Ignorance was bliss

[xoggoth]

Yeh, know the feeling. Like the time I went along to a company called Fallen Angels Massage in KIngs Cross thinking that they provided warehousing software. Imagine my surprise when

[mcquiggd]

That reminds me of the time I was contacted by an agent to work for a company called Eversheds... I said 'I dont think it would fit with my CV to work for a company that supplies garden sheds...' ... turned out to be the regions largest law firm... doh!

Daft name. Should have been law-u-like or sommat.

[xoggoth]

If you can show established usage over ten years you can still have a legal claim and if nobody else is claiming it that may not be too difficult. Also having others in the same boat is good because that means you can pool any witnesses or evidence you each have.

Have you tried www.gardenlaw.co.uk ? Very good for this sort of thing and there is an experienced conveyancer among the advisors.

[EternalOptimist]

if you dont have a garden you dont have to mow the lawn or clear the dog sh!t up.

mind you , you dont have to mow the kitchen or clear the dog sh!t up there either

[ratewhore]

I'd be more concerned about not having a kitchen...

[IR35 Avoider]

Having nothing better to do yesterday, I was reading the lease for my flat which I bought several years ago...

...long story short....

...after a visit to land registry web site and paying to download various documents, it appears their is no legal documentation to support my belief that I own my garden...

In the development where I live there are 300+ flats, almost all the ground floor flats have a garden attached. In my building there are 10 flats with gardens, eight of which (including mine) are similar in layout to each other.

My immediate neighbour's flat (which I obtained the plan of for comparison) does have the garden marked as part of the property, though the plan also seems to indicate that he doesn't own his kitchen! (Given that it's a room with no boundary with an exterior wall of the building the freeholder who must therefore be the owner by default is going to have some trouble making use of the space.)

My best guess, based on the dates various leases were issued, is that the developer had a crap conveyancer during the period these ground floor flats were sold. There are 2 or 3 other flats of the 10 that look like they had the same problem, and all flats with the problem were sold during the same contiguous time period in 1990. (Flats sold before and after the time period were all done correctly.) I say 2 or 3 because there are 2 that appear to be in the same boat as mine plus one of the other 10 has a note to say that the plan was been altered by variation agreed with the freeholder in year 2000. Don't know what the alteration was but suspect it might be the same issue.

Am following up with solicitor who did conveyancing for me.

Feck it.

The devil creates problems for idle minds.