Neighbour dispute (drilling into my garage)

mimistrider

Hi. I have a garage that runs the back of someone elses garden. They have taken down my fence and drilled into my garage. They have placed posts and a fence without permission.  On looking into the situation, I have found that they have built a lean to and put trellis up on their side. What is the law and can I take it down? They didn't ask or post a letter through my door. Do I have a right to take it down? I live alone so not sure how to approach the situation. Any advice warmly welcome. Thankyou 

Petriix

It looks like they've done a nice job. Assuming there's no obvious damage which will affect you in any way, I'd suggest just not worrying about it. Getting on with your neighbours is far more valuable than being hyper-defensive about ownership of the outside of a wall.

[Deleted User]

Petriix said:

It looks like they've done a nice job. Assuming there's no obvious damage which will affect you in any way, I'd suggest just not worrying about it. Getting on with your neighbours is far more valuable than being hyper-defensive about ownership of the outside of a wall.

 What does it matter if they did a nice job. They've defaced the OPs property and removed their fence which defines their boundary. 

unforeseen

Based on the fence showing in picture 2, I would have said that the boundary was the garage wall, not any fence that might have been against it

neilmcl

When you say they took down "your" fence, where was the fence, are you referring to the new fence on picture 2?

tacpot12

Can you prove that the fence was your fence on your land? Title plans are usually too imprecise to prove exactly where the boundary is. And even if you have a boundary plan that is precise to the millimetre, they haven't encroached any further than the garage wall, so the difference is just the thickness of the fence. Forcing them to reinstate your fence when it serves no purpose is not going to endear you to them, and will probably result in you having to declare a dispute with the neighbours if you were to sell your house, which will devalue it by much more than the loss of two inches of land that you can't access.

Really the best option here is to let them know that you don't really mind, but would have appreciated them discussing it before hand. You need to leave the way open for them to notify you of other work they want to do on the boundary or that you might want to do. 

TELLIT01

My mother had almost exactly the same problem.  New neighbours removed the boundary fence, which was my mother's responsibility as shown on the deeds, and started to attach trellis to her garage which was well inside the garden boundary.  She did inform them that they had no right either to remove the fence or to attach anything to her wall.  She told them to put the fence back and not attach anything to the wall.  They complied, if not very happily, but relationships survived.

mimistrider

Picture 1 shows bricks on the floor. There were 2 metal poles where the original builder posted a fence. I always put my fence inside the bricks so not to encroach on the others land. I agree they have done a great job but they have drilled into my garage. Does that not count as criminal damage?

unforeseen

Technically the screw holes would be criminal damage. How much are you prepared to throw at it as the police won't be interested.  
Then of course there is the problem of having to declare the dispute if you decide to sell. 

Pick your battles carefully, they can end up rebounding on you. 

Martin_the_Unjust

tacpot12 said:

Can you prove that the fence was your fence on your land? Title plans are usually too imprecise to prove exactly where the boundary is. And even if you have a boundary plan that is precise to the millimetre, they haven't encroached any further than the garage wall, so the difference is just the thickness of the fence. Forcing them to reinstate your fence when it serves no purpose is not going to endear you to them, and will probably result in you having to declare a dispute with the neighbours if you were to sell your house, which will devalue it by much more than the loss of two inches of land that you can't access.

Really the best option here is to let them know that you don't really mind, but would have appreciated them discussing it before hand. You need to leave the way open for them to notify you of other work they want to do on the boundary or that you might want to do. 

This ^ is by far the best option.

Any other course of action is just going to cause you more grief.

Mutton_Geoff

One thing that would bother me is that the trellis is there to grow plants. Once the plants are established, they will hold moisture against the wall when it rains and possibly cause damp issues in your garage.