Who do I sue?

[SuzySues]

A year ago we moved into our dream home. Last week we recieved a letter saying that the 6ft wooden fence to the side of my back garden (we are a corner plot) is outside the boundry by 3meters. It is still on my land, but as this is an open space estate we need to either take it back to the original site, or apply for retrospective planning permission. The thing is, that the fence was in that posistion when we moved here, so should it have been picked up on the survey, so the previous owner would have had to apply for planning consent before the sale went through? If we have to move the fence back it will cost us a lot of money & inconvienience. Are we entitled to compensatione & from who? And how do we go about it? We recently had a patio costing �100 per meter laid in the back garden & if we have to move the fence, 3 meters of it will be outside of the garden!!

[Toureman]

Who sent the letter?

[SuzySues]

Sorry, the letter was from my local councils planning dept. We believe a neighbour reported the fence, as we have now found out that she had a dispute with the previous owner about it.

[Plocket]

Well whoever you sue you will have to use a solicitor. Contact the ones you used when buying your house and ask why they didn't pick up on the boundary issue. Good luck - hope you get it sorted.

[raysparx]

Hi suzy, consult the Solicitor who did the purchase,because on the pre-contract agreement there is a section about disputes and different other things,so I would think if the council were in touch with previous owners,they have not revealed this information and they will probably be liable for the cost,just a quick call will put your mind at rest,but if you don't want the hassle ask the planning officer to come round for a chat,but be very polite to him/her, retrospective permission might well be granted, good luck, Ray

[buildersmate]

Yes, exactly as Ray says. The previous owner should have disclosed this 'dispute' to your solicitor.

[SuzySues]

Thank you guys. We had a meeting with the planning officer today, he was very nice & said if he could give an answer based on what we told him, then it would be ok, but looking at the photo's we took, he said he probably wouldn't have allowed it in the first place. But obviously he will have to come out & inspect the site before he can give his answer. We have filled in the forms & now just have to wait.

We still see the previous owners & wouldn't really like to put this on them. I don't think intentionaly tricked us. Surely its the fault of the solicitor or serveyor for not picking it up? When we sold our last house our solicitor had to get retrospective planning permission for a patio door we had put in. It was just a formality, it was simple (as they did it) & only cost about �30. But this issue seems a lot more complex. We are resigned to the fact that the fence will have to be moved. We are now thinking up lots of ways to annoy our horrible neighbour for putting us through all this in the first place, we probably won't do any of them, but it releves the stress!! lol

I just feel that we should be compensated for the money this has & will cost us.

[raysparx]

Hi suzy' It is up to the people you brought from to disclose if there is or has been any disputes or falling out with neighbours etc,they clearly dids not disclose this,so they have lied on a legally binding form,all I would think would be on the survey would normally be marked in red outlining the area you are buying not a fence,hope you get it sorted, Ray

[buildersmate]

Again, I'm aligned with Ray. Its easy to be sentimental because you know the previous owners, but it was they that appear to have misled your solicitor, who was acting on your behalf. If your solicitor did his job right and asked this question (which both Ray suspect he did) then your only recourse is to seek redress from them (via your solicitor - that would be keep it less personal). You seem to contradict yourseld a bit as you say they didn't not intentionally mislead but that they also had some sort of dispute with the neighbour. Good lucj with it
The best way for all is through being nice to the Council Planners and try and regularise the alignment of the fence. This will (probably) be an issue about sight lines and visibility for traffic at the road junction.