You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
A bit of info from the stw massif. My partner and I own a few fields she likes horses so needs some fields.
Anyway a couple of years ago one field we hadn't used for a while has had a section adopted as a extension to a guys garden he had the cheek to tell me to get off his land when I was walking the boundary. Solicitor letters were exchanged and he still hasn't re instated the original boundary.
Today we had a new letter saying he is investigating with the land agency who owns it.
Am I within my rights to cut his fence down and put Mrs ffatis horses in there to graze?
Also he has built a conservatory right on/over what is the original boundary
Put them in his kitchen
You must have a massive estate if you've not noticed someone building a conservatory on your land!! 🤣🤣
In the real world check out your house insurance to see if you have legal expenses cover and go all bloody legal on him. Can't see any other way to resolve this.
Going all aggressive never works out well.
Well that's the hope that they go into his house. Will put up a electric fence so they are penned in
You need to look at your deeds. Any land sale in the last thirty(?) years or more has to have been recorded with the land registry, the boundaries will be marked on there along with the size down to several decimal places. If you don't have your deeds you can view the LR documents for a small fee (£3 the last time we did it I think).
For the guy to legally move the boundary there has to be documentation agreed and signed by both parties to that effect. Which land does the land agency own? His garden or your fields? You say "My partner and I own a few fields" is that actually own or rent?
Technically the fence is his even though it's on "your" land so I wouldn't damage it. Get back to your solicitor.
If it's yours and you don't need the space, why not sell it to him? You've got him over a barrel if he's built on it.
It's our land all bought about 10 years ago.
I'm going to phone the planning authority tomorrow to find out about his conservatory.
Solicitor is already on the case has been asked to re instate the original fence line. Might get my surveyor pal out to re measure everything nicely
In this scenario are you Israel or Palestine?
Do you have a source of tall cheap ugly fencing?
Or a friend with a large vehicle that needs storing?
Let dog walkers use it and just be selective about where the poo bin goes.
I had something similar when I bought a place. Essentially I own everything except my neighbours houses and back gardens. I own most of their parking etc., front gardens and other bits and bobs.
Anyway in order that we got off on the right foot (!) I met with them to go over the boundaries and the like, as I knew of contentions on the site. I was met with a barrage of abuse from one who provided 'evidence' in the form of architects drawings for his extension on my land etc. showing it was inside his boundaries. I pointed out that an architect has no legal basis to prove anything, aside from the plans being total BS (I suspect the neighbour provided the boundary locations.
Anyway long story short it rumbled on until I provided him an overlay of the site boundaries onto a google maps image, at which point it was plainly evident I was correct (not that it wasn't before but it was an argument I would never be able to 'win'), and even if you wanted to argue the toss on how wide the red line is or whether its a foot this way or that, and no longer worth him continuing the farce that his extension was on his land, or he wasn't parking on mine too.
Now as it happens, I was always happy to leave him to use the land and he knew that from the start, I just wanted it to be on record that we had the discussion and he knew it was mine, you never know who the next owner would be, so it all worked out fine in the end despite his best efforts to destroy our relationship before it ever got going, but the key was to provide the satellite version of the site. After that his argument fell away and he was forced to play nice. I'd stayed calm throughout and not made it personal which meant we remained on good terms until he died last year.
Maybe the same would work for you.
I would suspect you could stay on the right side of the law if you can dismantle and return his fence to him. Just knocking it down probably doesn't work well for you.
So this has actually been rumbling for a few years, have you actually got any certified evidence that the disputed land is yours?
In this scenario are you Israel or Palestine?
In that case shouldn't it be allotments, not fields?
We had similar at work. A letter landed stating that a small grazing field was being taken over by a bloke who had adopted it by putting a couple of horses on it. Apparently after a certain time the assumption is that ownership moves if no objection has been made by the original owner. Can't exactly remember the time scale, it's definitely measured in years though. Took some concerted effort by our company lawyers to straighten it out, and apparently it is legal.
We had similar at work. A letter landed stating that a small grazing field was being taken over by a bloke who had adopted it by putting a couple of horses on it. Apparently after a certain time the assumption is that ownership moves if no objection has been made by the original owner. Can’t exactly remember the time scale, it’s definitely measured in years though. Took some concerted effort by our company lawyers to straighten it out, and apparently it is legal.
The occupier does need to apply for ownership, at which point the land owner should be contacted and given the opportunity to evict. The ownership is not implicit by occupation, rather available by application.
I thought this was quite interesting (though wouldnt take this chap as the ultimate authority, i suppose)
You can look at the land registry boundaries for free if youve got the software to handle it.
https://use-land-property-data.service.gov.uk/#access
The occupier does need to apply for ownership, at which point the land owner should be contacted and given the opportunity to evict. The ownership is not implicit by occupation, rather available by application.
Ah, OK. Same in Wales? Anyhoo, the time is apparently 11 years according to the bloke who got the letter, so if land has only been owned for 10 there's some slat hoofing to be started.
we remained on good terms until he died last year.
played the long game I see 😏
The fence is their property and taking it down (or even painting it) would be criminal damage.
You can however put your OWN fence up... on your boundary and the same applies.
You would have to break the fence at their fence though (so as not to damage their fence) and carry on the other side. You can apply for a court order to access in order to erect YOUR fence in the meantime.
I found a useful legal site via google search the other day...
http://www.boundary-problems.co.uk/boundary-problems/fences.html