Neighbours attached gate to our wall without permission *PICTURES ADDED*!

DCFC79

Is the gate bothering you that much OP ?

rsykes2000

DCFC79 wrote: »

Is the gate bothering you that much OP ?

It wouldn't bother you to have someone attach something to the side of your house without asking (if you own a house) ? I know it would make me quite miffed at the very least and they would shortly be finding it unattached and in their garden

miss_independent

bubbles65 wrote: »

Tell your OH to go round and TELL them that you want it removed within x days or you will take further action (against them, not him! LOL)
TBH I think you knew it was there and chose not to do anything about it until your contractor pointed out the legalities about accessing the rest of your house........Have you paid him in full for the [still to be completed?] work?

I didn't know about the gate and did know about the legalities from day 1 of moving into this house, which is why I knew that we had a right to refuse (and indeed we did refuse) when they first asked. Gas vent was fitted shortly after they moved in to comply with new H&S laws coming into force and I have said in a previous post that we did refuse initially because we knew a gate which cut off access to that side of our property could potentially create safety problems. Also the main thing the contractor pointed out to us was the fact he couldn't get to the sofits on the other side - there wasn't much legal talk. I was just gobsmacked to discover there was a gate there tbh. We do actually have access now to complete the work, no reply to note but gate left open today and padlocks, chains removed. However it is now snowing AGAIN! We have paid the deposit plus some extra but will not be paying the final 1/3rd until the work is completed, why do you ask? They are a trustworthy company (best around as far as I'm concerned), have used them before and wouldn't hesitate to use them again.
Next doors OH is too scary for confrontation I'm afraid! Remember the suspected petrol bomb?

neilmcl wrote: »

Are you on Google streetview?

No . I only know this because a rather handsome young man (model in fact!) asked for my postcode once which I found a bit odd! I asked why and he said he thought I was "posh" and wanted to look up my house on Google Street View to see how big it is :rotfl:.

In response to the question about the gate bothering me. It has annoyed me that they have attached something (something pretty tasteless and crude looking at that) to my property yes. It is a shoddy job (nailed and messily concreted over the top) and given the rust, paint flaking etc they have not maintained it. However, I have calmed down since my initial post. My main problem was the noise attached to the gate and their night time activity which was keeping me awake. It has been quiet since the police came and took the two others away and since the winnebago went. There was some noise about 5 this morning but I think this was them opening the gate and removing the padlocks/chains. Which proves the noise before was due to the gate.

bubbles65

""We have paid the deposit plus some extra but will not be paying the final 1/3rd until the work is completed, why do you ask? ""

Just wondered if this had a bearing on your actions, that's all

miss_independent

bubbles65 wrote: »

""We have paid the deposit plus some extra but will not be paying the final 1/3rd until the work is completed, why do you ask? ""

Just wondered if this had a bearing on your actions, that's all

TBH, I'm a bit confused now myself ? Whether you believe me or not I didn't know about the gate until the first day of the job (at this point only deposit had been paid) and apart from posting on here and being more vigilant about what exactly is going on around here, I wouldn't really say I had taken any actions so to speak. I may get a surveyor to check things out with regards to the damp in the living room but that is the only action I could say I am contemplating at this point. When the work had to be stopped due to weather we decided to pay some more money to the workers (this is after they told us about the gate) as they had already done the front of the house and if things had gone to schedule they would have finished. They had went out of their way, working in dangerous weather conditions and freezing cold to try and get the job finished for us (we were on a timescale) so we felt they should get some more money although we didn't want to pay in full in case they never came back! Its difficult to get the tone right in a post on the internet but please understand Bubbles, I'm not "getting at you" (I know alot of that goes on on these forums :rolleyes:!) but I don't quite understand where you are coming from? Do you mean I wouldn't have got annoyed at the neighbours if I hadn't paid the contractors 2/3rds of the money? Because I was going to get annoyed about the gate whenever I found out regardless if work was getting done at the time or not (i.e if I had somehow seen it before). Maybe I'm just having a "stupid day", I am really tired !

Anyway, despite the weather today - got back from work to discover our wonderful workmen pulled all the stops out and got the fascias and sofits on the wall in question replaced all in one day by getting all hands on deck so it has all worked out in that respect :T:T:T! I don't know how they did it but needless to say its a great relief. I also paid a bit more attention to the houses around us whilst stuck in traffic on the main road. About 0.1 of a mile down the road there is an identical house to ours (must have been constructed at the same time as ours c. 1920) with a very similar one to the neighbour's home next door (constructed 1940's/1950's). The newer house (like theirs) has a gate in an identical place apart from the fact that they have erected their own gatepost with a miniscule gap instead of attaching it to the house like ours. I wonder why our neighbours didn't do this?

Also I know how "finickity" some of you can get! Just so you know that we did make sure access was granted before the workmen set foot on their property, I thought I would add, in another note (after the first one went unanswered) we said something along the lines of;
"We know you are not on speaking terms with us but we do need to get this work done. If you are okay with our workmen having access to the fascias/sofits at side of our house please would you leave the gate open when you leave for work as a way of letting us know. We will ensure any debris caused by the work is cleared immediately. If you do not allow us access for this work to be done, then we will have no alternative but to seek legal advice re the Party Wall Act. We would like to remind you that you chose to attach this gate to our property without our consent, and after we expressed our safety concerns to you 8 years ago and denied your request - your action at the time of attaching the gate was illegal. We also believe that you then took steps to conceal it by parking a large vehicle in front of the gate thus obscuring our view. Despite your past deception, we now hope you will have the decency to cooperate with us."

Yes, we were calling their bluff a bit and the tone was a bit snotty but it did work in the end (and I'm sure the actual grammar and wording were better in the note!). I believe the man next door was actually quite civil to our workmen when he saw them in passing.

bubbles65

Pleased to see that you didn't give them all of the money before the job was done MI, I work in the building trade - plasterer - and I know how things work. Once you've been paid the 'incentive' to get back isn't quite as strong as it should be (wrong, I know, but it's a fact).
I had a feeling that you'd maybe given them all of the money and they were using the 'trespass' excuse to delay finishing the job, I'm pleased for you that I was wrong:beer:

Any-how, you've got me hooked now, you need to keep us up to date on what is happening in the drugs farm / B&B / bomb factory!!!!
I would hang fire on the surveyor for now too (have you seen how much they charge?)If you have damp along the entire wall that the gate is fixed to it is unlikely to be the cause. From the photos it looks like you dont get much sun on that face of your house, so it will be a cold wall. Also a simple air-brick or two might do the trick, or it could be that the cavities need cleaned out. there are a lot of reasons for a damp wall, try a builder friend (or friend of a friend).
And - just for good measure - a bit of mischief, put a lock and chain on the gate and see what happens;)

miss_independent

bubbles65 wrote: »

Pleased to see that you didn't give them all of the money before the job was done MI, I work in the building trade - plasterer - and I know how things work. Once you've been paid the 'incentive' to get back isn't quite as strong as it should be (wrong, I know, but it's a fact).
I had a feeling that you'd maybe given them all of the money and they were using the 'trespass' excuse to delay finishing the job, I'm pleased for you that I was wrong:beer:

Any-how, you've got me hooked now, you need to keep us up to date on what is happening in the drugs farm / B&B / bomb factory!!!!
I would hang fire on the surveyor for now too (have you seen how much they charge?)If you have damp along the entire wall that the gate is fixed to it is unlikely to be the cause. From the photos it looks like you dont get much sun on that face of your house, so it will be a cold wall. Also a simple air-brick or two might do the trick, or it could be that the cavities need cleaned out. there are a lot of reasons for a damp wall, try a builder friend (or friend of a friend).
And - just for good measure - a bit of mischief, put a lock and chain on the gate and see what happens;)

Ahhhhh, now I see! No, we have had too much experience of dodgy workmen in the past to be that trusting but now you point it out, we didn't think that they may have been making an excuse so great point. Good to see you are trustworthy, if I ever need a plasterer I'll have to PM you lol!

The damp is actually on one small area of the wall. In 2008, the insurance company sent a surveyor out as we thought we had subsidence due to cracks appearing everywhere. We had some sort of drainage dug and trees removed and internal cracks plastered over. Then we paid to have our living room decorated. This damp patch appeared between 8 and 10 months ago and is gradually getting worse. But don't want to claim on insurance again and as you say surveyors don't come cheap. It is a shame though as you just get the lounge done and then it looks shoddy! Spot on about not getting sun on that wall, the winnebago didn't help! We are extending this year (hehe that'll teach them :dance:) so might see if the builders could take a peak, thanks for the advice. Have figured out if I strap my legs to the wall somehow, I could lean very far out and *mess* with the gate without having set foot on their property mwhoah ha ha (thats my evil laugh btw) - but alas it is a bit of a fantasy. For now .

To all; hate to disappoint but no news. All quiet next door I'm afraid (but actually happy). Saw flashing blue lights last night and got all excited but someone just got pulled over on the road. Typical, eh! Should have ranted on here years ago, I feel its kind of ironic that once I've got a captive audience to rant to, I've got nothing to rant about! But er..... yes... the gate is still there and that is the only problem atm.

marleyboy

If its on your wall - take it down, feel free to mention to them if they want it up to fix it to their own wall

miss_independent

marleyboy wrote: »

If its on your wall - take it down, feel free to mention to them if they want it up to fix it to their own wall

For a moment then I thought you meant take the wall down :eek::rotfl:.

But that quite possibly could be the solution....... if we knocked the wall down, the gate would be attached to thin air. If I was a multi-millionaire, I'd do it just to prove a point!

PopeSock

miss_independent wrote: »

For a moment then I thought you meant take the wall down :eek::rotfl:.

But that quite possibly could be the solution....... if we knocked the wall down, the gate would be attached to thin air. If I was a multi-millionaire, I'd do it just to prove a point!

You'd make a hell of a lot of money if you did. James Randi has a One Million Dollar Challenge whereby he will give a million dollars to anyone who can prove a supernatural phenomenon.