Law breaking neighbour - advice please

DanMc52

Good Evening,

I’m hoping for a bit of advice. Apologies in advance for the long post, but I think it’s all relevant to my situation. 

I moved into my current property in October 2016, it’s a new development and I was one if the first three houses completed. The neighbours either side of me are lovely and we all moved in on the same day. On moving in, it was apparent that the split level garden I had been promised by the developer left a lot to be desired, needing significant work just to level it out. The entire development slopes and I am at the end of that slope. The property directly behind mine wasn’t completed and I thought I would refrain from doing anything with the garden, thinking whoever moved in might want to level the ground on their side and we could split the costs of a retaining wall or similar to address the issue of the ground level. Approx 9 months later, the house behind was moved into. Within a fortnight, the occupier had dumped upwards of 20 tons of aggregate and topsoil to level his garden out. This obviously caused an issue when he arrived at the adjoining fence, so he did no more than cover some MDF boards in plastic, rest them against the fence posts and pile the earth against them. Not only unsafe, but leaving a situation where he was now some 2.5 feet higher than I and diminishing my privacy substantially. I was left in a situation where he could see me whenever I was sat in my lounge, so I found myself having to shut the curtains during the day just so I felt I wasn’t being watched. I suffer from anxiety and PTSD and needless to say, this constant feeling of being watched did me no favours. 

I reluctantly reported the matter to the local authority when my attempts to negotiate removing the fence and re-siting it on higher ground were met with abuse. 

The local authority visited and agreed that the substantial increase in ground level was a breach of planning control, but that it wasn’t in the public interest to pursue the matter. The local authority suggested my neighbour put up trellis to increase the height of the fence and give back some of the lost privacy. This was done at the expense of my light, but I was happy for some relief and tried to put the matter behind me. After such a distressing time that impacted my health, I didn’t do anything with the garden, I couldn’t bare to be in it. After 3 years, I decided a few weeks ago to get to work on it and make it a nice place to spend the summer. 

After working tirelessly after work every evening, I completed the work two weeks ago. Having built a decking area in front of the fence with trellis, that separates me and my neighbour. No sooner had I completed the work, he decided he was going to effectively convert the trellis into fencing by covering the trellis gaps with pieces of wood. Now my decking, that was placed because of the almost all day sun; is now in the shade for the majority of the day due to the 2.5m fence. 

I’ve had enough, I feel like this man is just tormenting me all the time. Ultimately he brought all of his problems on himself by raising the ground level. Filling in the trellis is an attempt for him to restore his privacy now that I’m actually using my garden. But if he’d left the ground as it was, I’d have all of the light that I should have had and he’d have a 6 foot fence providing privacy. In order for him to have 6 feet of fence on his side; it needs to be 9 feet on my side because of the ground level differential. 

I know this is against planning rules too, but given my precious experience of the council not believing action to be in the public interest, I’m at a loss as to what to do next. 

Any advice gratefully received. Thank you for taking the time to read my post 

Dan

Doozergirl

if it is your trellis on your land then he has zero rights to attach to it.  

Remove what he he has attached to it and out it back over his side.  

KatrinaWaves

Doozergirl said:

if it is your trellis on your land then he has zero rights to attach to it.  

Remove what he he has attached to it and out it back over his side.  

It’s quite clearly the mans trellis on top of his fence. 

There’s no ‘laws’ broken here that are going to go anywhere. Planning have already backheeled it. 

Houses at the bottom of a slope are always going to have issues with overlooking. There was also clearly some issues with the slope of the garden. He has levelled his and no ones gonna do anything about it. P

[Deleted User]

DanMc52 said:

Good Evening,

I’m hoping for a bit of advice. Apologies in advance for the long post, but I think it’s all relevant to my situation. 

I moved into my current property in October 2016, it’s a new development and I was one if the first three houses completed. The neighbours either side of me are lovely and we all moved in on the same day. On moving in, it was apparent that the split level garden I had been promised by the developer left a lot to be desired, needing significant work just to level it out. The entire development slopes and I am at the end of that slope. The property directly behind mine wasn’t completed and I thought I would refrain from doing anything with the garden, thinking whoever moved in might want to level the ground on their side and we could split the costs of a retaining wall or similar to address the issue of the ground level. Approx 9 months later, the house behind was moved into. Within a fortnight, the occupier had dumped upwards of 20 tons of aggregate and topsoil to level his garden out. This obviously caused an issue when he arrived at the adjoining fence, so he did no more than cover some MDF boards in plastic, rest them against the fence posts and pile the earth against them. Not only unsafe, but leaving a situation where he was now some 2.5 feet higher than I and diminishing my privacy substantially. I was left in a situation where he could see me whenever I was sat in my lounge, so I found myself having to shut the curtains during the day just so I felt I wasn’t being watched. I suffer from anxiety and PTSD and needless to say, this constant feeling of being watched did me no favours. 

I reluctantly reported the matter to the local authority when my attempts to negotiate removing the fence and re-siting it on higher ground were met with abuse. 

The local authority visited and agreed that the substantial increase in ground level was a breach of planning control, but that it wasn’t in the public interest to pursue the matter. The local authority suggested my neighbour put up trellis to increase the height of the fence and give back some of the lost privacy. This was done at the expense of my light, but I was happy for some relief and tried to put the matter behind me. After such a distressing time that impacted my health, I didn’t do anything with the garden, I couldn’t bare to be in it. After 3 years, I decided a few weeks ago to get to work on it and make it a nice place to spend the summer. 

After working tirelessly after work every evening, I completed the work two weeks ago. Having built a decking area in front of the fence with trellis, that separates me and my neighbour. No sooner had I completed the work, he decided he was going to effectively convert the trellis into fencing by covering the trellis gaps with pieces of wood. Now my decking, that was placed because of the almost all day sun; is now in the shade for the majority of the day due to the 2.5m fence. 

I’ve had enough, I feel like this man is just tormenting me all the time. Ultimately he brought all of his problems on himself by raising the ground level. Filling in the trellis is an attempt for him to restore his privacy now that I’m actually using my garden. But if he’d left the ground as it was, I’d have all of the light that I should have had and he’d have a 6 foot fence providing privacy. In order for him to have 6 feet of fence on his side; it needs to be 9 feet on my side because of the ground level differential. 

I know this is against planning rules too, but given my precious experience of the council not believing action to be in the public interest, I’m at a loss as to what to do next. 

Any advice gratefully received. Thank you for taking the time to read my post 

Dan

I might have missed it but which law(s) has your neighbour broken?

A lot of these issues seem to stem from your PTSD and anxiety rather than your neighbour.  You might have felt your neighbour was watching your every move whilst you were in your lounge but I doubt he was paying any attention to you and much less cared about what you were doing in your own home.  

Instead of speaking with your neighbour you seem to have gone straight to the local authority to complain.  You originally thought you and the neighbour could have worked together the level the ground but at no point do you seem to have approached your neighbour about doing this.  As @KatrinaWaves has pointed out, the houses are built on a slope and whoever is at the bottom of the slope is going to have more of an issue with being overlooked that those higher up the slope.

Have you thought about mediation with your neighbour?  That might help improve the relationship between you since your first move seems to have escalated matters to the local authority rather than going down the tea and cake route.

AW618

If you were worried about privacy why build decking in a place where it is clearly overlooked by your neighbour, and why then complain again when he builds a fence which means he can no longer see onto your decking?  You say at the beginning that you tried to "negotiate removing the fence and re-siting it on higher ground "; isn't that effectively what you now have?
I have to say that if I were told this story without comment I would assume the builder of the decking had built it purely to achieve this outcome.

MoneySeeker1

I'd say OP does have reasonable expectations in expecting a neighbour shouldn't be able to look directly into their sitting room. Peoples homes are supposed to be private after all and most of us would expect that. 

OP has tried to make something out of their garden finally and the neighbour is stymieing again and it does look as if they just don't care about the effect of anything they do on the house beneath them.

It would gall me to do it and, if neighbour had been reasonable in the first place it wouldn't be necessary, but this does look (unfortunately) like one of those cases where OP needs to investigate the possibility of swopping the house - ie selling the one they have and buying a different one instead.

I can sympathise - because, in all innnocence I should think, a couple of neighbours have done stuff to their gardens that they were perfectly entitled to do - but it's meant my own garden has lost a substantial amount of privacy. It's not drastic enough to sell the house because of it - but it has detracted. So I can see OP's point.

AdrianC

You complained to the council that his fence was too low.
He raised it - with open trellis.
He then decided to chance that raised height to closed fence...
And now you say you want it lower again...

I think you're wanting to have-cake-and-eat-cake here...

Soot2006

If the fence is now at "final height" you can get on with improving your garden and enjoying it. the decking will still be usable and a good place to have + you now have more allround privacy. Perhaps add some shade tolerant hedging!

RelievedSheff

I'm not sure what laws you think your neighbours has broken here? Perhaps you could clarify?

Comms69

DanMc52 said:

Good Evening,

I’m hoping for a bit of advice. Apologies in advance for the long post, but I think it’s all relevant to my situation. 

I moved into my current property in October 2016, it’s a new development and I was one if the first three houses completed. The neighbours either side of me are lovely and we all moved in on the same day. On moving in, it was apparent that the split level garden I had been promised by the developer left a lot to be desired, needing significant work just to level it out. The entire development slopes and I am at the end of that slope. The property directly behind mine wasn’t completed and I thought I would refrain from doing anything with the garden, thinking whoever moved in might want to level the ground on their side and we could split the costs of a retaining wall or similar to address the issue of the ground level. Approx 9 months later, the house behind was moved into. Within a fortnight, the occupier had dumped upwards of 20 tons of aggregate and topsoil to level his garden out. This obviously caused an issue when he arrived at the adjoining fence, so he did no more than cover some MDF boards in plastic, rest them against the fence posts and pile the earth against them. Not only unsafe, but leaving a situation where he was now some 2.5 feet higher than I and diminishing my privacy substantially. I was left in a situation where he could see me whenever I was sat in my lounge, so I found myself having to shut the curtains during the day just so I felt I wasn’t being watched. I suffer from anxiety and PTSD and needless to say, this constant feeling of being watched did me no favours. - that;s unfortunate, why not put up a fence?

I reluctantly reported the matter to the local authority when my attempts to negotiate removing the fence and re-siting it on higher ground were met with abuse. - WHY??!! now you have to declare it, you probably just cost yourself £10k

The local authority visited and agreed that the substantial increase in ground level was a breach of planning control, but that it wasn’t in the public interest to pursue the matter. The local authority suggested my neighbour put up trellis to increase the height of the fence and give back some of the lost privacy. This was done at the expense of my light, but I was happy for some relief and tried to put the matter behind me. After such a distressing time that impacted my health, I didn’t do anything with the garden, I couldn’t bare to be in it. After 3 years, I decided a few weeks ago to get to work on it and make it a nice place to spend the summer. - good idea. 

After working tirelessly after work every evening, I completed the work two weeks ago. Having built a decking area in front of the fence with trellis, that separates me and my neighbour. No sooner had I completed the work, he decided he was going to effectively convert the trellis into fencing by covering the trellis gaps with pieces of wood. Now my decking, that was placed because of the almost all day sun; is now in the shade for the majority of the day due to the 2.5m fence. - That;s unfortunate, but he's entitled to a fence

I’ve had enough, I feel like this man is just tormenting me all the time. - im sorry you feel that way. But it doesnt seem likely.  Ultimately he brought all of his problems on himself by raising the ground level. Filling in the trellis is an attempt for him to restore his privacy now that I’m actually using my garden. But if he’d left the ground as it was, I’d have all of the light that I should have had and he’d have a 6 foot fence providing privacy. In order for him to have 6 feet of fence on his side; it needs to be 9 feet on my side because of the ground level differential. 

I know this is against planning rules too, but given my precious experience of the council not believing action to be in the public interest, I’m at a loss as to what to do next. 

Any advice gratefully received. Thank you for taking the time to read my post 

Dan

Sell up and move. Because this is clearly affecting your health in a way that most people wouldnt even notice

[Deleted User]

I'm not sure what laws this neighbour is breaking.  Well done on the garden renovations. 

But remember, this neighbour only has the power over you that you bestow on him.  I don't really see how 3ft of filled in trellis (on one side of your garden) can block all the light to your decking all day.., the sun moves.  It gives you the privacy you requested.  Maybe not in the way you wanted but you can't make him remove the levelling he's done.  Unfortunately sod's law is like that, gives us what we want in a way we don't want lolol.

Try and live with what is, rather than a vision you have in your mind.  You have the privacy you wanted, you have a garden you like, I'm sorry but it must get some sun unless its roofed which it isn't.  Just enjoy what you have.There's often something we don't like about something but the brain can ignore that and appreciate the majority which is really good. That, at least, is a choice you can make to improve your life.

I am not saying this for the sake of it.  I am autistic and can get super focused on something negative but I have learned to refocus as otherwise my life would be very unpleasant.  

Be glad no one near you has a crane https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/22/crane-driver-has-fun-repeatedly-blocking-sunbathers-light-12741997/.  I hope that makes you laugh. Yes the crane operater is an ignorant yobbo but its still funny.