Angela Brown

SAS Daniels LLP Solicitors MY tenants disappeared overnight owing me £1,400 and taking with them the water heater and a number of electrical fittings. They stopped paying their rent in June, saying they were claiming housing benefit and that I would be paid by the council. I have tracked them down, but I know their business went bust so would I be throwing good money after bad by taking them to court? FAILING to pay their rent is one thing; stealing your property is another. I suggest you contact the police immediately if you haven’t already done so to report the theft of your belongings. You could then issue a small claim for recovery of the rent arrears. Although the tenants may not have any money right now, once you obtain Judgment you would have six years to take enforcement action to recover the money, during which time their circumstances may change. Anyone intending to rent out a property should have a tenancy agreement drawn up by a solicitor and take immediate action at the first sign of trouble. I AM a joint executor and beneficiary of a will, but the other executor is objecting to the will’s validity. Is it possible for just one of the executors to apply for probate? Any legal costs could exceed the value of my inheritance. YOU could apply for probate and then wait for your co-executor to raise objections as to its validity. The way forward really depends on the value of the estate and whether the will alters the way it would be distributed: in other words would the estate be distributed any differently under the intestacy rules? You don’t say what the other executor’s objections consist of. But where two executors can’t agree, the answer is usually to discuss the issue with a solicitor specialising in this area: it could save money in the long run. MY back garden seems to be 4ft longer than my neighbours’, but on a map of the area it show the gardens are all the same length. I’m only concerned about this because the council want to build houses on the fields at the back and may want the land back. The garden has always been this way in the eight years since I bought it and in the 25 the previous owner lived here. I THINK it’s unlikely that the council will want to fall out over 4ft of garden. You will be able to make a claim of ownership of it in any case if you can prove that you have had exclusive possession of the land for more than 12 years (if the land is unregistered) or 10 years (if the land is registered). Ideally you would get signed statements to this effect from the previous owner and/or neighbours and photographs showing the land is fenced off as part of your garden. MY neighbour next-doorbut-one has grown a Leylandii hedge on the boundary without the permission of my neighbour next door, whose garden is overgrown. Who is responsible for maintaining his half of the hedge: it’s currently 7 metres high and restricting light to my garden. IN the normal way of things your neighbour would cut the hedge that intrudes into his garden. But this wouldn’t necessarily reduce its height, and it sounds as though it’s not a concern to your immediate neighbour. You should obtain (or download) a booklet from the council about high hedges, which will tell you whether you are able to make a complaint depending on hedge height, orientation etc. But in order to use the high hedges legislation you will have to seek to resolve the matter with the hedge owner in the first place.

Call SAS Daniels LLP Solicitors on 0161 475 7676 or 01625 442 100. Visit www.sasdaniels. co.uk If you have any legal questions, write to Weekly Law and You, MEN Media, Mitchell Henry House, Hollinwood Avenue, Chadderton OL9 8EF, or email mail@lawQs.co.uk