Should we go for Alternative Dispute Resolution?

[SamDand]

We have a very unpleasant neighbour (married couple, she is screaming/shouting woman, he runs away). They have said we are not to set foot on their property or they will take us to court for trespass. They have laid claim to parts of our property. We moved in a year and a half ago and we found out from another neighbour that they bullied the previous elderly owner. We assume they told her what they owned and she was not in a physical, mental or financial position to do anything..

Our property needs total renovation inside and out but everything is within our own boundary. On having electrics upgraded we found a sewage pipe from their private water treatment system across a private part of our garden for which it turns out they only had a verbal agreement from the previous owner (she died during the sale) of which we were unaware of. As these neighbours are so unpleasant (many rants and threats and legal letters) we want to remove or have this removed as we do not want these horrible people to have any reason to access our property. They have sent many legal letters to which we have replied as litigants in person. They have other moans but again all things we have done within our own property. They have made many false allegations against us and when we have asked for details and evidence we never hear about that complaint again and then the solicitor forwards another. We are at 7 so far! What we don’t understand is why the solicitor is passing these silly false allegations on time and time again.

We had agreed to ADR just to end this but find that is going to cost Us about £3000. We have nothing to gain from this as far as we can see. We are hardly ever going to be friends with these people. Also the solicitor has informed us that he has prepared court papers. Why would he do this if we are supposed to be going to mediation. This tells us that they are not expecting / intending this to work or if they don’t get 100% what they want. They have not actually told us what they are preparing court papers for either.

We are happy to go to ADR but can we ask them to pay our part as well as there own as we have nothing to gain. £3000 is a lot of money. The other option is to get a county court injunction to remove the pipe but how easy is this. We do not want to pay thousands on legal bills for something that is on our own property.

Any help gratefully received.

[sandfordboy]

The 3K price is pathetic & be in no doubt of that. Double it & add some at least (from my experience) &, if you have neighbours who want a resolution? Do not expect any reasonable outcome. I suggest you find a decent & honourable Solicitor who will present you. I think your case has complications that may cost you dearly. A CC application for injunction may have multiple complications. Be very careful.

[des8]

I would write and ask the solicitor that if he has prepared court papers has he forgotten about pre-action protocol?

That phrase just seems like the solicitor is trying to bully a lay person and is likely to have his actions reported to the SRA.

When looking for your own solicitor, do enquire about his knowledge of land law.

Do you have Legal Expenses Insurance with your household insurance .... it could help with solicitors costs

[SamDand]

The 3K price is pathetic & be in no doubt of that. Double it & add some at least (from my experience) &, if you have neighbours who want a resolution? Do not expect any reasonable outcome. I suggest you find a decent & honourable Solicitor who will present you. I think your case has complications that may cost you dearly. A CC application for injunction may have multiple complications. Be very careful.

Do you mean ADR will cost more than 3k? Or if we went to court it would cost more than that (we know this)? At the very beginning we had legal advice (from a specialist easement / land law solicitor who was very good) and there belief was after looking at all documentation, title deeds & plans that it was all very petty and no sensible solicitor would take it on.

Do you think ADR is worthwhile? We still have work to do and we know they are going to complain (well within our boundary) so it will not end here.

[SamDand]

I would write and ask the solicitor that if he has prepared court papers has he forgotten about pre-action protocol?

That phrase just seems like the solicitor is trying to bully a lay person and is likely to have his actions reported to the SRA.

When looking for your own solicitor, do enquire about his knowledge of land law.

Do you have Legal Expenses Insurance with your household insurance .... it could help with solicitors costs

Thank for the pre-action heads up. We are submitting a report to the SRA this evening with taking advantage of a lay person being one of the complaints. We actually think the solicitor is lying about the barrister preparing court papers to scare us. We have a good solicitor if need be but as it is all stuff on our own property did not really to spend thousands on something like this (would rather spend it on the house!). We do not have legal expanses insurance on our house insurance.

[sandfordboy]

You mention the Sewage pipework that seems to be the issue here? When you were consulting the Solicitor, did they spell out how they would deal with the sewage pipework? I strongly doubt that any ADR arrangements would be sorted for @ 3K. What is your preferred outcome over this issue? Is the neighbours preferred outcome to let the Sewage pipework remain where it is? Are there other matters that depend upon the movement of the pipework?

[SamDand]

You mention the Sewage pipework that seems to be the issue here? When you were consulting the Solicitor, did they spell out how they would deal with the sewage pipework? I strongly doubt that any ADR arrangements would be sorted for @ 3K. What is your preferred outcome over this issue? Is the neighbours preferred outcome to let the Sewage pipework remain where it is? Are there other matters that depend upon the movement of the pipework?

They would want pipe to stay, we want it removed. We have gone through scenarios of other options. Would we want a one off payment & let them keep it and have an easement / give up access rights to our lane (they don’t need it, they have their own lane on the other side of their property)/ pay us a small amount of money with a verbal agreement with us but on the understanding that if/when we sell the agreement ends. However, it comes back to not wanting them having any reason to come on to our property for any reason as they are so horrible and why are we looking at other options that may be preferable to them. If the tables were reversed they would not be thinking of us at all.

We have been nice and polite and grown up about it all, they have lied, exaggerated, been aggressive, shouting, abusive and threatening. Think maybe we need to go on the offensive.

what do you mean by “Are there other matters that depend upon the movement of the pipework?”?

Solicitor said we can do what we like as on our property but we got caught up in other parts of their threats.

We just need to know if we can take it out, at the beginning their solicitor said they would get an emergency injunction to stop us but we would give them notice of at least a month and we did tell them a year ago to look up into alternatives. Hardly going to be a shock.