Liabilities/responsibility for trees on your property - neighbour damage

DaftyDuck

I might see about making a channel about a handspan wide, and two handspans deep down the side of his house add a border stone and fill with gravel to let the side of his house have a gap away from the soil.

I wouldn't - for the time being. It probably won't be enough. It almost certainly won't seem to be enough, and you may wish to draw a firm, unwavering line. It's not your problem to deal with, so starting may be the thin edge of a very, very large wedge.

I'm not one for standing my ground and being dogmatic but I suspect, from the very limited detail we have, that your neighbour will be a bit of a bully.

If you've put in a drain, and it's not fixed the problem - maybe made it worse (i.e., the shower seal upstairs has further perished... ), then it's all your fault [Fistwave; Grrr]....

Best leave it be for now, if you can. It's possible (pigs and stratosphere come to mind) that he's embarrassed himself with his own ignorance and behaviour, and he might turn out to be a passable neighbour.

Glad about the buckets!

David_Aston

Can I ask, is it your, or their property which is the new build? Was wondering how the air bricks on their property have come to be covered? Not a brilliant way for either property to be so entangled with the other, I would have thought.

Tygermoth

We are kind of new builds, 10 years old - so not brand new

Article50

I would agree with Daftyduck do not touch anything yet. As a matter of interest can you see how many bricks up the damp course layer is in that house . Is it above or below that black patch ?

AnotherJoe

From memory of that picture, isn't it also possible that the gutter was blocked (as original stated by bullying neighbour), and the dark area is simply where water dripped down from it in one area (slight low point even by 1mm would be enough) and splashed onto the soil and the darkness on the wall is splashback from that plus mould/algae growing on the damp?

As per other comments , dont start digging trenches etc, that gives you some involvement in the problem.

Tygermoth

Ok, the air bricks - on the side where he has the gas flue/down pipe - they are two bricks up from where my garden meets his house and are below the level where the damp patch has formed. On the left fence side the air bricks are about four bricks under my garden (from what I could see digging about)



How many would you expect to find? - I could only see one? but I didn't want to dig to deep - so only two total across the whole side wall. My back wall has six (but mine was a different builder and totally different style and layout of house)

The gutter was never blocked (to my knowledge) - a clip had gone causing the gutter to tip inwards - so water would run down the gutter then tip out on to the base of the wall where the black/green spot was - it then bounced up and wet that part of the wall. The neighbour stated they 'thought' the weight of leaves had caused the gutter to fail. Though that has now been disproved.


I have a feeling that his damp issue is not going to be resolved with fixing the gutter if my garden is higher than his air bricks?

AnotherJoe

Tygermoth wrote: »

Ok, the air bricks - on the side where he has the gas flue/down pipe - they are two bricks up from where my garden meets his house and are below the level where the damp patch has formed. On the left fence side the air bricks are about four bricks under my garden (from what I could see digging about)



How many would you expect to find? - I could only see one? but I didn't want to dig to deep - so only two total across the whole side wall. My back wall has six (but mine was a different builder and totally different style and layout of house)

The gutter was never blocked (to my knowledge) - a clip had gone causing the gutter to tip inwards - so water would run down the gutter then tip out on to the base of the wall where the black/green spot was - it then bounced up and wet that part of the wall. The neighbour stated they 'thought' the weight of leaves had caused the gutter to fail. Though that has now been disproved.

I have a feeling that his damp issue is not going to be resolved with fixing the gutter if my garden is higher than his air bricks?

I wouldn't underestimate the issues of a wall getting wet and tracking through but air bricks under the soil is pretty poor !! Water will obviously be leaking in.

How on earth did that come about I wonder? Obviously you have no way to know Was there a trench or similar which the previous house owners filled in with a border? That seems more likely than builders putting airbricks about a foot under the ground !

I'm guessing the DPC must be under the soil as well?

If this was a non argumentative friendly neighbour I'd have been inclined to help them by pointing this out, but this is a difficult one, why go out of your way given their attitude?

OTOH if its your soil against their wall above the DPC and air bricks causing the problem, longer term it becomes your issue?

Article50

Personally I would keep the information to yourself at present. If you can get online to your local council planning services and see if you can look at the planning application for both properties and get a date of likely construction. If your house was finished first then the other builders may have ignored ground levels. I am not a builder but it seems different Councils have different rules regarding air bricks so it might be worth looking at the local Council building regs.

I must say the boundary arrangement is very strange in that the ability for the neighbour to maintain his property wall, gutters and drain, relies totally on your giving (or not) access. Would not be surprised if this had been the cause of a dispute with the previous owners. Might be worth double checking your deeds to see if there is anything about access. Looking at mine compulsory access only applies to services (gas etc) not third party.

If you have seen neighbour's by you it would be worth asking if your previous owner had any landscaping work done including planting the tree.

franklee

Article50 wrote: »

I must say the boundary arrangement is very strange in that the ability for the neighbour to maintain his property wall, gutters and drain, relies totally on your giving (or not) access. Would not be surprised if this had been the cause of a dispute with the previous owners. Might be worth double checking your deeds to see if there is anything about access. Looking at mine compulsory access only applies to services (gas etc) not third party.

Agreed. Having a side wall as a boundary is common enough in new builds but given they are only ten years old I'd expect they wouldn't have the boiler venting in a neighbour's garden or overhanging guttering.

Tygermoth, In your shoes I'd be tracking down the original planning application and plans. Sources are the local planning office, they may have it all online as well and also the builder. Maybe also the likes of zoopla property history.

I'd want to be checking if the boiler is as original or if it's been moved. If it has been moved I'd be wanting it moved back. If you just have a plain brick wall there will be less to cause dispute. Having their boiler vented on your land is crap and unsafe for both sides as you could obstruct the vent and they would not know. I would be amazed if that met planning and building regs as of ten years ago.

As for access for maintenance in my experience we got a document titled transfer of part of freehold land that details the convents etc. that says about having to allow the neighbours access for maintenance by appointment. Your solicitor should have talked you through the likes of this document when you purchased. Your neighbour should also have one with reciprocal rights and responsibilities.

Tygermoth

I have received the planning portal link from the council - but as our build was part of a bigger regeneration to a listed building and listed area with TPOs - there is over 1300 documents noted! so I will wade through with a cuppa at the weekend.


I can tell you with certainty that the neighbours boiler has not been moved - as the mirror houses to ours have the same vents in the same place. Our vent could also be considered a nuisance as it vents over his driveway - so poor planning all round.


I wonder, as the houses were designed to 'compliment' and dovetail into the the listed building and its grounds, if they overlooked some planning aspects to make the house styles fit with the local area. When we had BGas in they commented that if we were to have any work done on the boiler the vent would have to be moved as was not compliant with current regulations.


On looking at how the houses are arranged, we are on a slight hill with the neighbours house being lower than ours the builders just haven't taken the elevation into account. walking across the park to the mirror houses on the other side (same formation and styles) there is no incline and you can see air bricks as they don't have a little hill.