Law breaking neighbour - advice please

DanMc52

Chandler85 said:

Is the option (though not sure if possible now), either raise your own ground by 3ft, making the fence on 6ft again.  Or the decking could have been made 3ft off the floor, this would mean that the fence is effectively 6ft, so casting less of a shadow.

I know there are planning rules around decking that you might want to review.  I don't see any other options if I'm honest.

Good idea, thanks! I’ll look into that. 

Jeepers_Creepers

Hi Dan.

I'm not too surprised that the council are reluctant to act, as it isn't a clear case of someone just fitting a too-tall fence.

I have a similar issue - the road I am on is on a gentle sideways hill, so the gardens are effectively 'terraced' at each side boundary. The result of this is that the fence along the RH side is barely 6' high on my side, but over 8' tall on my neighb's. 

If my neighb wanted the fence lowered to 6' on his side, he'd also have to accept my head and shoulders (still attached to my body, hopefully) visibly floating around my garden, with zero privacy for him. Yes, he did remark on the apparent height on his side when I was first putting it up, but I demonstrated why - by holding the conversation from my garden, and me pointing out that - with just a 6' fence - I could see right in to his connie.

What other solutions are there? Your neighb lowers his fence until you lose your privacy? Or your neighb excavates his garden to bring it back down to the original level - that ain't going to happen. 

You have the option of adding a section of raised decking - tho' keeping it to less than 600mm high for planning reasons - but that will surely mean you are back to square one - in his view again?

It might seem galling and it might seem selfish, but I think it's the reality of modern living in most cases. Please try and make the best of the situation, or else seriously consider moving. 

 

Comms69

The thing is OP the neighbour can just take the whole thing down and be done with it. Then what will you do?

Honestly the fence is too low one minute, then too high the next. 

DanMc52

Comms69 said:

The thing is OP the neighbour can just take the whole thing down and be done with it. Then what will you do?

Honestly the fence is too low one minute, then too high the next. 

I think you’d probably need to see the situation to get a full picture of what I’m saying. My issue isn’t with the fence, which you’ve simplified the situation to, my issue is with the ground level on his side, which negated the height of the fence and by inference, made it too low. But the solution of just keep highering the fence in line with his ever increasing ground level is not a solution that is fair or that I’m just willing to accept. I was quite happy with the trellis as was and as far as I’m concerned he had no right to fill it in without so much as the courtesy of a discussion with me. 

Comms69

DanMc52 said:

Comms69 said:

The thing is OP the neighbour can just take the whole thing down and be done with it. Then what will you do?

Honestly the fence is too low one minute, then too high the next. 

I think you’d probably need to see the situation to get a full picture of what I’m saying. My issue isn’t with the fence, which you’ve simplified the situation to, my issue is with the ground level on his side, which negated the height of the fence and by inference, made it too low. But the solution of just keep highering the fence in line with his ever increasing ground level is not a solution that is fair or that I’m just willing to accept. I was quite happy with the trellis as was and as far as I’m concerned he had no right to fill it in without so much as the courtesy of a discussion with me. 

It's his trellis, he can do as he wants with it. Like i said, he has every right to take the whole thing down and make it your problem to deal with. Pick your battles.

NinjaTune

"I was quite happy with the trellis as was and as far as I’m concerned he had no right to fill it in without so much as the courtesy of a discussion with me."

Courtesy and discussion don't appear to be his strong points judging by what you've posted here.  Having said that, if it's his trellis then he has every right do what he likes with it whether you like it or not.

DanMc52

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Hi Dan.

I'm not too surprised that the council are reluctant to act, as it isn't a clear case of someone just fitting a too-tall fence.

I have a similar issue - the road I am on is on a gentle sideways hill, so the gardens are effectively 'terraced' at each side boundary. The result of this is that the fence along the RH side is barely 6' high on my side, but over 8' tall on my neighb's. 

If my neighb wanted the fence lowered to 6' on his side, he'd also have to accept my head and shoulders (still attached to my body, hopefully) visibly floating around my garden, with zero privacy for him. Yes, he did remark on the apparent height on his side when I was first putting it up, but I demonstrated why - by holding the conversation from my garden, and me pointing out that - with just a 6' fence - I could see right in to his connie.

What other solutions are there? Your neighb lowers his fence until you lose your privacy? Or your neighb excavates his garden to bring it back down to the original level - that ain't going to happen. 

You have the option of adding a section of raised decking - tho' keeping it to less than 600mm high for planning reasons - but that will surely mean you are back to square one - in his view again?

It might seem galling and it might seem selfish, but I think it's the reality of modern living in most cases. Please try and make the best of the situation, or else seriously consider moving. 

 

Sadly I suspect you’re right. Personally I’d have more respect for my fellow residents than to do any of the stuff he’s done without consultation, but I suppose we can’t hold everyone to our own standards, I just think it’s the decent thing to do. 

janzbro

I can appreciate your anxiety leaves you not wanting to confront people but perhaps approaching them would have been a better first step.
Could you not appeal the council decision, I would have thought he would at least have to build a small retaining wall to support the edge of his raised garden from a safety point of view and the fact the wood under the new ground level will rot in no time. No help in your situation but it will save you paying for a new fence.in the future.
I think the max height of a solid fence is 7 feet, if its not above that there not much you can do. Put in a few fast growing shrubs or some climbers at the fence and forgot about them.

AW618

DanMc52 said:

AW618 said:

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.

No that isn’t what I have now, because I have a 9 foot fence instead of a 6 foot fence. Hence my issue. The problems all stem from him jacking up the ground level by a metre. If he’d left the ground level as was, then the 6 foot fence would have been adequate privacy, the fact he turned it into a 3 foot fence by piling earth up against half of it is what gave rise to the whole set of issues I'm currently experiencing 

You said you wanted the fence resited on higher ground.  So what would be the difference between a six foot fence 3 feet higher up and the nine foot fence that is there now?  Surely for it to be six feet on his side, so he can't see over it, it has to be nine feet on yours?

rik111

“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.“
Sounds like you got tucked up by the house builders and should have put as much energy in getting them to sort what was promised rather than now blaming you neighbour and causing him grief with the council. I bet you’d be on here moaning about him looking through his trellis at you had he not filled it in... Seems you chose the wrong battle.