Yikes! The JCBs have arrived...

[little bird]

Hi!

My partner and I bought our first house last month. It's a Victorian end-of-terrace, with an unused plot to the side which runs alongside railway land. A portion of this plot has been used as our garden for over 30 years, and we have full posession of this.

We were aware before we bought the place that Planning Permission was granted to a developer for a house on the remaining plot next door, nearly 2 years ago, although it was contested by the previous owners of our house. However, upon inspecting the original application and land registry documents, I have noticed a few descrepancies, not least that the title and grid reference of the land in the application, according to the land registry, is for the plot that belongs to us, whereas their land next to it is under a different title with the registry.

Does this make their Permission invalid?

Also, a section that runs along the side of our house is included in their building plans, however this area is not marked as belonging to anyone in the land registry documents. This strip of land is/was enclosed by the remains of a corrugated iron fence, which continues along to enclose the garden section for which we hold the deeds...do we have as much, or more, right to this stretch as the applicants do? If so what should I do to stop them destroying what remains of this fence before I have chance to do anything about it?

Also, their plot was recorded under their names on the registry on the same day that Planning Permission was granted, although they claim to have owned it at time of application, and they actually state in the application that it's thought to have belonged to our house originally "but details unknown"...does this sound dodgy?

...I was hoping to have more time to plan our approach, however they have started moving the diggers in today, before we've barely had chance to unpack :( PLEASE HELP!!

Thanks & best wishes.

[welsh brickie]

what you need to do immeadiatly is contact the planning department in person and offically oppose the planning consent,Stating a land ownership dispute,Also request an offical surveyer to establish what land is owned by who, you may have to pay for this.