Problems with neighbours

Mozette

Another point is, if you come to sell and you've had an 'official' dispute with your neighbours you have to mention it. Not sure if there are time limits on this though.
Unless it's caused real damage, I would be tempted to leave it. My back neighbours have nicked a cheeky couple of inches off my garden when they replaced the fence, but I don't really see it's worth stressing about.

V.Lucky

If you have a legal protection policy on your home insurance, this would cover you for legal expenses to persue or defend a "neighbourhood dispute" including those that deal with boundary issues.

Might be worthwhile digging your policy out and checking.

staffie1

Good points raised here - particularly about not stressing too much about this issue unless there is clearly intentional damage that's worth taking further.

The thing to remember is that disputes with neighbours can turn pretty nasty and escalate very quickly into something that will make your life a misery. I've seen it before and it's very unpleasant. People go into 'tit-for-tat' mode in it ends in a desperate war.

Life's too short. As others have said, unless it's a serious breach of your rights or leaves you out of pocket in some way, just let it go and enjoy the extra privacy. There is nothing in the law to regulate the amount of sunlight you get, and I think I'm right in saying that unless the amount of light you now get has been reduced by a significant margin (c50%) you could be throwing good money after bad getting solicitors involved.

planning_officer

GracieChi wrote: »

Hello all, many thanks the thing is, the fence they put up is on their land and is probably around 6ft on their side, but looks much taller on my side, about 8ft, as they have a raised patio. Does it make any difference that the side in question is my responsability, even though they put the fence up inside their garden? When measuring the size of the fence, does the trellis count, please? Does it mean 6ft for a fence and 7" for a trellis max height combined? Thanks again:A

Yes, the trellis does count as part of the same means of enclosure, if it is fixed to the fence. therefore, the fence and trellis combined must be no higher than 2 metres in height for it not to require planning permission. However, fences are always measured from the side they are erected (there's plenty of case law to substantiate that) - so, if it measures no more than 2 metres from your neighbours side (including the trellis) it may be 'permitted development' and not require planning permission from the Council. If the fence is erected on a raised patio however, then it may be that the height is taken from the natural ground level below the patio, in which case it could be over 2 metres measured from that point.

By the way, this is national legislation, so although somebody above said that different Councils have different policies - not in this case, as the same rules apply everywhere.

lonestar1

can you not mention that in order to maintain the panels you need to be able to lift them out so you can paint both sides in order to do this they must remove any attachment/support they have to your fence