Land issue

daithieoghan

A property owner at the back of a another property built a boundary wall a few metres inside his property because building a wall in those few metres was very expensive.
The owner of the other property landscaped the garden including the few metres up to the wall.
No objection was raised for 3 years, then one objection and 6 years has passed since then with no further action.
He now wants to knock the wall and reclaim the few metres destroying expensive landscaping and shrubbery. He is refusing to put a new wall or boundary in its stead.
I'm presuming that even though the guy built the wall he is still entitled to knock and claim his few metres back. I think the only weight the garden carries is that it was a costly improvement on the existing land.
Can Anybody make sense of this or cast a more knowledgeable eye over it?
Thanks

Procrastastudy

daithieoghan wrote: »

A property owner at the back of a another property built a boundary wall a few metres inside his property because building a wall in those few metres was very expensive.
The owner of the other property landscaped the garden including the few metres up to the wall.
No objection was raised for 3 years, then one objection and 6 years has passed since then with no further action.
He now wants to knock the wall and reclaim the few metres destroying expensive landscaping and shrubbery. He is refusing to put a new wall or boundary in its stead.
I'm presuming that even though the guy built the wall he is still entitled to knock and claim his few metres back. I think the only weight the garden carries is that it was a costly improvement on the existing land.
Can Anybody make sense of this or cast a more knowledgeable eye over it?
Thanks

Can't get legal advice here. Even if you could Land Law is a bloody nightmare and what seems pretty straight forward ends up becoming complicated very quickly. Speak to a solicitor if you have a problem, and no one else can help, and if you can find them, there's FLAC.

wazzoraybelle

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Can't get legal advice here. Even if you could Land Law is a bloody nightmare and what seems pretty straight forward ends up becoming complicated very quickly. Speak to a solicitor if you have a problem, and no one else can help, and if you can find them, there's FLAC.

This used to be an interesting forum, but lately posters seem to want to be the first to quote the charter re legal advice.

Surely people can be a bit more helpful than this, instead of telling people with problems to seek out a solicitor.

I have had land issues myself and I found people here quite helpful in the past in informing me about relevant acts and laws that may or may not pertain to my problem.

While it has always been my intention to consult a solicitor regarding my own issues, I feel much more comfortable going into a consultation having learnt something here.

OP, In the situation you outlined it doesn't look like a claim of adverse possession would be successful as 12 years of exclusive use would be required by the neighbour.

The main issue as to whether the owner is obliged to erect another boundary wall I can't help you with.

Procrastastudy

wazzoraybelle wrote: »

This used to be an interesting forum, but lately posters seem to want to be the first to quote the charter re legal advice.

Surely people can be a bit more helpful than this, instead of telling people with problems to seek out a solicitor.

I have had land issues myself and I found people here quite helpful in the past in informing me about relevant acts and laws that may or may not pertain to my problem.

While it has always been my intention to consult a solicitor regarding my own issues, I feel much more comfortable going into a consultation having learnt something here.

OP, In the situation you outlined it doesn't look like a claim of adverse possession would be successful as 12 years of exclusive use would be required by the neighbour.

The main issue as to whether the owner is obliged to erect another boundary wall I can't help you with.

At the top of this forum are two stickies; one is the charter and one is how to phrase your question. If people can't be bothered to spend two minutes reading these I'm not going to research their problem for them just to get an infraction or ban or having read up find the post is locked. The OP could have very easily phrased his question in such away that would have started a good thread with a bit of discussion that would not have fallen foul of the charter.

daithieoghan

At the top of this forum are two stickies; one is the charter and one is how to phrase your question. If people can't be bothered to spend two minutes reading these I'm not going to research their problem for them just to get an infraction or ban or having read up find the post is locked. The OP could have very easily phrased his question in such away that would have started a good thread with a bit of discussion that would not have fallen foul of the charter.[/Quote]

To be honest mate I don't believe the way I phrased my post was all that much outside of the forum charter. But it seems to have bugged you so I suggest you report it and if it is wrong I will correct it or accept infraction.

Predalien

daithieoghan wrote: »

A property owner at the back of a another property built a boundary wall a few metres inside his property because building a wall in those few metres was very expensive.
The owner of the other property landscaped the garden including the few metres up to the wall.
No objection was raised for 3 years, then one objection and 6 years has passed since then with no further action.
He now wants to knock the wall and reclaim the few metres destroying expensive landscaping and shrubbery. He is refusing to put a new wall or boundary in its stead.
I'm presuming that even though the guy built the wall he is still entitled to knock and claim his few metres back. I think the only weight the garden carries is that it was a costly improvement on the existing land.
Can Anybody make sense of this or cast a more knowledgeable eye over it?
Thanks

In reality the person who landscaped the few metres did so on someone elses property, in my opinion you have interpreted the situation correctly, and don't see anything to suggest a legitimate reason for stopping the landowner knocking the wall. Only thing I would suggest is to try and save/replant any shrubbery where possible. This isn't legal advice, just a practical opinion.

CIARAN_BOYLE

how long before property owner 2 did the landscaping did the boundary wall go up??

If the boundary wall has been in place for 12 years and property owner two looked after that patch of land for for that time then property owner two could have a case for adverse possession and should talk to his solicitor

If a new boundary is put up by property owner one any landscaping on his side of the the boundary wall could have to be returned to property owner two even if this means uprooting the shrubbery or plants

Procrastastudy

daithieoghan wrote: »

To be honest mate I don't believe the way I phrased my post was all that much outside of the forum charter. But it seems to have bugged you so I suggest you report it and if it is wrong I will correct it or accept infraction.

OP I took no offense to your post neither did it bug me. As you can probably tell the next poster did bug me. To me it's obvious you have a real life scenario, that said it is far from my job to moderate this forum. As you hadn't got any response (responses in this forum are usually very quick) and I was going to make a small note on Land Law anyway I thought I would let you know about FLAC. If other people wanted to comment it would have got no response from me unless I was directly quoted, which I was.

@Wazzy - The reason for the crack down seems to be a number of people, myself being one of the biggest offenders, offering advice bordering on the dangerous. To highlight one of my own many idiot moments (and others to be fair) there was a recent thread regarding what turned out to be in all likelihood a life estate. Myself and others went off half cocked and suggesting kicking someone out. To take this thread people are talking about adverse possession even though (i) the period is no where near expired (ii) the land owner has regained possession.

A few of us are a bit quick to say speak to a solicitor. I can only speak for myself when I say the reasoning for this is I don't want to see this forum go the way of the Soccer forum and require mod approval for membership or even worse require posts to be pre-moderated.

Jo King

wazzoraybelle wrote: »

This used to be an interesting forum, but lately posters seem to want to be the first to quote the charter re legal advice.

.

What you find is that posters (other than moderators) who don't know the answer but can't keep their fingers to themselves quote the charter rather than doing nothing and let a mod deal with the post.