A Surrey couple have won a legal battle against their neighbours who took over a strip of their garden, ripped out their beloved plants and set down a garden gnome to claim their territory.
Gardener Liz Dobson and her partner Andrew Pleming had spent years nurturing the eight-foot triangular patch at the end of their driveway on Pointers Hill, filling it with herbs and wildflowers.
Their children had grown up playing on the small green space.
Everything changed when Alison Unsted, 47, a company chief executive, and her husband Darren, 54, purchased the neighbouring £1million three-bedroom detached property in August 2022.
Nine months later, in May 2023, the Unsteds cleared the plants from the eight- by three-foot strip and installed a garden gnome in their place.
The move left Mrs Dobson and Mr Pleming stunned and sparked a bitter dispute between the households.
Although the land was officially registered under the title of the Unsteds' property, Mrs Dobson and Mr Pleming argued they had treated it as their own since purchasing their home in 2009.
They brought a claim for adverse possession, commonly referred to as squatter's rights.
The Unsteds cleared the plants from the eight by three foot strip and installed a garden gnome (file photo)
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The couple used the patch as a pathway between their upper and lower lawns, and their children crossed it regularly to reach a rope swing.
Mr Pleming told the tribunal they had maintained the land identically to the rest of their garden, using it as a route for their mower and wheelbarrow.
Mrs Dobson, whom the judge described as "very knowledgeable" about plants and soil types, had planted sweet peas and lupine from 2010 onwards to enrich the soil.
Clover was introduced from 2012, and at one point the couple embedded a sign displaying their house number in the ground.
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The judge described Mrs Dobson as 'very knowledgeable' about plants and soil types
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A First-Tier Tribunal initially ruled against them, finding they had only established possession from 2018, which was insufficient to secure permanent rights.
The tribunal judge was unconvinced about the earlier planting of herbs and ordered the land registrar to reject their application for ownership.
Mrs Dobson and Mr Pleming appealed to the Upper Tribunal in London, where Judge Elizabeth Cooke overturned the previous decision.
The judge said: "People do not generally mow their neighbours' grass without their agreement.
"Nor do they let their children play on it. Nor do they replace topsoil on it or plant herbs in it."
The tribunal judge was unconvinced about the earlier planting of herbs
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"Looking again at the nature of the land, I fail to see what more an occupying owner could have done," she said.
A former owner of the Unsteds' property provided supporting testimony, stating she had been unaware the patch existed and had always assumed everything on the other side of the drive belonged to Mrs Dobson and Mr Pleming.
Judge Cooke ruled that the couple and their predecessors had been in adverse possession since at least 2002 until the Unsteds dispossessed them in 2023.
She directed the registrar to process their ownership application as though the Unsteds' objection had never been lodged.
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