Love to Hate Thy Neighbour?  Don't spend £100k to defend a property boundary?

Property Boundary Dispute

Be warned, this recent UK boundary dispute between two neighbours highlights the lengths some people are willing to go to, and 20 years of battle, to defend the physical few inches that exist between them and the people who live next door.

The recent boundary dispute heard in the County Court at Central London between Mrs Norma Yozin-Smith, 73 and her next-door-neighbours, Anthony and Julie Alexander in New Barnet has been in the news lately.

Mrs Yozin-Smith claimed the neighbour’s boundary fence strayed into her garden when it was erected, partitioning off some of her trees and shrubs, arguing they had ignored an agreed boundary line mapped-out by a surveyor.

This recent case was a dispute concerning a few inches - over half the width of a fence post and lack of maintenance of an adjoining and leaning fence between them.

Judge Alan Johns threw out the main part of Yozin-Smith’s case, rejecting her claims as well as throwing-out allegations that her neighbours had undermined her patio foundations by repeated use of a jet-sprayer. Yozin-Smith had also previously sued her neighbours in 2021 over alleged leaks from their swimming pool, claims previously dismissed by a judge at that time.

This case has run-up well over £100,000 in legal bills and the Judge ‘implored’ Ms Yozin-Smith to give up her fight against her neighbours which he said had “brought misery to herself as well as her neighbours”.

This case illustrates how the costs of becoming entrenched in a boundary dispute with your neighbours could cost you hundreds of thousands of £s, cause years of misery, bickering and heartache with neighbours and potentially affect your mental health and  the prospects of selling your property.

“Was it worth £100,000.00 in legal fees to reach this point?  Costs are yet to be decided, and as it usually follows that the losing party pays the winning party’s costs, someone is likely to lose out considerably on the financial front.”

Don’t leave a boundary dispute to fester for 20 years – there are straightforward steps you can take to assist in resolving boundary and neighbour disagreements, and we can help.

Read the full media story:

Judge tells widow to drop ‘obsessive’ 20-year boundary dispute with her neighbours 

 

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