Absolutely spitting feathers

[Mr Ed]

Dean, I sugest talking to him in a language he will understand. e.g.-

Grab him by the collar, stick a sawn off 12 bore in his mouth, and calmly suggest a sensible course of action for him to follow. Also suggest the unpleasant consequences of foolish retaliatory actions, and the chances of his head remaining on his shoulders should he try anything silly.

I'm sure he'll see your point of view.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Dean, I sugest talking to him in a language he will understand. e.g.-

Grab him by the collar, stick a sawn off 12 bore in his mouth, and calmly suggest a sensible course of action for him to follow. Also suggest the unpleasant consequences of foolish retaliatory actions, and the chances of his head remaining on his shoulders should he try anything silly.

I'm sure he'll see your point of view.

 

I would find it very difficult to keep a straight face Ed, when I was sat down, he was the same height as me when he was stood up, I kid you not

[volvo]

When did you purchase the land.

The reason i ask is if the guy put up the fence before you bought it it is technicaly yours;ie land on your title deeds.

But he might claim squatters rights if not and you would have to go to court (more expense) to put your case forward.

As for the boundry it was an unwritten rule in the farming community that you had a fence and your neighbour had one approx 3 ft apart.The waste ground in the middle belonged to nobody (it was just a security border).

It just goes to show if you've got money some people will always try to take advantage.

I don't think what your doing pricewise is excessive in the circumstance therefore all i can say is good luck, i think you will need it and stick to your "guns".

[Dean Lofthouse]

The fence was there before I bought the land, his argument is that it has been there for 22 years so he can claim squatters rights on the land.

 

Hopefully the land swap I am doing will be done and dusted in a couple of months, The ones I am doing the land swap with have the rest of the woodland who's boundary is also neighbouring this guys land, so they are already aquainted with him.

[treequip]

The adverse possession (squatters rights) thing is bunkum

Firstly none of us owns any land. Technically it all belongs to the crown and we “land owners” only have “title” to the land.

In order to gain adverse possession (squatters rights) you need to have occupied the land to the exclusion of others for a decade or so (it varies for registered and unregistered land). You can’t just say to all and sundry, “that’s my land now”, you have to go to the LR to get title registered. If someone claims adverse possession on registered land the LR contact the registered owner and ask them if they wish to object. You simply object and that’s pretty much an end to the claim. It’s a little different for unregistered land but not to difficult to rebut a claim. So there goes the adverse possession issue.

 

Notwithstanding the adverse possession issue “Johnny Ice cream” still entered land he didn’t have title to and felled the trees. Even if he were successful in a claim for adverse possession now it won’t alter the fact that at the time he didn’t own the land.

 

The easy way to find out who has title to what and where boundaries lie (for registered land) is to download the title deeds from the Land Registry (LR) for a couple of quid a go. If you get the plan with it don’t expect sub meter GPS accuracy on the drawing. The LR won’t have anything to do with boundary disputes and you can’t scale the plan because a pencil line on a 1:2500 plan is about a foot wide on the ground depending how hard the draughtsman pressed on. All the LR will say is that a boundary is a line of “notional thickness”.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Many thanks for that Treequip, much appreciated.

[Ropey]

Keep away from Lawyers and courts. It sounds like he is a guy with too much time and money on his hands and from personal experience this could end up costing you heaps of coin with the only reward being proven you were right all along.

I ended up flying the white flag to sort the issue out of court even though I was right....All i wanted to do is pour weed killer all over his prized gardens but that would not have been nabourly.

 

I do like the Nailgun idea, that has got great merits.

[treequip]

Ready and waiting

 

[Robokid]

"He then went on to say technically he was ok to fell the trees because the fence that he put up was on my side so the bit of land of mine on his side of the fence, he could technically claim squatters rights on."

 

Not too sure that will wash unless he's defined and then registered the land as his.

 

I'd get it reported and let HSE and Forestry Commission deal with it in addition to him sawing and stacking the logs on your side. That way you get the wood back, and someone else is dealing with the illegalities involved, thus removing you from it and with that, any question that you are making a profit.

[ScottF]

Squatter's rights? Absolute nonsense. This guy's so full of sh*t he makes my ass jealous. Honestly.

 

Unfortunately, I'd say if he's so far gone he can't see that's he's committed aggravated trespass and criminal damage and thinks he's done nothing wrong, you're unlikely to get through to him.

 

Just put him on the list...somewhere near the top.