New gate has affected neighbour's gate

Daisies

I had a new side gate installed on my house in January, along with some other work in the garden. It's one of those terraced houses with a shared passageway between me and my neighbour. So the two sidegates are angled across at the end of the passageway, attached to two posts next to each other in the middle.

Anyway, I warned her [my neighbour] about the work, the bloke who did it took out my old gatepost (which I think was propping hers up as hers wasn't particularly well installed and isn't set up straight according to the spirit level) and put me a new one in. She told me while the work was going on that it had shifted the level of her gate and that the latch wouldn't close, so I asked the man who did the work to move her latch, which he did (I think, I checked that she was happy with the gate before I paid him).

Now she tells me that the latch won't hold as her gate has moved level. I've left a message on the tradesman's phone but haven't had a reply. I'm not sure whether I should be asking him to come back to sort it out. Partly it's because her shoddy gate was leaning on my old one anyway. I think it would be simple to sort out, but might involve moving the latch a couple of times - but I'm absolutely useless at doing things like that, and she doesn't seem inclined to do anything about it herself. Plus, she has a 3 year old and I don't want to risk the little one being able to get through her gate onto the road if the latch isn't working properly. And I want to be a good neighbour, but equally I'm not sure how responsible I am for all this!

Any ideas?

mancitychick

Personally I would think you are not responsible for this whatsoever. However it could cause you to fall out with your neighbour if you did nothing.

How approachable is your neighbour, can you not explain that her gate was not right in the first place and maybe she needs to get someone in to look at the post herself and that you did get your tradesman to adjust the latch to see if it would help???

Daisies

Yeah, I was thinking along those lines, that it's not my responsibility but I don't want to fall out with her.

At the moment I'm "waiting for the tradesman to get back to me" but I have a feeling he won't (after all, I've paid him, it's not really his problem). I would like to say to her that her gate wasn't right in the first place, but as far as she's concerned her gate worked OK before I had the work done.

I'd thought about offering to buy her a new latch (don't mind paying a bit for the sake of neighbourly peace) but I can't offer to fit it myself cos I'm hopeless and I feel awkward asking her, as sometimes there's a man hanging around her house doing maintenance/DIY work, who I think is her ex-husband, and sometimes there's another man.

She's already admitted she's in a bit of a state at the moment, as her Mum died 3 weeks ago, and I took her some flowers round after that. But she's obviously under pressure at the moment (she's a single Mum and has 2 teenagers as well as the 3 year old) and I don't want to add to it.

Avoriaz

I don’t think it matters much who is responsible.

You think she is responsible because her gate was faulty. You might be right.

She thinks you are responsible because her gate was OK before. She might be right.

What really matters is good neighbourly relations. For the sake of a small amount of money I think you should sort it out for her. Either get a man (or woman) in to do it or find a pal with diy skills to sort it out. It should not be difficult

Even if it costs you £50, that is a small price to pay for peace of mind and continuing good relations with your neighbour.

Daisies

Thanks Avoriaz, I agree with your advice, but I'm not sure how to get it carried out. I've used a local handyman before when I needed shelves putting up and gutters clearing, but he charges £60 for half a day and won't do less than half a day, which is crazy cos this will only take 10 minutes to fix! And I'm new to the area and don't work locally so I don't know many people. The only people I know around here are either hopeless at DIY or so elderly and infirm they wouldn't be able to help!

I'm planning on getting Mr Handyman back to do a load of stuff, but that won't be until the summer when I've built up a list for him to work through, and I think that's too long to ask my neighbour to wait.

What do you think if I offer to buy her a new latch and then leave it to her to get it fitted? She evidently does have people around who can do DIY type stuff as the various men have been there doing all sorts of stuff. If I did that then I'd have shown that I'm willing to help, and hopefully provided a means of sorting the problem out, but made it clear that it's her responsibility to attach the thing to the gate in a way that means it'll stay shut! What I don't get is why the latch doesn't work now, when it did immediately after the work in January - maybe the wet weather made the gate swell or something?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

can you describe the latch, is it a bolt that slides along, one that drops into place or one that clicks shut? I shouldn't think it will be too difficult to adjust.

Daisies

It looks like the "Suffolk latch" in the pictures here:

http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/gatelatch.htm

She uses the back gate/door as the main way into the house so it gets a lot of use and has to be openable from both sides (and can't be locked shut to stop it blowing open as they need access from both sides).

The "keep" thing in the pictures was moved by my tradesman immediately after he put my gate in in January, and it kept her gate shut then, but something has altered since. I looked out the upstairs window this morning though and her gate is shut, so it might have been the really high winds we had at the weekend being too much for the latch to cope with?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I see, looks like the 'keep' is needing moved up or down a bit, it's only held on by two cross headed/Phillips screws, so easy enough to reposition, or might be that the latch bar has got a bit bent with banging in the high winds, so needs straightening.

As you say no point in getting a man in for a 5 minute job, you can get a wee screwdriver kit, with interchangeable heads, from your local pound shop, and have a go yourself.

From your illustration,

'In this position, with the latch bar sitting on the lever, slide the keep up to the latch bar and fix so the latch bar sits in the notch in the keep.'

Go on have a go, it'll get you in the neighbours good books.

Daisies

Thanks frugalmacdugal (love the username btw!), I'll give it a try sometime in the next week, as it definitely looks like the original tradesman isn't going to reappear.

I've got a screwdriver set, I was just worried that it might involve drilling holes in things, which I can't do at all (well, not in a straight line anyway!)

[Deleted User]

Hi,

hope my username doesn't give you the impression that I'm a tight Scotsman, just canny. :rotfl:

You shouldn't have to do any drilling, might have to use a heavier screw, if you find that there are 2/3 holes as keep has been moved before.