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Hi, new here, Advice appreciated…
we bought a holiday home. The land had been demised from a larger plot in 2009, bought and then sold to us by our predecessors.
Prior to demise the land associated had been fenced off all round with substantial fences by the vendor who continued to own the larger plot until 2017. He occasionally maintained his remaining land without entering ours, by dropping a ladder down from a raised area from his. Undoubtedly there is an access issue, for which my wife and I initially considered allowing temporary when the following arose.
From 2009 until the present day our land has been maintained solely for our own use.
In 2019, 2 years after buying, the new owner came to use claiming that two boundaries were incorrectly fenced and our land should be 8x12m rather than the 10x13 as exists, and that the vendor had intended access to his further land by steps in our land - for which there is no evidence.
The Plan on the TP1 is totally illegible, there is a DS3 bank charge release which appears to be the same plan at 1:500.
On neither the TP1 or DS3 are there any measurements, H or T marks, reference to features or access.
We paid for a Solicitor who told us that the DS3 did not matter, that general boundaries rule applied, a court could use natural features, fences are strong evidence…….
Sadly this advice seems to be wrong.
We have ended up in land tribunal for a determined boundary where the judge considered that the DS3 plan was acceptable as substitute for the illegible TP1, general boundaries rule did not apply, and that measurements could be taken, despite pointing out the LR size riders
So we are expecting our DB application to be rejected, but would we be correct that the judge could not state where the legal boundary is?
We also believe that we would qualify for adverse possession;
1] the land has been maintained for our sole and exclusive use from 2009 to present by both our predecessors and ourselves
2] at the time when our neighbour first approached us more than ten years had passed (just) since demise
3] although the new neighbour said that he would allow us to use the land in question “under licence” at around 11years post demise for a short period, he subsequently said that he would “treat the land as his own” . However he has done absolutely nothing - not even placed a gnome(!), other than at one point cutting down fence planks to get access to his further plot
We realise that this is long and complicated. We just want to maintain the land as sold to us and our predecessors
Thanks for any guidance
Adrian
we bought a holiday home. The land had been demised from a larger plot in 2009, bought and then sold to us by our predecessors.
Prior to demise the land associated had been fenced off all round with substantial fences by the vendor who continued to own the larger plot until 2017. He occasionally maintained his remaining land without entering ours, by dropping a ladder down from a raised area from his. Undoubtedly there is an access issue, for which my wife and I initially considered allowing temporary when the following arose.
From 2009 until the present day our land has been maintained solely for our own use.
In 2019, 2 years after buying, the new owner came to use claiming that two boundaries were incorrectly fenced and our land should be 8x12m rather than the 10x13 as exists, and that the vendor had intended access to his further land by steps in our land - for which there is no evidence.
The Plan on the TP1 is totally illegible, there is a DS3 bank charge release which appears to be the same plan at 1:500.
On neither the TP1 or DS3 are there any measurements, H or T marks, reference to features or access.
We paid for a Solicitor who told us that the DS3 did not matter, that general boundaries rule applied, a court could use natural features, fences are strong evidence…….
Sadly this advice seems to be wrong.
We have ended up in land tribunal for a determined boundary where the judge considered that the DS3 plan was acceptable as substitute for the illegible TP1, general boundaries rule did not apply, and that measurements could be taken, despite pointing out the LR size riders
So we are expecting our DB application to be rejected, but would we be correct that the judge could not state where the legal boundary is?
We also believe that we would qualify for adverse possession;
1] the land has been maintained for our sole and exclusive use from 2009 to present by both our predecessors and ourselves
2] at the time when our neighbour first approached us more than ten years had passed (just) since demise
3] although the new neighbour said that he would allow us to use the land in question “under licence” at around 11years post demise for a short period, he subsequently said that he would “treat the land as his own” . However he has done absolutely nothing - not even placed a gnome(!), other than at one point cutting down fence planks to get access to his further plot
We realise that this is long and complicated. We just want to maintain the land as sold to us and our predecessors
Thanks for any guidance
Adrian