Akward Neighbours...

toddler9

The back edge of our neighbours garden borders our driveway. There is a fence running along the majority of the length except a small section where they have built an eyesore of a lean to greenhouse/conservatory looking directly into our driveway and garden
We only moved in a few months ago and haven't really had any in depth conversations with them. Except this weekend they came over to say they think our builders replacing the gutters had cracked one of the panes of glass in aforementioned glass structure. Having looked at it it did look damaged so we spoke to our builders who denied it. We offered to pay to have the glass replaced but the neighbours declined. We mentioned that we were thinking of extending the fence all the way down (to divide our driveway from their conservatory)
Today I come home to a letter from them saying they don't give us permission to extend the fence? We haven't asked them to contribute financially so I'm not sure where I stand now?

jackomdj

Your fence? Your garden? Your choice!

toddler9

That's the problem, their garden is higher than our driveway by about 1.5 feet and the fence is on the higher elevation. Having looked at the title plans it is technically on our land (all the other houses along that side have garden in line as per the plan but this neighbour would appear to be extending into our driveway by about 2 feet compared to them)...

moneyistooshorttomention

If its your land and the existing part of fence is yours - then just extend your fence and they will have to put up with it. I'm guessing the previous owner of your fence put up the existing bit of it and they managed to pressure them not to continue it on past their lean-to. They are now trying to pressure you too by the sound of it.

It's rather cheeky of them to expect to be able to keep looking into your garden like that.

bouicca21

So who owns the fence? If they have encroached on your land how can you prove it (and if they encroached decades ago, i doubt you can do anything).

You could put up your own fence inside your boundary.

But think hard - you are heading for a potentially nasty neighbour dispute that will blight your enjoyment of your new house. The situation really calls for one of GM's cakes and a friendly conversation over a cuppa.

Cakeguts

Put the fence on your side of the glass extension so that they can't look into your garden anymore. Normal people don't build glass extensions that overlook someone's garden or if they do they put in opaque glass. These people clearly don't care about anyone but themselves so if you want your privacy put the fence on your side.

AdrianC

If the fence is on your side of the boundary, you don't need their permission.

So they complained about the pane being broken, you offered to replace it - and they rejected that. What DO they want, then?

Davesnave

Slow burn for me.

Choose a few quick-growing evergreen shrubs that grow to around 3m and plant them as a group about a metre from the boundary.

Wave, smile and say "Good morning" as normal.

Norman_Castle

Today I come home to a letter from them saying they don't give us permission to extend the fence?

Whos fence is it?

toddler9

I am not sure who’s fence it is. We have only lived there for a few months and they have lived there since the houses were built in 1972.

The physical border between our driveway/garden and their garden is a line of concrete flags upended. Their garden is higher and the fence is on the higher elevation stepped back from the concrete flags so it would appear to be their fence. The complication comes when I look at the title plans for both of our properties they seem to have extended their garden into our driveway as all the other properties on that side are in line about 2 feet further back as per the plan.

I don’t want to get into re-instating the correct border I just want to extend the current fence by one panel to make our property secure. At the moment they can just walk round their conservatory and into our garden if they wanted to. It will be really difficult to extend the fence along our driveway because it is so much lower. And also we can’t plant anything because it’s just concrete

I am thinking of going round with a copy of the title plans and saying we are planning to put a fence up within our borders according to the plan and seeing what they say…

How does it work with putting a fence directly on the border? Do both parties have to agree?

DRP

toddler9 wrote: »

I am not sure who’s fence it is. We have only lived there for a few months and they have lived there since the houses were built in 1972.

The physical border between our driveway/garden and their garden is a line of concrete flags upended. Their garden is higher and the fence is on the higher elevation stepped back from the concrete flags so it would appear to be their fence. The complication comes when I look at the title plans for both of our properties they seem to have extended their garden into our driveway as all the other properties on that side are in line about 2 feet further back as per the plan.

I don’t want to get into re-instating the correct border I just want to extend the current fence by one panel to make our property secure. At the moment they can just walk round their conservatory and into our garden if they wanted to. It will be really difficult to extend the fence along our driveway because it is so much lower. And also we can’t plant anything because it’s just concrete

I am thinking of going round with a copy of the title plans and saying we are planning to put a fence up within our borders according to the plan and seeing what they say…

How does it work with putting a fence directly on the border? Do both parties have to agree?

If the boundary layout has been like that for many years then you may be on a hiding to nothing - others will know more about this than me. Perhaps contact the Land Registry Representative on this site.