How to reclaim land when purchasing a property

[vespaboy]

Hi all
We are about to buy our ex council house that has a shared driveway between our and our neighbours house. My neighbour had already purchased their house and since we moved in 10 years ago they have always had a fence 3/4 of the way in their favour down the centre of the drive (this stops us from parking alongside our house or gaining vehicle access to our back garden).
The road we live in is approx 1 mile long with similar terraced houses for the lengh of the road, all the end of terrace have the same shared driveway and ours is the only one without an equal split.
When we moved in we asked the council about the drive and they said our neighbour had the extra in their deeds, this should never have been allowed.
We would really like the off road parking the sideway would give us.
Could anybody give us some advice on whether we can claim it back or purchase it alongside the house purchase or who to consult.
Our neighbour is a widow without any cars or vehicles at all but is also very unreasonable so we cannot resolve the issue with her directly.
All advice appreciated.
Thanks

[bednobs]

if it is in her deeds then no, the only way you would get it is by negotiation with her. Noone can frce her to give it up

[themas]

You may be able to find out whether it actually is in her deeds by getting the Land Registry certificate for her property. Go to land register online. However, often the exact position of boundaries is not clear on the plans.

If that is the case & if the properties are quite old then the only way of checking would be to try & find the old deeds. You can't do this for your neighbour's property but you could get your solicitor to ask the Council for the original deeds for your property when you buy it. These might have more details about boundary position.

[Andy_Gray]

Its a shame the woman is unreasonable..... But, You CAN legally claim this land back from her if that was the original plans of the developer, she would have never been given legally ownership by the council so she is therefore unlawfully using the land . You will have to submit and application to the "Land Registry" and prove that this was not the original setup for the driveways..... A great website with lots more info on legally claiming land is http://www.claimfreeland.co.uk