garden fences

[Jules001]

My elderly mum has received a letter from her next door neighbour stating that she has intentionally and knowingly stolen land from him as her fence posts/panels were erected upon his land and gives her 7 days to rectify this or he will start legal proceedings against her and claim legal costs from her. Now this is greatly upsetting for her as she is concerned about potential costs that she is not in a position to pay, if it goes that far. I haven't been around to check the validity of his claim yet, but he has lived in the property for 14 years and the fences in question have been in place and unmoved for 19 or 20 years. The neighbour in question is divorced from his wife and doesn't actually live at the property anymore, but obviously he is named on the deeds, I am thinking this maybe a ploy to start a dispute to delay the sale of the house if he is required to do so. Can anyone give me any advice as to what to do for my mum to help her situation. I was a legal secretary in a past life and could if necessary write an equally legal sounding letter to him back, but don't want to claim anything that isn't correct. Could she claim a prescriptive easement as she has used this land for this amount of time, if it turns out to indeed be his land and would this need to be dealt with by a solicitor or is it something we could do on our own.

[Nhozu]

i think adverse possession is more likely

how long have the fence panels been in their current position?

[Jules001]

the fence panels have been in position for 19 or 20 years. What is adverse possession, can you explain a bit more about it for me please?

[Barquentine]

don't panic about his '7 days' time limit. He is just trying to put pressure on you. This is called a 'boundary dispute' . The starting-point would be in your title deeds. Find out where these are stored -the solicitor that assisted you to buy the house will have stored them. If you don't know where your title deeds are it is likely that your Mother's property is registered (at the Land Registry). You can get copies of your deeds from their website - including the Title Plan. The Plan will show the location of the boundaries.

Since the fences have been there for more than 12 years you can provide something called a 'statutory declaration'-just a typed statement by someone who has lived at the property all that time who can truthfully declare that the fence has been in that position and no attempt has been made by anyone to challenge that position. You could find an example online of how to set one out - but it does have to be sworn in front of a solicitor (who will only charge �5 to witness it ). And you may not have to go that far. The declaration would be used to prove your Mum's possession of the land which is 'adverse' to the person claiming ownership. If the Land Registry accepts it then you would be registered with 'possessory' title.
There are quite a few hoops your Mum's neighbour has to go through in order to prove his claim & given the time that has passed his case sounds very weak. By the way,
Your Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB) will be helpful if you want to see them - but do take your title deeds and plan with you.
Maybe write back -that you are obtaining your title deeds & that you may need to take further legal advice (i.e. at the CAB). Ignore his 7 days bit - no court would regard that as reasonable.
the question of costs is up to the court which could just as easily award you your costs against him if you win so don't be browbeaten. Ask the CAB for clarification.
the Land Registry website has

[Jules001]

We have got mum's Title Deeds and a copy of the Title Plan, but it just shows the general boundaries of the property and so is therefore not very helpful in showing the exact measurements which would help in a boundary dispute. There is an alley which my mum has right of way over, which has some concrete which I think is original from when the houses were built, this stops at the edge of my mum's garden and her garden gate and fence posts and panels are all inside the edge of this concrete. The neighbour seems to be misguided in thinking that the fence should run in a straight line equally positioned between the two kitchen windows, whereas I have told my mum that this is not the case as you can move the position of a window, but it still doesn't alter the boundary lines. I have told my mum that I think regardless of whether the land is or isn't his, I think he will have a job to prove it especially after this amount of time so we are going to go to the CAB and seek further advice, but otherwise we will not reply to his letter or to do anything about the fence. If he decides to take legal action, which I think is extremely unlikely then we will deal with it then, but I have told her to watch out and make sure that he doesn't start trying to take down her fence and if he does she must call the Police as this is criminal damage and nothing to do with the boundary dispute. This still doesn't stop my 72 year old mum from worrying and fretting about it and I can't understand the motives of the heartless b*gger next door and what he hopes to achieve by this. Even by telling my mum that I don't think he has a leg to stand on and let him take legal action she is now panicking about potential legal costs