Rose Smith had just built a new fence and a hot tub, but came home to find some had been removed
A woman is locked in a battle with her neighbour after she claims they stole 1.1m metres of her garden – ripping up her fence and taking part of her new hot tub. Rose Smith, 60, spent £12,500 and five months transforming the end of her garden, by adding decking and a hot tub, in time for her landmark birthday.
But the teacher was devastated when she says she discovered a metre of her garden had been claimed by a neighbour who she alleges pulled up her fence and removed some of the wooden planks surrounding her pool, before installing a new fence, further into her garden. With the police powerless to help with the “civil matter” she’s trying to reclaim what she believes is her garden, with the help of Land Registry.
Meanwhile a professional boundary survey last month appears to show her original fence was in the correct position.“What began as my dream garden has turned into a living nightmare,” said Rose, who lives in a three-bed terraced home. “I won’t stop until what’s mine is finally respected. I do have a little bit of sympathy for him because he honestly thinks it is his land, but just the way he has gone about it is vile – he just doesn’t stop.
“I just want to be able to relax in my garden with my family.”
The nightmare began in April 2024, when Rose from London, received a letter from Land Registry, she said. It said a neighbour was trying to claim land behind her garden through adverse possession – the occupation of land to which another person has title with the intention of possessing it as one’s own – even though Rose was the registered owner.
The medium sized patch of land had been derelict, overgrown and untouched for years. “I didn’t even realise the land was mine,” said Rose. “I have lived there 10 years. As soon as I found out, I wrote straight back disputing it.”
After months of waiting, Rose was told by the Land Registry that her neighbour’s claim had been dismissed, she said. She then began to transform the forgotten patch into a new part of her garden. She built a new fence, extending the space just over a metre, exactly as shown on the boundary plan from the Land Registry.
By July, it was nearly complete, just in time for her 60th birthday party, celebrated in the new back garden with family. In August 2025, a neighbour tried to claim the land again – this time to sell – contacting her via a solicitor, she says.
On September 22, she returned from work to find part of her garden had been claimed. “He had cut out a bit of our garden,” she said. “I genuinely didn’t believe what was happening – who does that?
“The neighbour had ripped out my fence. He sawed about a metre off my garden at a slope and taken five wooden planks from the hot tub surround. He left all my hard work ruined; I couldn’t believe that someone could do such a thing to someone’s property.”
She claims he’d also cut a metre off her decking and back fence, replacing it with his own fence, and then parked two cars and a JCB dumper truck right up against it. She claims she found a teenager guarding the boundary.
When confronted, the teenager told Rose he’d done it because “it’s my land” and claimed it was his “legal right”, waving a different boundary plan that contradicted Rose’s official title, she said. Rose reported the damage to police and gave statements but was told it was a “civil matter” despite £2,000 of damage, she claims.
On September 24, Rose’s daughter and a friend removed the fence the neighbour had built. But another fence was erected on December 1, this time encroaching even further onto Rose’s land, she said.
She says that, last month, a professional boundary survey confirmed Rose’s title plan is correct – the entire new fence is on her land.
Now Rose is working with the Land Registry to investigate and decide her next steps. “I just wanted a garden where my grandchildren could play safely – instead, it’s been stress, damage and months of worry,” she said.
The neighbour was contacted twice for comment.
