Adverse Posession - well not really

[JQ]

I've been asked for some advice by a friend and whilst I am involved in property this is most definitely not my area of expertise, so would appreciate a second opinion.

2 detached houses are adjacent as detailed below:



Mate's parents live on the left. 30 years ago neighbour to the right Tarmac'd the front of their house and did so at a jaunty angle for some reason. There is no physical division between the properties at the front - no hedge, no fences, just grass abutting Tarmac. For the next 30 years mate's parents tended to their front garden which was now slightly bigger and treated as their own, neighbour never touched it. Land Reg and OS Mapping shows the boundary line as dead straight following the line of the fence separating the rear gardens going straight to the road. All the other houses on the street have a dead straight boundary line.

They're now in dispute with the neighbour who's started parking a car on the grass. Their view is they've tended to the garden for the last 30 years and have therefore have a claim over the land. I don't think they could claim adverse possession as that would require the neighbour to be denied access to the land, which they were not - it's all open.

My view is the land belongs to the neighbour, but I'm no expert on boundaries so I'd be interested to know if there is any way my mate's parents could have claim over the land? As with all these things it's very emotional and I'm the bearer of bad news so I'd rather not get it wrong.

and yes I have suggested they speak to a solicitor.

ta

[blueg33]

Adverse possession has to exclude all others so it seems unlikely. More likely is prescriptive rights.

Sorry the answer is only brief, there are more considerations but I am posting from a phone on holiday.

[worsy]

Nothing to add but questions:

Assume they are parking on what is effectively theirs and not the whole grassed area?
Is it the same neighbour after all this time?

[JQ]

worsy said:

Nothing to add but questions:

Assume they are parking on what is effectively theirs and not the whole grassed area?
Is it the same neighbour after all this time?

Yep, just parking on "their" bit of grass.

Kind of - it's the daughter of the owner from 30 years ago.

I'm now off to Google prescriptive rights.

[randlemarcus]

Having done a quick Google myself, it reads like the prescriptive right in this case would be to erm, mow it, given it is grass, and presumably they haven't been parking their car there. Not sure that the right to mow would be worth the arseache that this will bring to the neighbourly relations.

On a completely unrelated point, the season for planting hawthorn is fast approaching.

[Piglet]

The neighbour hasn't been excluded so no adverse possession. I'm not sure I would want to go into battle with a neighbour over this when the boundary is clearly marked on the Land Registry.

I'd suggest they get a hobby and don't go looking for problems.....

[netherfield]

Had your Mate put up a fence to include the disputed piece to their own property then things could be different,not a hope in hell of claiming it.

[clarkey]

I dont understand - they know it's not their land, so why try to claim it? The sensible thing to do is to put a permanent boundary in place that matches land registry. Anything else is madness and will just be very expensive and stressful, with no real benefit.

[anonymous-user]

My old next door neighbour used to cut my front lawn for me sometimes (when he was doing his). Luckily he was a nice old chap, with no designs on claiming land that clearly wasn't his.

[JQ]

Chaps, I don't disagree with any of the comments here and have advised as such, but if they do have a right to the land then I don't want to give them incorrect advice despite my own views on the matter.

One comment I would make is that the land is not just a random strip, it is very much an integral part of their garden and has been for 34 years. Looking at the house you would assume it's theirs. Plus it was the neighbour who created the situation by their landscaping.

My advice has been to put up a fence or hedge down the boundary line and enjoy the fact they don't spend the next 10 years under mounting stress battling their neighbour, then having to sell the house to pay the legal fees.

[Countdown]

JQ said:

My advice has been to put up a fence or hedge down the boundary line and enjoy the fact they don't spend the next 10 years under mounting stress battling their neighbour, then having to sell the house to pay the legal fees.

Excellent advice

[fido]

clarkey said:

I dont understand - they know it's not their land, so why try to claim it? The sensible thing to do is to put a permanent boundary in place that matches land registry. Anything else is madness and will just be very expensive and stressful, with no real benefit.

That. Unless you want to end up on a future episode of 'The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door' .. and all for an odd shaped bit of land. If it was a whole field then maybe it would be worth losing sleep over.

[furtive]

JQ said:

My advice has been to put up a fence or hedge down the boundary line and enjoy the fact they don't spend the next 10 years under mounting stress battling their neighbour, then having to sell the house to pay the legal fees.

Or just don't do anything, and stop worrying about something so trivial.

[Piglet]

It may be that the neighbour is just flexing their muscles to confirm that they have a right to use their own land. Perhaps a polite chat about how they could best deal with this might generate a situation where the neighbour isn't parking on this bit of ground?

I can't see they have any rights to it, the fact that the neighbour didn't tarmac it to begin with doesn't give your friend's parents any rights to claim it. They've had the use of it for years and that's lovely but they don't appear to meet the grounds for adverse possession - not only have they not excluded the neighbour but given that it seems that everyone knows that all of the boundaries are straight then they were potentially using the land with the consent on the neighbour as he must have known that they were on his land but didn't object.

[MitchT]

If it were me I'd just go with what the land registry says and tend the land up to the invisible straight line. I like a quiet life though.