. Encouragingly, although they had an earlier wildly inaccurate plan on their clipboard (see above) there seemed to be agreement between us as to the actual boundary position and shape and extent of the strip of land to be sold.

On Nov 7 I was sent the products of this visit and six months of conveyancing - a new plan (see above) and a filled-out TP1 (complete with at least one typo). While the plan was a vast improvement on the bizarre Oct 29 one (which arrived with a note admitting it was inaccurate: "I attach a copy of the plan which I believe is incorrect as the plan as marked does not run along the boundary.") it lacked measurements, any indication of ‘retained land’, or any reference to the brick edging - the crucial datum on the western edge of the strip to be sold.

I immediately pointed out that the plan was, in my view, unacceptably imprecise, and received official confirmation of this the following day when a Land Registry official described the plan as "too vague" on the LR forum.

(red line = property to be transferred. green line = edge of retained land. blue line = brick edge of new parking surface)

On Nov 8, I provided my neighbours' solicitor with a "crude mock-up" of what I believe would be an appropriate plan in our situation (see above). They have yet to respond to this mail.

What I do next, I haven't yet decided. Allowing my neighbours another week or two to provide an improved plan seems sensible, but obviously, as this affair has now dragged on for over a year, and they've already effectively ignored one very generous deadline, it would be foolish/mad not to change tack or up the ante soon.

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update #2 (added on March 5, 2025)

(A reminder of the situation when I last posted. For over a year I'd been trying to get my neighbours to purchase the strip of my front garden they'd effectively ‘grabbed’ in late 2023. After lots of unhelpful gameplaying, conveyancing for a £4500 transfer had begun in early May, and - due to either deliberate time-wasting or incompetence on the part of my neighbours' solicitor, seemed, in November 2024, nowhere near concluding).  

After my neighbours' solicitor supplied the patently unfit-for-purpose ‘Nov 7 plan’ (see above), they went silent on me. During the remainder of 2024, I sent six polite but forceful emails none of which elicited responses. In one of these, dispatched on Nov 26, aware that I would need to demonstrate impeccable reasonableness if I ever went to court, I extended my deadline to Dec 31...

"While I feel six months to be a very generous timeframe in which to complete conveyancing for the land purchase your clients agreed to in early May of this year, as the only things currently preventing said land purchase going ahead, appear to be easily rectifiable TP1 and plan flaws, I'm willing to wait until December 31, 2024 for you to rectify these flaws.

This deadline extension will mean you'll have had a total of eight months in which to prepare serviceable transfer documents, and your clients will have had almost a year to turn “we are actively pursuing purchasing” (extract from an email sent by your clients on Jan 13, 2024) into meaningful action."

When the Dec 31 deadline came and went without further developments, I realised the time had come to try something new. On January 15 I sent my neighbours' solicitor a carefully crafted formal letter of complaint. The six-part complaint targeted both the dodgy behaviour of the head of the firm's dispute resolution department (the solicitor I'd dealt with initially) and the incompetence/foot-dragging of the conveyancer I'd been dealing with since May: 

(A) Mr ******** failed to execute conveyancing for a land sale related to the boundary dispute in a timely or competent fashion.

(B) Mr ******** failed to maintain communications and respond to reasonable requests for information during the conveyancing process.

(C) During my exchanges with Mr ****, he referenced two communications which he claims to have sent me, but that I never received. When I requested that these communications be resent, Mr **** ignored my requests.

(D) Mr **** failed to furnish me with basic information about his clients' position.   

(E) On April 4 Mr **** proposed a boundary agreement that he must have known, or at least strongly suspected, to be unlawful.

(F) In early May, Mr **** commenced conveyancing before a deal had been agreed or outlined, then abruptly broke off all communications with me, ignoring a request for information on the alleged deal.

Each of these complaints was explained in detail, and evidenced using an indexed ‘message log’ doc incorporating all communications between myself and the firm (said doc took many hours to prepare!). In the covering letter I made it clear that I would be contacting the Legal Ombudsman and Solicitors Regulation Authority if my complaint wasn't dealt with satisfactorily.

Judging by what happened in the days following the complaint submission, escalating things in this manner was a worthwhile move. On January 17, the conveyancer, who had been incommunicado for over two months, sent me a revised plan:

With its hand-written annotations, the new plan looked decidedly amateurish, but the addition of measurements that would allow future owners of the two properties to locate the new front garden boundary with confidence, was a major breakthrough.

Or it would have been if the measurements had been accurate! Incredibly, when I checked the hand-written figures I discovered that most of them were out by over 10%.



As I pointed out in my next email to the conveyancer, if I signed the plan and it was used in the transaction, post-transfer I would still own a sizeable strip of nextdoor's parking area...

Keen to prevent further delays, I included a corrected/improved version of the plan with my response:



On Jan 31, I was informed my neighbours had approved my plan. On Feb 4, the partner with responsibility for handlings complaints, who by then seemed to be handling/overseeing the transfer directly, told me he would be "in further contact shortly".

In fact, February passed without any "further contact" from my neighbours' solicitor. Enquiries/nudges sent on Feb 18 and 25 went unanswered. Almost ten months into conveyancing and faced by another spell of frustrating ‘sitzkrieg’, I decided to grab an opportunity for clarification and chivvying that appeared unexpectedly on the afternoon of March 3. 

Half-expecting to be ignored (my neighbours hadn't spoken to me directly since late 2023, and I hadn't attempted to engage them in face-to-face conversation since that time) while heading out for a walk, I politely asked *****, who was washing her car in the front garden, whether we could have a chat about the path. As my request wasn't met with total silence or naked hostility, I persevered, asking them* (within a minute or two ***** had joined his wife outside) whether they still wanted to settle the dispute through a land purchase (they confirmed they did) and urging them to apply pressure to their solicitor to help bring things to a conclusion. Their response to the latter imprecation - "Just let things take their course" - wasn't massively helpful or encouraging, but as they seemed to be getting increasingly angry/distressed by our very public discussion, I decided there was little point in prolonging the exchange.

Whether this brief chat helped get things moving I can't say for sure, but the next day, after a month of silence, the solicitor finally sent me the long-awaited TP1 and plan. And, on March 24, a year-and-a-blinking-half after grabbing a strip of my front garden, my neighbours finally did the decent thing and purchased it. 

The past eighteen months haven't done my blood pressure much good, and have left me pretty cynical about the competence and honesty of solicitors. I'm still debating whether to report my neighbours' solicitor to the SRA for lying to me, and proposing a boundary agreement that, had it gone through, would certainly have been unlawful. On the plus side, I'm now much better informed about boundary disputes, and, touch wood, far less likely to find myself involved in another. A big thank you to everyone who offered me advice on this forum. If I do decide to submit complaints to the SRA and Legal Ombudsman, I'll let you know how I get on.

Browntoa

Personally 

I'd let it go 

These disputes can turn into money eating pits

It's not right but there's a point where you have to look past it

ThisIsWeird

You haven't mentioned that you have Legal Protection included in your house insurance, so I presume you haven't? Tsk-tsk - what a shame - this issue would have been fun to resolve if you had.

Your neighbours are utter twerps; arrogant, entitled, 'oles. Always will be - so do not get sucked in by any seeming change of 'attitude' such as suddenly becoming contrite; they won't be. It'll be an act to try and gain what they want. Do not trust them an iota.

Yes, the land transfer - assuming this will still go ahead - will need to be done correctly, and changes made to both sets of deeds - for which they also cover the cost (watch out for anything they 'forget' to include like this). This shouldn't cost you a penny, but should obviously gain you the full actual sum you have agreed - so clarify, no deductions. On that note, any expenditure you have been forced to make so far, they should reimburse you for. So, keep tallying it up. In any comm, you may wish to remind them what that figure currently is... 

This is all of THEIR making - remind yourself of that - and them too, if need be.

Meanwhile, that strip of land you've drawn in red on the 'after' photo, is fully yours, so I hope you still walk down 'their' new paved area? You should. Also, you have the right to go over what was/is their bit, as that is outlined in your deeds. So I hope you do that too? And, since they have blurred that boundary - ie, removed all trace of where their land begins - they cannot blame you if you wander over too far - that could be fun.

Ok, don't be provocative, but - really - do continue to use that 'old' pathway; do not provide any sense whatsoever that they have taken ownership of it in any way.

Do not be intimidated by them either - they are now on the back foot, and are getting exactly what they deserve. Remind yourself - and them if you talk to them - "This is all of their doing..."

I don't quite follow what's on the ground compared to the deeds maps; the latter appears to show this path (and boundary) as heading at a steep angle towards the neighbour's side driveway, whereas the 'before' photo seems to show that path ending further towards your side? But this could be photo angle, and also the fact that their side driveway isn't tight to their house.

There are two things I would personally add to what's going on; one is a proper land survey to determine, as accurately as possible, where the true boundary lies. This is at the neighbour's cost. And the other - I suggest you consider this very carefully, even tho' it'll cheese them off - is that you should draw a straight line, perpendicular to your house, coming out from where your two properties join - very easy to determine - and that they should not have ownership of anything beyond that line. Their new drive is currently going across part of the front of your property - that is completely outrageous and unacceptable. If you allow this - and you shouldn't - when you come to sell, potential buyers will wonder, 'what the hell?!' It will be off-putting to many.

So, I would look to do this:

With this, you should suffer no significant loss from the change - it's kind of wasted land - and you should gain a few deserved £k. If/when they moan, you can tell them, "Fortunately, since you and your solicitor procrastinated and prevaricated*, I've had time to obtain proper advice, and this makes it clear you should not own any land directly in front of my house." And, the catch-all, "Why are you complaining - this is all of your making?" Obviously, temper such comments to what you would say - and you appear to be a calm, measured fellow :-)

If you haven't done so, also write down a brief chronological summary of what has taken place, with all the significant comms, dated, and with any evidence you have to back it up. Eg, definitely the fact that you informed them of a probable issue the day after you noticed them starting, and well before they undertook the bulk of the work ("I went round the following day and made them aware that there could be a big problem. Unfortunately they ignored my concerns and ploughed on. A week later, the contractors turned up again and laid the resin surface.")

* 'my neighbours accusing me of harassment for daring to post a hard copy of the above evidence through their letterbox' Pernicious 'oles.

* 'a letter from a solicitor representing my neighbour and a denial that the parking surface had encroached on my land'. Lying whatsits.

ThisIsWeird

Browntoa said:

Personally
I'd let it go
These disputes can turn into money eating pits
It's not right but there's a point where you have to look past it

If you are going to consider 'letting it go', then at least understand that your rights of way over that strip remain the same, so do continue to use it as if it were the old path. If you aren't currently doing this, then really you should on occasion, because these folk need to realise the full ongoing consequences of what they've done. I'd love to see them try and stop you from going down that side of their resin drive!

And, without any markings, where the RoW meets their land is now undefined on the ground, so you cannot be held responsible should you go 'over' it.

I would not let this go. But then I do have LegPro who would love such an open-and-shut case. 

RHemmings

I'm not suggesting this as a serious action to take, as it would be extremely antagonistic. But, legally, if that part of the tarmac is on the OP's land, can they then modify it? E.g. cut back that part of the tarmac and put the path back again? Or plant more bushes? 

Section62

pobjoy said:

.

I think you probably know already, but what the neighbours are saying there in the first two points is nonsense.  The 'visible demarcation line' was the middle of the path (it appears) - if anyone wanted to know where the boundary was all they had to do was measure the width of the path and the boundary was halfway across.

The third point appears to confirm the belief that the land on the left side of the centreline belongs to you.

One way forward - the pragmatic one - might be to get the boundary line identified using stainless steel 'demarcation studs' which can be installed by drilling into the surface and bonding them with resin.  That will only work if they re-adopt their previous position that the "...actual boundary..."  "...still exists...".

If you are confident that the boundary position is where you think it is, then you might want to consider getting a contractor to quote for installing (say) 5 studs - then write to the neighbour (/or preferably their solicitor) informing them that since they accepted the historic position of the boundary down the centre of the path you expect they will have no objection to you engaging the contractor (at your own cost) to install demarcation studs along the boundary line, and if they wish to agree/be present in establishing the line for the contractor to work to then they should let you know.

How confident are you that the highway land is as shown on the plan?  Does it match your and the neighbour's deed plans?  TBH I doubt the council will be very interested in doing any enforcement, provided the neighbour hasn't done anything other than changing the surface.  It would be different if they were putting up a fence or wall on highway land.  (if you don't own the land up to the kerb at the back of the layby then on personal experience I'd expect the housing department to possibly be the owner of that strip).  As the neighbour has a dropped kerb I don't think there's much that highways will want to do.

One thing you probably should do is to record the position of the full-height kerb between the two sections of dropped kerb, as that can be used as a reference for where the path met the kerbline.  Use a long fibre tape* to measure from both corners of the layby to where that kerb starts and finishes.  Likewise measure from your own dropped kerb to that kerb.  Take pictures of the tape measure in-situ, one showing the whole length of the tape plus one close enough to see the numbers on the tape.

*Like this -

https://www.toolstation.com/minotaur-surveyors-tape/p84396

It is unlikely the neighbour will have that kerb moved now their driveway is laid, but as your only easy reference point you shouldn't risk the neighbour or the council coming along and altering the kerbline, and destroying your only evidence in the process.

ThisIsWeird

Section62 said:

One way forward - the pragmatic one - might be to get the boundary line identified using stainless steel 'demarcation studs' which can be installed by drilling into the surface and bonding them with resin.  That will only work if they re-adopt their previous position that the "...actual boundary..."  "...still exists...".

If you are confident that the boundary position is where you think it is, then you might want to consider getting a contractor to quote for installing (say) 5 studs - then write to the neighbour (/or preferably their solicitor) informing them that since they accepted the historic position of the boundary down the centre of the path you expect they will have no objection to you engaging the contractor (at your own cost) to install demarcation studs along the boundary line, and if they wish to agree/be present in establishing the line for the contractor to work to then they should let you know.

Nice.

Any mileage in suggesting that the OP suggest that the neighbours also install their own parallel demarcation studs - perhaps in a nice blue colour - to indicate the boundary of their land that the OP is entitled to access?

MeteredOut

Could the neighbour actually stop the OP putting some sort of demarcation line just inside their side of the boundary. Or, could that be classes a criminal damage, even the neighbour's drive has been built on the OP's land?

I'd be tempted to (but probably wouldn't) put a chalk mark down for now, just to make a point

Section62

MeteredOut said:

Could the neighbour actually stop the OP putting some sort of demarcation line just inside their side of the boundary. Or, could that be classes a criminal damage, even the neighbour's drive has been built on the OP's land?

I don't think it would be, if the land is definitely the OP's.

Conversely, if it was, then the neighbour digging up the OP's half of a perfectly adequate concrete path should be treated likewise - and IMV digging up and disposing of the concrete is a far more permanent form of damage than drilling a 12mm dia hole and bonding a stainless steel stud into it.

Section62

ThisIsWeird said:

Section62 said:

Nice.

Any mileage in suggesting that the OP suggest that the neighbours also install their own parallel demarcation studs - perhaps in a nice blue colour - to indicate the boundary of their land that the OP is entitled to access?

Probably not.... I'd wait for the neighbour to start complaining if the OP strays over the centreline and then suggest they are at liberty to install their own demarcation of the limit of the RoW (subject to it accurately reflecting the width of the deeds/the historic RoW)

Depending on attitude I might go further and suggest they consider fitting retro-reflecting studs which would enable me to better see the RoW boundary when coming home late at night. 

FlorayG

You could put up a fence just a couple of inches inside your boundary? Then you have a nice resin path on your land, thank you very much neighbour