Garden Boundary Dispute_Adverse Possession

[Guest]

Our Neighbour has recently served us a 14 day notice period which was sent via a written letter and is threatening to remove our fence down so he can start erecting a new boundary fence which would take up half of our garden. I have reviewed the title plan and deeds for our properties and they do in fact clearly indicate our neighbour owns half the garden, however this was not known to us when we bought the property in 2005, the reason being is that the boundary fence was already in place and we assumed that the entire garden was ours. We have been in possession of the land and have been maintaining it for 15 years, and 4 years ago we also invested into paving and replacing the old fence but still using the same fence boundary and we have never had any objections from our neighbour until recently. From research i believe that we have adverse possession of the land due to these circumstances, but what is the likely hood of this being in our favour over the registered land owner if we were to involve a solicitor.

[des8]

As you are dealing wit registered land see:
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...egistered-land

If you make an application IMO you have a good chance of being successful on the basis:
"if the application is opposed, it will be rejected unless ..............

• the squatter has been in adverse possession of land adjacent to their own under the mistaken but reasonable belief that they are the owner of it, the exact line of the boundary with this adjacent land has not been determined and the estate to which the application relates was registered more than a year prior to the date of the application."

Do be aware that costs around boundary disputes can escalate alarmingly

[Dguara]

As you are dealing wit registered land see:
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...egistered-land

If you make an application IMO you have a good chance of being successful on the basis:
"if the application is opposed, it will be rejected unless ..............

• the squatter has been in adverse possession of land adjacent to their own under the mistaken but reasonable belief that they are the owner of it, the exact line of the boundary with this adjacent land has not been determined and the estate to which the application relates was registered more than a year prior to the date of the application."

Do be aware that costs around boundary disputes can escalate alarmingly

Hi thank you for your reply, yes we where under the mistake but reasonable belief that we where the owner of the land as the boundary fence was already in place when we moved in. Would this alone support our case or would the following extracts need to be considered also "the exact boundary with the adjacent land has not been determined" it was determined on the title plan and deeds but we had missed this information.

Also i am unsure what the following extract mean if you could please elaborate "the estate to which the application relates was registered more than a year prior to the date of the application."

Thank in advance

[des8]

"the exact boundary with the adjacent land has not been determined"

"determined" has a specific meaning here. Does the title register actually record that the boundary has been determined?
I ask as title plans only show you the general boundaries of the property .


If they are determined boundaries you might still have a successful claim to the land under the principle of proprietary estoppel.
You would need to establish that an equity has arisen in your favour by showing in some way the registered owner encouraged or allowed you to think you owned the land in question and so you acted to your detriment (whether or not you paving the area would be sufficient I can't say) with the knowledge of the owner and it would be unconscionable for the owner to deny you the rights which you believe you had.


"the estate to which the application relates was registered more than a year prior to the date of the application."
just means that the land was registered at least a year before you apply for adverse possession


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