Couple tried claiming neighbour's land with gnome

A couple have won a legal battle over a tiny strip of grass outside their house, after a neighbour tried to claim it as their own with a garden gnome.

Elizabeth Dobson and her partner Andrew Pleming had spent years tending the 2.4m-by-0.9m (8-by-3ft) patch on Pointers Hill in Westcott, near Dorking in Surrey.

They mowed it, raked it and planted herbs and wildflowers, a London tribunal heard.

But, when Alison and Darren Unsted moved in next door in 2022, they decided the land was actually theirs, removed the plants and replaced them with the outdoor ornament.

The move sparked a dispute, at the heart of which was a legal principle known as adverse possession, or 'squatters rights', which allows someone to claim land if they have used it as their own for enough time.

Dobson and Pleming argued that the disputed patch had long been treated as part of their garden, even by the addresses' previous owners.

Several former tenants of the neighbouring property also backed up their claim.

The case was first heard by a First-tier Tribunal, that ruled the couple had only clearly taken possession of the land from about 2018, falling short of the 10 years required for an adverse possession ruling.

But, following an appeal, that decision was overturned last week at an Upper Tribunal, which sits at the Royal Courts of Justice.

Taking into consideration the amount of care and attention shown to the land by Dobson and Pleming, Judge Elizabeth Cooke said: "It seems to me perfectly obvious that the appellants were in possession of the disputed land."

She concluded the couple and their predecessors had been in possession of the strip since at least 2002, long before the Unsteds arrived.

The judge ordered that the couple's application to register the land should now proceed as if their neighbours' objection had never been made.