Help! Restrictive Covenant - Front Fence

Mossfarr

OP your neighbour needs to learn to live and let live. If she threatens legal action tell her (in the nicest possible way of course) to bring it on, but advise her that it will probably ending up costing her a lot of time & money. Its unlikely the court would see in her favour when the parties to the original covenant have already stated they will not attend to defend any breach. She could end up paying your costs as well!
After she has had time to digest that I would suggest she widens her driveway as a possible solution.
good luck

AdrianC

warby68 wrote: »

Not really, the OP put up a fence where a covenant says he shouldn't so its hardly one-sided.

Go back a step. What is the point of the covenant? It exists to benefit not the neighbour, but the developer. They are the only ones who can enforce it - and they have said they won't. It exists not to make the neighbour's entrance into their drive easier, but to keep the development visually consistent - and it already fails at that,because the neighbour on the other side has already long since breached it.

The covenant is irrelevant. The neighbour is merely using it as an excuse to continue driving across private land over which she has no right of way.

steeeb

Just say to the neighbor in a friendly manner that you've replaced the panel at your expense to try to help and offered to see if there is anything you can do to help her get on the drive easier by altering her garden for her.

And that is where it should be left - whether she is disabled or not doesn't mean everyone needs to drop on their knees to her request - you've been more than reasonable and if anything gone "the extra mile" just to be threatened with legal action.

If she says any more after that just state you won't be discussing it any further.

Money_saving_maniac

TomTom3009 wrote: »

That's the thing, I'm not sure as it's an 'open plan' estate (even though it's not now really) whether everyone benefits from the covenant. But it's only her complaining.
Yes I've seen the covenant and unfortunately it's not got a time or expiry on it! :-(

Leave your fence up. Let her find out for herself how much it costs to get a solicitor involved, if she wants to do that, let her carry on. She might pay out £50-£100 for a solicitors letter - which you should ignore if you receive it - but she won't want to put her hand in her pocket once she discovers the eye watering costs of solicitors. That is unless she is secretly a lottery winner...

I think she would find it hard to prove everyone benefits from the covenant if other people also have fences up.

She just wants you to remove it because

a) she's a useless driver
b) her friends find it convenient to park on your drive, possibly because they are also useless drivers.

The covenant does not give people the right to park where they want.

paddedjohn

Op, is this a shared driveway by any chance? If not tell her to go whistle

warby68

AdrianC wrote: »

Go back a step. What is the point of the covenant? It exists to benefit not the neighbour, but the developer. They are the only ones who can enforce it - and they have said they won't. It exists not to make the neighbour's entrance into their drive easier, but to keep the development visually consistent - and it already fails at that,because the neighbour on the other side has already long since breached it.

The covenant is irrelevant. The neighbour is merely using it as an excuse to continue driving across private land over which she has no right of way.

I know, we have lived in similar.

I have already said it probably isn't enforceable

You're assuming she also knows that covenants kind of run their course. If you read the deed, it certainly looks like a forever thing. In her mind, she will probably feel she is right.

I am simply thinking of the practicalities of avoiding a formal dispute. Absolute legal rights and wrongs are ok but living with neighbours can be different. You don't want to end up with a dispute you have to report or someone determined to make life miserable if you can avoid it.

Is she really fully driving across his property or just clipping the corner a bit?

Perhaps I have too much tolerance and sympathy for people with difficulties. Maybe I'm a soft touch but also I've never fallen out with a neighbour yet (touch wood). I just think all this keyboard chest thumping telling her to shove it stuff is not the best advice for real life living afterwards. It might come to that but surely better if it didn't.

WibblyGirly

For those saying the OP needs to be more sympathetic to his neighbour, he is building this fence to protect his child wren while they are out playing, isn't that more important?
If he takes the fence down so she drives over his land again, what happens if she hits one of his children? You'll all be bleating he should have left the fence up!!

OP I'd leave the fence up as your kids are your priority. Her guests and her own parking are her problem. I'm not great at parking and having extra space to help me park is amazing but I'd sooner pull a bit of my own fence down than force a neighbour to do it to theirs.

AdrianC

warby68 wrote: »

I have already said it probably isn't enforceable

There is no "probably". The only people who can enforce it have explicitly said they have no interest in so doing.

You're assuming she also knows that covenants kind of run their course. If you read the deed, it certainly looks like a forever thing. In her mind, she will probably feel she is right.

It IS a "forever thing" - if the beneficiary chooses to enforce it. She is both right and wrong - she is right in that he is in breach of the covenant. She is wrong in both the point of the covenant and in expecting there to be some practical redress.

TomTom3009

Wowee! Thank you all so much for your replies! They are all very helpful and makes me feel a lot better about it all...

Just to answer a few of the questions:

I agree, I doubt she should be driving if she finds it that dificult, but who am I to decide that, I wouldn't want to make her house bound... BUT she makes it to the pub OK most evenings on her scooter!

She isn't a lovely old lady as you may expect...

The covenants don't have an expiry date on them...

It is not a shared driveway at all.

My wife went round there yesterday to ask if we were to take the end post and the end panel out (basically so she can cut the corner of my driveway) then would she be happy. She responded with 'probably, I'd have to wait and see and test it out, but I should be'

With some of the comments, I really believe I should keep it up and say stick it! Which I would love to do, but I can't risk the cost of court or any kind of legal battle on it, just incase things don't go my way :-(

Thanks again everyone!

AdrianC

TomTom3009 wrote: »

With some of the comments, I really believe I should keep it up and say stick it! Which I would love to do, but I can't risk the cost of court or any kind of legal battle on it, just incase things don't go my way :-(

She has NO grounds to take you to court. In the unlikely event she does, then any case would be dismissed instantly. It is that simple.

She can, of course, threaten and even get a solicitor to send you threatening letters - but you just need to reply saying that she is not a beneficiary of the covenant, cannot enforce it, and she has no right of way over your land in the first place. She would just be wasting her money.