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Boundary dispute
The house at the rear of mine is being sold. The buyer has contacted me to say that the boundary between our gardens is wrong and that she will be removing the current fence and replacing it with a 6ft fence on what she says is the correct boundary. She has not specified what this is but she's clearly after part of my garden. She says the current fence was put up as the hedge at the bottom of my garden had encroached on her garden. Except there never was a hedge. We did have a line of trees at the bottom of our garden which I had taken down a few years ago. At the time, I did discuss this with the then owner of her house who told me their fence was in the correct place. She is threatening me and says she will take out an insurance policy to pay her legal bills. Can she do this when the dispute has already started?
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Yes, its called After The Event (ATE) legal expenses… technically its their solicitor that takes out the policy and the solicitor must attest to the fact they have a greater than 50% chance of winning the case and a few other things. As its the solicitor buying it the insurer prices based on how good the solicitor has been in the past at predicting their ability to win a case.
It can be self insuring, ie no premiums due if they lose, but not all are and whilst the solicitor buys it its the claimant that pays the premiums if they become due as part of the solicitors disbursements.
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What is the current owner saying?
Is it possible the 'insurance' she's talking about is an indemnity policy?
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Surely a boundary dispute would make the house harder to sell for a small section of garden. You should point that out to her.
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If it is then she's going to be disappointed if she claims on it, and the OP reveals they've been discussing it for ages. Generally such insurance is to cover the costs of potential disputes which you haven't provoked yourself (such as by starting the argument with the neighbours).
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You appear to have a very stupid neighbour!
Why would anyone try to claim the boundary is in the wrong place when they are selling the house? She will also have to declare the dispute to the would be buyer.
If you are querying your Council Tax band would you please state whether you are in England, Scotland or Wales1 -
This is what I was wondering - is it a case of an excited buyer being given a copy of the title plan to check by their solicitor and 'discovering' they are buying a bigger garden than they thought. Then checking with their solicitor and being advised to get an indemnity policy to cover any future boundary dispute.
To me that seems more likely than someone seriously thinking they can buy a property and sensibly resort to m'learned friends to secure/defend a unilateral grab of part of the neighbour's garden.
…unless the current owner has been feeding the buyer information which has given them the idea they could win.
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It seems to be the buyer not the seller who is doing this.
Maybe there's a cunning plan by the buyer to cause a boundary dispute and then ask the vendor for a discount due to the dispute. 😉
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Hi Tuesday.
Where do you think/believe the true boundary lies, and why?
Does that fence follow that of any side neighbour's? Do you have a deeds map you could show us to explain further?
First thing I'd do, tho', is to state to her in a recordable manner that she is not to touch your fence under any circumstances, other than her providing unimpeachable evidence of ownership and curtilage, as it would otherwise be considered 'trespass with criminal property damage', for which you'll call the police. You add that she needs to provide the evidence for her claim that the fence is currently in the wrong place, before she does anything else - she needs to pay for an independent surveyor. You can simply verbally state the above, provided you are recording it - and don't hide the fact that you are. Or, email/WhatsApp/letter it with proof it's been handed over.
Be 'reasonable', tho', and not just legally-threatening. If you have good reason to believe the fence is yours and in the correct place demarcating your boundaries, or that it sits comfortably within your boundary, then state that too along with the reasons why.
I'd also set up a CCTV camera to cover that fence, but don't let its view encroach over her land - mount it, say, at half fence height? Make it obvious the camera is there - point it out if needed. £25 from eBay.
Do you have Legal Protection included in your house policy? If so, call them up for advice. You may well find they won't cover boundary disputes, tho', as they can be that poisonous and hard to resolve, but they should be able to advise you on what to do.
Since many 'normal' policies won't cover such disputes, I think she'll struggle to find one that would do so retrospectively! Unless she is very confident of her position...
The advice given before is good - if she wishes to sell her house, then she better be certain this dispute is going to be worth it - virtually certain she is correct, and that it involves more than a few inches or post-thickness. If she truly belives, or has reasonable cause to believe, that she is losing out on a slice of her garden, then I have to say that she is doing the right thing in trying to sort the correct boundary before sale, but she doesn't appear to be using the right approach…
If you were to sell your house knowing or believing a boundary was significantly incorrect, then you would be doing your vendor a real disservice, as well as most likely fibbing in your TA6. Far better to resolve pre-sale, even if that's just an agreement with the neighbour.
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Have to confess I didn't notice that. In which case I would be contacting the vendor and trying to get the boundary confirmed before the sale goes through
If you are querying your Council Tax band would you please state whether you are in England, Scotland or Wales1 -
The vendor is unlikely to do anything which might hinder the sale.
OP, is the current vendor the same, or a different person, from the one who said the position of the boundary was correct 'a few years ago' ?
Never believe anything until it's officially denied.
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