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Issue with shared front garden
arciere
Posts: 1,361 Forumite
We live in a first-floor converted flat, with a share of the freehold (two freeholders in total). We have our own private garden plus the small, shared garden at the front of the house.
This small garden has (well, had) all sorts of plants, flowers and small trees. Some time ago the guys living downstairs asked us if they could cut a couple of these small trees because they were having problems with spiders in the house. We said okay, we didn't mind the trees removed. Now, a few months later, they decided that that was not enough and asked us if they could remove more plants. So my wife met with the guy downstairs (his wife couldn't be bother to at least say hi, despite all the 'requests' came from her through the husband) and agreed on what to remove and what to leave. We couldn't help as I was already at work and my wife had to leave as well.
Long story short, after a couple of hours he sent me a text saying if they could remove pretty much everything because again of the spiders problem (we live next to a huge park and other gardens, I really doubt that doing that will solve the problem). 30 minutes later, another message saying that they couldn't 'wait for us to respond' and that the reasons they gave me were enough for them to cut the trees, plants and flowers without our permission. This really upset me because now the garden looks like it's been hit by a tornado, and I am sure they won't be willing to spend time or money to repair it or or to make it look good, or at least acceptable.
What are my options now? We don't care much about the front garden as long as it's in a decent condition, but we don't want to do anything or spend money knowing that they could decide any moment to destroy whatever is there. What would be the most sensible thing to do? Should we decide to, can we offer them to sell our share of the garden?
This small garden has (well, had) all sorts of plants, flowers and small trees. Some time ago the guys living downstairs asked us if they could cut a couple of these small trees because they were having problems with spiders in the house. We said okay, we didn't mind the trees removed. Now, a few months later, they decided that that was not enough and asked us if they could remove more plants. So my wife met with the guy downstairs (his wife couldn't be bother to at least say hi, despite all the 'requests' came from her through the husband) and agreed on what to remove and what to leave. We couldn't help as I was already at work and my wife had to leave as well.
Long story short, after a couple of hours he sent me a text saying if they could remove pretty much everything because again of the spiders problem (we live next to a huge park and other gardens, I really doubt that doing that will solve the problem). 30 minutes later, another message saying that they couldn't 'wait for us to respond' and that the reasons they gave me were enough for them to cut the trees, plants and flowers without our permission. This really upset me because now the garden looks like it's been hit by a tornado, and I am sure they won't be willing to spend time or money to repair it or or to make it look good, or at least acceptable.
What are my options now? We don't care much about the front garden as long as it's in a decent condition, but we don't want to do anything or spend money knowing that they could decide any moment to destroy whatever is there. What would be the most sensible thing to do? Should we decide to, can we offer them to sell our share of the garden?
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Comments
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Who OWNS the front garden?Blackpool_Saver is female, and does not live in Blackpool0
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We both own the freehold. The front garden is not in our lease plans, so we both own it.Blackpool_Saver wrote: »Who OWNS the front garden?0 -
The spiders are nothing to do with the front garden.
What is their real reason for wanting to remove everything? Or are they just dumb?
Do the plants block thir window light? Do they just want to convert it to paving? Might the long-term plan be parking..........?
As for rights - any change would ned consent by both joint owners, but the trouble is once they've ripped everything out, geting the garden re-planted is not oing o be easy.1 -
I agree that the spiders story is piffle.
You both own the garden so you will need to speak to them to see what they are going to do with the garden.
The amount of issues in this site with shared anything I can't believe people buy places that have anything shared other than the house or flat itself!
IMO if you see shared garden, shared driveway, shared pizza run forest run!0 -
Maybe, though the OP suggested the front garden is owned by the freeholder rather than being in either lease. And the freehold is shared.If the front garden is not on your lease but the back garden is it tends to suggest that the front garden is on the lease of your downstairs neighbours.
If it were in the downstairs lease, they'd probably not have even asked (or needed?) permission at all.1 -
Honestly, I do believe that spiders are the real reason. His wife is scared of spiders (we do get them upstairs every now and again, but we know we can't get rid of ALL of them).The spiders are nothing to do with the front garden.
What is their real reason for wanting to remove everything? Or are they just dumb?
Do the plants block thir window light? Do they just want to convert it to paving? Might the long-term plan be parking..........?
As for rights - any change would ned consent by both joint owners, but the trouble is once they've ripped everything out, geting the garden re-planted is not oing o be easy.
His wife never speaks to us, he kind of puts a filter between what she says and what comes to us, otherwise we would be offended (his words). It's not the first time that I get messages from him saying 'my wife said...'. His wife was not happy with the 'arrangements' as to what to keep and what to remove when he spoke to my wife this morning, hence his message 'sorry, we need to cut everything, ignore whatever we agreed earlier'.
Paving/parking is not an option, it's an end of terrace house with no car access, only a narrow walkway, so that would not look appropriate.0 -
If the front garden is not on your lease but the back garden is it tends to suggest that the front garden is on the lease of your downstairs neighbours.
They would still need the freeholers permission to pave over it or take the front wall down, or a change of use to park on it, wouldn't they.
What is said on their lease?0 -
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