Claimants win 2.5m patch of land in battle with neighbours because they tended the grass for 17 years

The couple and their home’s previous owners – have looked after the strip of lawn since 2002. Photo / 123rf

A millionaire British couple have used “squatters’ rights” to defeat their neighbours in a court battle over a 2.5m patch of lawn.

Liz Dobson and Andrew Pleming, a former British Airways executive, had tended the triangle of grass outside their £1.3 million ($3m) home in Dorking, href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/surrey-uk" rel="">Surrey, since they bought it in 2009.

However, after Alison Unsted, a chief executive, and husband Darren bought the £1m home next door in 2021, they ripped up the other couple’s plants and claimed it as their own.

The Unsteds argued that they owned the 2.5m by 1m strip of lawn according to the property’s title deeds.

A tribunal has now ruled that the deeds should be set aside and the land transferred to Dobson and Pleming because they – and their home’s previous owners – have looked after the strip of lawn since 2002.

The length of time tending to the patch of land has allowed them to claim adverse possession, a legal concept alternatively known as “squatters’ rights” which allows individuals to acquire property that is not legally theirs if they occupy it for at least 10 years.

The two properties share a driveway, at the end of which is the patch of lawn.

Sitting at the upper tribunal, Judge Elizabeth Cooke said Dobson and Pleming had demonstrated their use and possession of it by planting herbs and mowing.

“People do not generally mow their neighbours’ grass without their agreement,” she said.

“Nor do they let their children play on it. Nor do they replace topsoil on it or plant herbs in it.”

They had said they had always used the triangular patch as if it was theirs from when they bought their house in Pointers Hill in 2009.

But the seeds of neighbourly conflict were sown soon after the Unsteds moved into the neighbouring three-bedroom detached home in August 2022.

Nine months after moving in, the Unsteds set about asserting their rights over the tiny grass parcel when they “re-took possession of the disputed land ... by removing the appellants’ plants and installing a garden gnome”, said Judge Cooke.

Taking their neighbours initially to a first-tier tribunal, Dobson and Pleming did not dispute that the strip was held under the title of their neighbours’ property.

Neighbours had no permanent rights to the land

But they claimed it was theirs in line with the law of “adverse possession” since they and the previous owners of their home had used and enjoyed the strip since 2002 without protest from their neighbours.

At the earlier hearing, a judge found that the couple had established possession since 2018 – not long enough to qualify for permanent rights.

But they appealed to the upper tribunal and won the case.

“Looking again at the nature of the land, I fail to see what more an occupying owner could have done,” the judge said.

“I will therefore direct the registrar to respond to their application for registration as if the respondents’ objection had not been made.”

Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.