Boundary nightmare!

Little_Monkey_4

Hi,

I was wondering if someone could help with a question. We recently bought a small semi, and there was a short brick wall on our land at the front of the house which we owned separating the land to the side of the house. This land is owned by someone else, however we have right of way down it to the side of our house. We had the front garden cleared and the brick wall taken down in order to re-do the front totally and put up a picket fence. A week later we came home to find 3 bright blue metal bollards over a meter tall and 5 inches diameter which had not been capped on the top (very unsightly) where our brick wall used to be to separate the land. There was no reason for him to do this. He has erected them on his land and the front of the house looks terrible now. We were planning to put up a pretty picket fence to separate the land and have no problems with a boundary, but it seems he has done this out of spite as we did not accept his offer of buying his land as we could not afford it.
Is there anything we can do?!

System

If they are on his land then there is not a lot that you can do

maypole

Could you not build your fence higher than his bollards to hide them from your view?

Old_Skool

Does the other party know you intend to replace your wall with a picket fence?

It could be that they've misread your actions and put the bollards in place to protect their land.

Might be worth having a calm discussion and explain all, just because you can't afford the land now doesn't rule out a later date.

Also if either of you decide to sell buyers could see it as a dispute, bad neighbours etc and walk away.

It's amazing how small incidents can spiral.

If you've already tried this then sorry, just went on your first post.

mandirinmonroe

build a fence to hide them and tell him to stick his bollards where the sun dont shine.

rjm2k1

They are either where your brick wall used to be, or on his land, they can't be both. If they are where the wall was, they are on your land and you can tell him to remove them explaining that you are planning to put a fence/wall up where the original was, if they are on his land, build your own fence/wall to obscure them.

losgiganteskid

If you have home contents or buildings cover did you take the optional Household Legal Expenses cover ? - if so any dispute will be dealt with by your legal expenses insurers. Don't leave it too late to involve them though 180 days max

Debt_Free_Chick

If the wall was the boundary, doesn't the Party Wall Act apply?

Even if it didn't, it doesn't seem terribly conducive to good neighbourly relations for you to tear down the boundary marker without involving your neighbour. I know this is "after the event" but it might explain why your neighbour seems particularly peeved - it could be nothing to do with your not buying the strip of land

I guess you have a choice - either to continue to escalate the problem by taking some relatiatory action or to apologise and agree a solution that you are both happy with.

All the above assumes that the wall marked the boundary, so you would both be keen to ensure that the new marker was accurately placed to avoid any further disputes.

HTH