Neighbours boundary dispute

[Drumgilken.]

Good afternoon,

I have not been on here for some time. I have lived here in my semi-detached bungalow
since 2008.

In 2009 my son created for me, a flower bed with railway sleepers, under my front windows, in my garden.
He measured with a plum line as accurately as possible to get in the correct position.

I had an elderly neighbour next door, who I was very good friends with & looked out for
her if she had any problems, Sadly she died December 2017 & the present neighbours
moved in Summer 2018. Whilst I was away in 2018, they changed their guttering,which
was shared with my property & I noticed in the winter of 2018/2019 that
my front guttering was leaking quite badly & found out the join between the
2 properties had been pulled away each other. In 2020 I had to stop them
hammering nails into my rear wooden fence.

Yesterday, I was mowing my front lawn, when the male neighbour confronted me
& stated my garden sleeper was on his property & could I move it. It's been in position
for 12 years. In was quite surprised & I have spoken to my son, who has suggested,
should he approach me again, that he needs to provide written proof from a Chartered surveyor
& through his solicitor only. We are talking of about 25mm or less

Any comments, suggestions or advice please.

Dee

 

[Stivino]

I had a similar thing happen to me.
The long and short of it was; if he bought the property with something in his property, i.e. a boundary out of place, then that is what he has bought. For instance, if you had moved the boundary to make your garden bigger and his smaller, then he's lost it.
That's how it worked for me.

 

[blup]

You say it's 25mm or less, do you really need a surveyor and solicitor to confirm that/check against the title deeds when it may be as simple as measuring to the halfway point. By all means be bloody minded if they are, but litigation will be expensive and benefit the lawyers.

Blup

 

[Drumgilken.]

Thank you for your reply Stivino, It's been like this for 12 years. He is just being bloody minded
or trying to bully me, demanding I move it back. Most people have said the same as you.

Thanks.

Dee

 

[Drumgilken.]

You say it's 25mm or less, do you really need a surveyor and solicitor to confirm that/check against the title deeds when it may be as simple as measuring to the halfway point. By all means be bloody minded if they are, but litigation will be expensive and benefit the lawyers.

Blup

Thank you for your reply. My neighbour is making the demand that
I move it back. As far as I am concerned, he must must prove it & and
measuring to the middle of the wall is not accurate, so I'm not bothered
about his expenses, if he is being so petty about 25mm.

As the previous poster pointed out, this should have been picked up by
his surveyor before he bought the property

Thanks.

Dee

 

[Alec_t]

Time to get the plumb line out again to settle the matter?

 

[Bosswhite]

Let the neighbour prove that your flower bed is over the boundary ,

In the meantime you need to sort the guttering problem with him , it was his builders that caused the problem, if you attempt to put the guttering right he can accuse you of damaging his property

sadly you have got one of THOSE neighbours best to ignore him .

 

[Drumgilken.]

Thank you for your reply, I realised in 2019 that they were not going to be nice
neighbours. She let it slip out by accident, that they had neighbour problems where
they previously lived. I had all my gutters replaced late 2019 & offered to
put a 10 metre length across the property frontage at my expense, which they refused.

He ain't going to bully me. My next project will be to build a 2 metre wall between
the properties.

Many thanks.

Dee

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Whilst I was away in 2019, they changed their guttering,
which was shared with my property & I noticed in the winter of 2019 that my front
guttering was leaking quite badly & found out the join between the 2 properties had been
pulled away each other.

Similar happened here - we had newish half round, shared fall pipe and next door neighbour had cowboys in replacing fitting new soffits, square gutters and etc.. They botched the joint to the shared fall pipes front and rear, leaving us with water spilling out each time it rained. Neighbour refused to get the cowboys back to properly rectify. I had in mind to do ours to match theirs anyway, so I just got on with it.

Best not to involve solicitors if you can possibly avoid it, but don't give in either. They bought the place as seen. Tell them if they feel like it, to take you to court over the sleepers - they will loose and pay costs.

To sort your gutters out - write to them, stating your complaint and you expect them to have it repaired properly. If they do nothing - pay someone to do it, ensure you get a proper receipt, plus close-up before and after photos, plus one with it leaking. Then present them with a copy of the bill making it clear you expect them to pay it. If they fail to pay it, write and warn them that you will start legal proceedings to recover the cost in 14 days, then do it. You can do it on line, it doesn't cost much and solicitors are not normally needed or involved.

Keep notes, copies of all letters exchanged and any conversations about it.

 

[johnny2007]

I had a similar thing happen to me.
The long and short of it was; if he bought the property with something in his property, i.e. a boundary out of place, then that is what he has bought. For instance, if you had moved the boundary to make your garden bigger and his smaller, then he's lost it.
That's how it worked for me.

This is what happens in reality.
My neighbour bought his house with a massive garden.
A couple of years later it was found that the boundary had been moved because the old lady living next door couldn't look after her even more massive garden and let the neighbour have part of it so the 2 gardens became roughly the same size.
The new neighbour took the "offender" to court and lost.
They moved soon after having spent a lot of money in solicitors fees.
Fools!
They looked at the house and bought it.
Then they found out about the garden and wanted to take it back from the neighbour.
FOOLS!
And we're not talking about 25mm here, we're talking 10m x 5m = 50m2

 

[Drumgilken.]

Thank you for your interesting reply.

I do chuckle to think what he could possibly do with 25mm or less.
I will let him do what he he wants. He will lose a lot more financially,
should he try to prove it, than gaining 25mm.

We shall see how clever or stupid he is.

Thank again.

Dee

 

[HERTS P&D]

Keep us informed Dee, you could also post pictures of the 'overhanging sleepers'.

Andy

 

[Drumgilken.]

Thank you Andy,

I shall try & get some photos. He sits by the front window, I don't
want him to see me & think that I'm going to change things.
It's tantamount to bullying.

Thanks again.

Dee

 

[SUNRAY]

Thank you Andy,

I shall try & get some photos. He sits by the front window, I don't
want him to see me & think that I'm going to change things.
It's tantamount to bullying.

Thanks again.

Dee

Sadly if he is 'one of those neighbours' you may need to start thinking about CCTV for when he starts altering your woodwork.

 

[johnny2007]

Or...
Employ for a couple of hours the biggest bodybuilder you find in your area to pose as your bad son...
Make sure he's seen by the neighbour...