Our neighbours boundary fence is on our property?

Question

instead of fencing along the boundary, he has built a high wall across onto our property to an old air-raid shelter.at the other end of the shelter he has gone from the corner of the shelter at an angle back to the boundary and along where it should be,we should have at least a foot gap between the boundary and the shelter.he has lent building materials on the shelter, which has made it very damp on the inside, rendering it unusable.can anyone tell me how we can get him to take down the wall and put the boundary where it should be, without resorting to solicitors letters.

Answer 1

Your local coucil has departments called Building Control, Planning and Land Registry, sometimes they are one and the same department. They between them, should have plans etc of who owns what and where. Armed with this they should be able to point you in the right direction, or even write to your neighbour explaining that their wall is illegal, taking up the "battle" for you.

Answer 2

Talk to your neighbour.

Failing that,you should be able to get a "free" half hour with a solicitor.

I personally would talk to the neighbour,give him a chance,then start taking down any part of the fence that was on my property.

Answer 3

The first thing to do is to obtain the plan which is attached to the title deeds. If you have a mortgage the Bldg. Soc. will send you a copy on request if you tell them the reason. Take the plan along to your neighbour and have a chat. It should have been sorted when the wall was being erected of course, but you haven't mentioned any timescales.

If your neighbour won't accede to your request to put it right, write asking politely for it to be rectified within a reasonable time, say 6 weeks. (KEEP A COPY OF ALL CORRESPONDENCE). If no joy write again explaining that you will have no choice other than to take legal advice in the matter. Add that if you have to incur legal costs you will seek to recover these charges in addition to any award the court may make in your favour.

He may cave in at this stage. If not, you will have to consult a solicitor.

Answer 4

I bought a property in Victoria, australia about 20 years ago without getting it surveyed first. Some years later I subdivided it into 3 lots and it turned out the boundary fence was 2 metres into my neighbours property. He wanted his land back, the fence had been there for 20 years so I could have claimed Adverse Possession. I did not wish to as he was a nice bloke and the strip of dirt was not worth much anyway. Final result was he wanted his land back so he paid to move the fence.As your neighbour has just built this fence you should be able to ask him first to shift it please and if that does not work unfortunately its going to cost you money for a solicitor.

Answer 5

Sounds to me like you should have acted a bit sooner. Now the wall is built, it will be much harder to convince your neighbour that it is on your land without falling out.

In any event, it is either on your land or not, and that could be easily shown by means of a surveyor's report against the property deeds.

As for the damage to the shelter, again you need a surveyor's report showing it is on your land, he had no business piling stuff against it, and that his actions damaged the shelter. You can then get compensation for the loss of the facility.

Answer 6

Try and talk to him about it but as he has gone and put th barrier or fence on your land any way he probably wont listen, in which case go and see your solicitor strait away before the fence has been there too long and then you will have trouble getting it removed.