Family secret
Q. My grandfather left my father three houses, one of them in trust for me for when I reached the age of 21. Ten years later my father remarried and sold all three houses. “My” house was sold to my uncle. My father died some years ago, and all this has only just come to light. Can I take my uncle to court to obtain the money he received when he sold my house?
A. As long as your uncle was a bona fide purchaser and paid the going rate for the house then his ownership of the property cannot now be called into question. However you should have received the proceeds from the sale, plus interest, when you reached 21. At least two trustees must be involved where trust property is sold; in theory you should be able to claim your legacy from them, but it would appear that one of them was your father. You need to find out if there was another trustee, and what became of the money. It’s a complicated business and there may be nothing for you in the end, but you should see a solicitor.

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Just a little bit longer
Q. I have a garage on leasehold land. In May a new owner gave us a month’s notice to vacate the garages in line with our tenancy agreement. However according to the previous landlord the new owner didn’t complete the deal to buy the land until July. Is the notice he sent out in May valid?
A. I would have thought the notice would be invalid unless your new landlord was acting in some capacity as agent for the man who was your landlord at the time. The notice period he gave you expired even before the completion date of the purchase. He is obviously in a position to give you a month’s notice now, however, so it’s only a matter of time before you will have to vacate your garage if you haven’t already done so.

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Bump in the night
Q. I took a builder to court over shoddy workmanship which meant we were plagued by excessive noise from a neighbouring flat 24 hours a day. Although I won, the compensation awarded amounted to the equivalent of just £1.00 a day and the noise problem hasn’t been properly resolved.
A. It strikes me that no amount of money would have been enough to compensate you for this type of nuisance – especially if the problem hasn’t been resolved. The courts have great difficulty in putting a price on grey areas such as “stress” and “inconvenience.” They’re much better at compensation where facts and figures are involved. If you had engaged an architect to come up with a solution (after first giving the builder the opportunity to put things right) you would have been able to present a costed project to the court.

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Squatters’ rights
Q. Can you tell us how we go about claiming “squatters’ rights”? The CAB, the Land Registry and the council all tell us to see a solicitor.
A. That’s probably good advice. If you are living in a property or using a piece of land where you were in occupation for more than 12 years prior to October 2003 without the owner making any attempt to reclaim it, you may be able to claim ownership though “adverse possession”. You would have to be able to provide evidence that you had used the land as your own without challenge, and would be required to make a statutory declaration to this effect. However there has been a change in the law, and although it is still possible to claim unregistered land in this way it is more difficult to claim land that has been registered at the Land Registry. While an application to claim registered land can be made after just ten years, the owner will now be notified and given the opportunity to rebut the claim.

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Special trees
Q. At my request the council placed a tree preservation order on some mature beech and horse chestnut trees in my garden four years ago. If they were blown on to buildings across the boundary by freak storms, would I be liable for any damage caused?
A. You should carry out regular checks on the trees and ensure that any dead or dangerous growth is removed. Provided you have done this you would not be liable for damage caused by a freak storm. That would be damage you could not have foreseen, and over which you had no control: it would be an “Act of God.” If on the other hand your neighbours warned you the trees were in poor condition and you did nothing you could be liable. Beware of doing anything major to your protected trees without first consulting the council.