Neighbours have removed fencing and knocked down brick wall

Clueless101

Thanks for all the replies.

The deeds show the "T" is on Mum's friend's side and the text mentions "at all times maintain a fence or fences on the boundaries of the property marked with a T inwards on the plan". So it mentions fence but not wall - all the houses in the street have this same wall though, so I assume they're original. If it's not mentioned specifically, would it be my Mum's friend's or be jointly owned maybe, but definitely not the neighbours?

Unfortunately, it turns out her neighbours have gone away. They probably left to escape the noise, the builders have been working all weekend. Poor lady (my Mum's friend), the timing of this is terrible, her neighbours on the other side (where the houses are attached) have been building a 2 storey extension for the last 2 months, so the weekends really are her only chance at a bit of peace and quiet (she doesn't leave the house much). She's had scaffolding in her drive, back garden and inside her garage, so it's been quite disruptive and has unsettled her I think. The builders there have at least given her notice when they need access, but she's still found it quite stressful, so now this problem with the wall with the other neighbours seems to have overwhelmed her a little, whereas maybe if it was an isolated event she would be coping with it better.

Anyway, my Mum's friend did manage to speak to the neighbours son (who had popped in quickly, but doesn't live there) this morning and asked him to tell the builders to move all the bricks from her garden (since the builders have ignored her requests), to which the builder replied he'd be using them all today, so they'd be gone.

Unfortunately, I had just missed the builders when I visited this afternoon. It had starting raining about 2:30pm and they quickly disappeared (and still haven't returned). They've still left a big stack of bricks in my Mum's friend's front garden, and although I'm sure the grass will recover, her access down the side of her house is blocked. Unfortunately, there's other bits of stone and timber on top that are too heavy for me to lift, so she rang her gardeners who are due tomorrow and they said not to worry, that if necessary they would move them themselves.

Anyway, the wall has been completely knocked down between the front gardens (yet to be rebuilt), but only partially between the house (2-4 courses in a patchy manor) so it's a bit of a botched job, with old on new and not in a well matched red brick. The wall used to have pale stone triangular coping stones, but they've replaced with just dark grey/blue ordinary bricks laid in the usual stretcher bond for the top course (it's only single leaf, not double - the "retaining" part is double, but one leaf stops at the neighbours ground level and will be hidden). I know copping stones with an overhang aren't essential, but they do deflect the water which presumably means the bricks last longer, so they (both the new and the old) no longer have that protection. They don't appear to be using any dpc either. My worry would be that the older parts they've left will now deteriorate quicker and the whole wall old and new will need replacing eventually - then who pays. Also, the wall now doesn't match any of the others in the street (there's walls down inbetween every other house and along the front, separating the front gardens from the pavement, of all the houses). Most are original, but the few people who have rebuilt (which includes the other neighbours of the neighbours doing this work) have done so in a like-for-like replacement so that everything still matches.

Sorry, I'm just unnecessarily ranting now.

I've told my Mum's friend that if she sees the neighbours son again, to ask when they're coming back or at least for a phone number to contact them on. He himself didn't seem too bothered with helping and was in a hurry to rush off. He said he preferred the "new look" of the wall and that they wouldn't be putting the fencing back on top of the section of wall between the houses (they've put the old fencing back between the back gardens, but that's it).

Dimey

Wow. I think this has gone too far and your friend has to put a stop to it before its too late to put right.

I would get a solicitor to serve a letter on the builder and home owner to stop what they are doing and put the wall & fence back exactly as it was.

It shouldn't cost too much for a one off letter.

If your friend continues to ignore it, they'll say she had her chance to complain and didn't.

I would be so furious I might even call the police to stop the builder knocking down the wall and using her garden as a dumping ground. In fact I suggest you strongly consider calling the police first thing in the morning so they can tell the builder to stop and clear the mess in her garden before the wall gets built up any more. She needs time to talk to the neighbour before its too late. Tell the police the builder is causing a breach of the peace and maybe criminal damage.

Terrible situation. I can see the old lady will not say a word and will end up with a sub standard wall that looks nothing like the others in the street and a ruined lawn.

Sorry to any legal eagles here who know the legal jargon, maybe you can say whether my gut feel approach has any legal standing.

keystone

Dimey wrote: »

Your post was perfectly clear to me OP.

I didn't say the post was unclear I said the information / situation was unclear because its clearly third hand.

Cheers

keystone

Dimey wrote: »

I would get a solicitor to serve a letter on the builder and home owner to stop what they are doing and put the wall & fence back exactly as it was.

You'd need an injunction to get it stopped not a sols letter and in any event a sols letter wuld probably just pour a bucket of petrol on the bonfire.

If your friend continues to ignore it, they'll say she had her chance to complain and didn't.

Thats about the only thing anybody can positively say.

I would be so furious I might even call the police to stop the builder knocking down the wall and using her garden as a dumping ground. In fact I suggest you strongly consider calling the police first thing in the morning so they can tell the builder to stop and clear the mess in her garden before the wall gets built up any more. She needs time to talk to the neighbour before its too late. Tell the police the builder is causing a breach of the peace and maybe criminal damage.

Yes its possibly criminal damage in the limit if its mums friends wall. That doesn't mean the police have to do anything and they will probably say "civil matter" though. How is it breach of the peace? Have you heard of something called "wasting police time?" You can't stop them knocking the wall down - it's already gone. Builders material on her land is a trespass which is a civil tort not a criminal offence.

Cheers

Dimey

Thanks Keystone. Yes I can see the old dear is stuffed in law.

That's probably why you need a burly person who can verbally aggressively jump on this kind of thing as soon as it starts and intimidate the builder/neighbour back till they back down and cooperate.

Nice gentle old ladies don't stand a chance.

Dimey

keystone wrote: »

I didn't say the post was unclear I said the information / situation was unclear because its clearly third hand.

Cheers

Keystone, I was responding to this post below (no. 7), not yours.

Clueless101 wrote: »

Sorry, my post probably isn't clear enough, it was the neighbours that damaged the wall, not my Mum's friend.