Embargo

[Cassie]

Hi does anyone know exactly what and embargo is when used by a neighbour to stop me working in woodland jointly owned by her and myself, she is trying to stop me carrying out any work whatsoever in the woodland and wants it left as it is whereas I want to start maintenance work due to the fact the woods have not been touched for over 30 years, mainly coniferous, dead and diseased trees which I want to thin out and introduce broadleaf, there is no compromise with this woman who will only deal with me through her solicitor.

What would be the consequences if I just get on with it?

[Toby Allen]

I can think of one way to find out about the consequences.........

[RichardKing]

What do you mean by "embargo" ?

Have you received any documents with any legal standing such as an injunction ?

[jillybean]

If you do not reply to a solicitors letter, throw it on the fire as soon as it arrives and dont read it , no action will be taken except sending you another letter, costing the sender another 100 quid. often to do nothing is the most powerful tool.

[RichardKing]

Yeah, I suspect the most that they could do would be to sue you, which could prove very expensive for them.

[Cassie]

Thanks all for your comments and I will take your advice jillybean this woman although in her 70's is trying to intimidate & bully me, Richard I don't know what an embargo is other than the neighbours brother calling round and threatening to use one against me, waiting to hear from my solicitor but he takes soooooo long to reply I thought I would try to find out as much information as possible before I get hit with a fine which I can do without, but I refuse to allow her to stop me working in the woods

[Exeldama]

"stopping movement of goods and placing restrictions on commerce"...smoke and mirrors....

You cant be fined by her or her solicitors.

Courts and various other bodies are able to levy such things not twitless wonders...

Sue you for what... coppicing, removing dangerous trees.... bluff bluff bluff..... act reasonably, safely and proportionatley...oh and if you find any destroying angel... invite the battleaxe round for tea.

[Henrietta]

I would have thought that if the woodland is jointly owned, she wouldn't be able to put an embargo on it. Embargo's are usually mentioned in the deeds of the property and if she is only threatening to do it, then they are empty words.

[wrekin]

Can I ask what the layout of the wood and the properties is? Do you have two back gardens next to each other that both front on to the wood, with equal frontages on to it? Is that where the 50-50 split (and 50-50 contribution to buying it) came from?

If so, I'd very carefully mark a boundary with stakes that finished at the end of your joint garden fence and start working on my half, avoiding the last few metres near the stakes for now in case that line gets resurveyed and moved before it's all resolved. Create a fact on the ground.

AFAIK the obvious way for a court to resolve this dispute if it gets that far is to split the wood along that halfway line, which is what you want and what you have a witness to her agreeing to. This way you can get on with your life and treat this as a loose end that just needs to be sorted before either property is sold.

The idea of starting with safety-motivated work is very good btw, as again it will be hard for her to argue against you doing work to minimise your joint liability to wandering members of the public.

You want to try to get to the point where an honest sollicitor will be telling her to stop wasting her money as she'd have no chance of changing what's actually happening in the wood, in court.

[Exeldama]

just to add to that if you do lineate a boundary 50/50, record it accuartely... including i would suggest videoing the actual markings in case she moves or removes any fence on your property..

Again unless there is a covenant placed upon your wood preventing either of you doing specific works she will struggle to do anything.. against proportionate works.