council house garden border dispute please help

sirmosh

As others have said, the only real issue here is to establish the boundary, once it's clear the fence is on your land then that's the end of the story. Even if your neighbour has a duty to maintain that boundary it doesn't mean you can't put your own fence on your own land, there would be no problem in both of you putting a fence up, providing it was on your own land.

Norman_Castle

the daughter said her dad has the right to choose what goes there because he owns the right side of his garden ..

The daughter is wrong. He can put a fence on his property, as can you. If your fence is safe and secure and on your,or the landlords property, it is very unlikely they will spend money replacing the fence or expect you to.
http://www.boundary-problems.co.uk/boundary-problems/fences.html

the old couple gave me permission to put up a fence.

You do not need their permission to fence your garden. Speak to your landlord.

silvercar

Its a terraced house, so I would expect the boundary to be in line with the boundary of the house. Is there any reason why it isn't?

G_M

silvercar wrote: »

Its a terraced house, so I would expect the boundary to be in line with the boundary of the house. Is there any reason why it isn't?

Good point. Afraid the original post was too densely packed to read the detail so we all missed that.

Get one of those cricket lawn line-painting barrows. Start at the back of the house where the 2 properties meet, and paint a white line straight back between th gardens.

There's your boundary.

Anything you do on your side of the line is your business.

seven-day-weekend

You are entitled to put up a fence up to two metres high (as long as it is not facing onto a road) without Planning Permission, on your own land.
If your neighbours put a wire fence up on their side, put up what you want next to it on your side.

Richard_SM_2

Hi … you don’t really *need* to do anything. It sounds like you’re being too neighbourly and they are trying to take advantage of you. However, you will probably worry what will happen next if you do nothing, so here is some guidance.

1) If the man has been in contact with the council but your house is now owned by a housing association, then he’s not going to get very far.

2) As a housing association tenant you wouldn’t have the right to re-negotiate or agree the boundaries of the property.

3) If it does become a boundary dispute, it is between the couple next door and the housing association.

4) Also, if it does become boundary dispute then it is likely to be a problem for them (the old couple next door) because whenever a property is sold nowadays you normally have to declare whether there has ever been a boundary dispute. This puts a lot of house buyers off when they find out and they might have to offer a discount after a price has been agreed.

5) So, to put your mind at rest it might suit you to point out to the daughter or the old couple that if they pursue the matter then it will have to dealt with as a proper dispute. They’ll have legal costs AND will have to declare a boundary dispute when their property is sold. Their daughter will regret raising the matter with you if the parents are staying in the house until they die, since she is now aware there is a boundary dispute.

6) As someone else has said, the boundary is usually in line with the party wall, though this isn’t always the case. However, council houses also used to put concrete posts to show where the boundary lies and even if these are no longer present the concrete base is usually still underground somewhere so the boundary can be found if necessary. Also in some areas you can look on Google Earth and look at the historical images which can help sometimes.

7) Regarding the fence, if it’s 2 metres high or thereabouts, they don’t have any grounds for complaint, and less so if it’s well inside the boundary.

8) You don’t need to go and weed their side and you don’t need to offer them cherries from your tree. You do need to remind them, or their daughter, from time to time that any more nonsense and you’ll move the fence back to the correct place and make an issue about the boundary which is likely to cost them a few thousand pounds.

Good luck.

WhiteHorse

You have stated that the house in which you live is operated by a housing association. Confirm who owns it - the council or the housing association. (If it's an ALMO, then it will still be the council).

The adjacent property is owned by whom? Is that also council or is it private?

Either way, as a council tenant, you are in no position to give anything away, simply because you are not the landowner. If both properties are council then your neighbour can't say that anything is 'his' either.

k66yla

WhiteHorse wrote: »

The adjacent property is owned by whom? Is that also council or is it private?

OP has already stated its private in 1st post.
You always get these a**ehole ex council neighbours that think they are better than you and tend to make tenants lives a nightmare. Then the tenant ends up tiptoeing around so as to not upset them incase the council threatens to chuck them out on the neighbours say so.

winterwhite11

Richard_SM wrote: »

Hi … you don’t really *need* to do anything. It sounds like you’re being too neighbourly and they are trying to take advantage of you. However, you will probably worry what will happen next if you do nothing, so here is some guidance.

1) If the man has been in contact with the council but your house is now owned by a housing association, then he’s not going to get very far.

2) As a housing association tenant you wouldn’t have the right to re-negotiate or agree the boundaries of the property.

3) If it does become a boundary dispute, it is between the couple next door and the housing association.

4) Also, if it does become boundary dispute then it is likely to be a problem for them (the old couple next door) because whenever a property is sold nowadays you normally have to declare whether there has ever been a boundary dispute. This puts a lot of house buyers off when they find out and they might have to offer a discount after a price has been agreed.

5) So, to put your mind at rest it might suit you to point out to the daughter or the old couple that if they pursue the matter then it will have to dealt with as a proper dispute. They’ll have legal costs AND will have to declare a boundary dispute when their property is sold. Their daughter will regret raising the matter with you if the parents are staying in the house until they die, since she is now aware there is a boundary dispute.

6) As someone else has said, the boundary is usually in line with the party wall, though this isn’t always the case. However, council houses also used to put concrete posts to show where the boundary lies and even if these are no longer present the concrete base is usually still underground somewhere so the boundary can be found if necessary. Also in some areas you can look on Google Earth and look at the historical images which can help sometimes.

7) Regarding the fence, if it’s 2 metres high or thereabouts, they don’t have any grounds for complaint, and less so if it’s well inside the boundary.

8) You don’t need to go and weed their side and you don’t need to offer them cherries from your tree. You do need to remind them, or their daughter, from time to time that any more nonsense and you’ll move the fence back to the correct place and make an issue about the boundary which is likely to cost them a few thousand pounds.

Good luck.

Thankyou so so much to everyone who took time to answer on here,it has really put my mind at rest somewhat.
I am going to print off the quotes above to show the neighbours as soon as they come to complain.
Because we gave them a bit of ground {by accident} the man next door now has room to dig next to his path ,as a result of him digging there our fence panels keep falling all the time and leaning in and we have to keep replacing the panels a lot.
Someone just told me they think that the ground i accidently gave away will belong to the neighbours after 11 years, i don,t know if this is true.
If this is true then i am very worried because
1 .i have given away something that is not mine and
2. that housing association will in the future bill me for the lost ground {which i would obviously pay} .
Do you think i should find out the boundry line seeing as it is a terraced house then it should be simple maths to find line {as a few kind people on here pointed out} or should i just let everything be.
One of my panels come down yesterday and i know the man is going to refuse us access to his garden to put it back up. {we always need to get in both gardens to put panels up}
I did also phone ha and man was not sure but he said he does not think i have anything to worry about ,he said he will check but thinks i can keep up fence.
I don,t think my cherry tree will be alive much longer because the couple was complaining about my fan peach tree which is againt the fence and a few branches was about 1 foot above my fence panels ,they wanted me to cut it back but i said i just need to leave it for a while as i can only prune it at a certain time. i then found a couple of small branches cut off and chucked over my garden , they landed on my giant lilies and broke them all which was disapointing as i was going to cut them for elderly relative who is blind {she had some the year before off me and was so happy}.
my peach tree then just died .very very disapointing again as it cost me a few hundred pound when i bought it as it was already trained and growing well . i used to get loads of big juicy peaches of that tree.
i don,t think it died from having a few little branches cut as it did not get any of that amber stuff on it or anything ,it just kind off went from healthy to dead ...i suspect that weedkiller was put down .

DTDfanBoy

As previously mentioned, you should contact the housing association, they have people who will be able to deal with the situation correctly. The property is not yours, so let the owners sort out any boundary disputes.

If you neighbours are as awkward as you claim, just ignore them. Raise any issues you have with them when you talk to the housing association, they will then point you in the direction of assistance.