18mo after moving into new build, told our garden fence temporary, will now lose 31.5msq

moneymattersnatter

AdrianC said:

Are A3 and A9's garden boundaries marked out yet, to refer to?

How does the relative width of the walkway on the R121 side of R122 compare?

A8-A9 have been living here a long time.  A1 is the building site. 
I've created an account on Garden Law, which was verified via email but once I log in, I can't post and am told I can't access their forums.  Apologies if it's my brain going haywire under stress, but am I missing something simple?  
When I'm not logged in, I can see how many interesting topics there are!  

theoretica

Part of the problem is assuming your developer messed up then they have fenced off and 'sold' to you land they didn't own - if it belongs to a separate developer.  I strongly suspect that there will need to be a lot of measuring done - to check not just that boundary but the others too (because if one is wrong, I wouldn't trust the others - if every house was built a few cm over by either developer then it could add up to a problem at the final boundary).  Hopefully your insurance will pay for a boundary surveyor to clarify what is going on and exactly how the developers have messed up. 

As this is the boundary between two developers, I wonder if there was an old boundary there and what, if anything shows up on the history of google earth imaging?

lincroft1710

The simplest thing would be for the developers of Plot A1 to build a different house type which is slightly narrower.

moneymattersnatter

UnderOffer said:

I can see why you are so upset, you’d loose your newly built bedding and guess the boundary fence would move to the very edge of your patio. Looks like you should have only had half the width of the fence at the ‘dead end’ beside your property. At a guess I’m assuming the fence is currently at the blue line I’ve drawn on your map, instead of the red boundary line shown?  

I think you must be right, although, by eye, it meets the proportions of A7.  It's so tough to guage when I don't have the docs with measurements to hand... 

AdrianC

lincroft1710 said:

The simplest thing would be for the developers of Plot A1 to build a different house type which is slightly narrower.

I wonder if R plots are one developer, and A are another...

moneymattersnatter

AdrianC said:

Are A3 and A9's garden boundaries marked out yet, to refer to?

How does the relative width of the walkway on the R121 side of R122 compare?

Sorry, I missed the element about comparing to the R121. Here are the measurements.  For each side. Roughly 40cm difference... coincidence? 

2nd_time_buyer

es5595 said:

Well done on not just rolling over OP, I'd contact your landscaper and see if they can do a 'best guess' on cost to move everything over, plus the cost of you looking at the 'new boundary' and feeling happy, and give them that as a one-time offer, on the proviso that they also pay all associated fees and legal costs. They might well decide its not worth it!

I think this is good advice. Just for the purposes of wild speculation... what is the cost for "looking at the 'new boundary' and feeling happy". For me a figure £5k would seem too little whilst £20k would seem too much.

moneymattersnatter

AdrianC said:

lincroft1710 said:

The simplest thing would be for the developers of Plot A1 to build a different house type which is slightly narrower.

I wonder if R plots are one developer, and A are another...

Yes, I don't know if I should be naming and shaming but yes, one is a very big developer beginning with the letter R, and the other is a much smaller developer beginning with the letter A. 

gingercordial

moneymattersnatter said:

AdrianC said:

Are A3 and A9's garden boundaries marked out yet, to refer to?

How does the relative width of the walkway on the R121 side of R122 compare?

A8-A9 have been living here a long time.  A1 is the building site. 
I've created an account on Garden Law, which was verified via email but once I log in, I can't post and am told I can't access their forums.  Apologies if it's my brain going haywire under stress, but am I missing something simple?  
When I'm not logged in, I can see how many interesting topics there are!  

This photo alongside the land registry plan makes me think your fence IS correct.

Your fence as it gets to the end of your garden should meet the edge of plot A9 on a flat bit of their fence (highlighted in yellow) and NOT at the corner of their fence (blue arrow) as it turns.



And that is exactly what the photo shows as the real situation on the ground:


Whereas if this had happened in error, your fence would surely be hitting A9's fence at or very very close to that corner.


So it looks to me that what you have is in accordance with the land registry plan, which is what shows your legal ownership.

seradane

moneymattersnatter said:

UnderOffer said:

I can see why you are so upset, you’d loose your newly built bedding and guess the boundary fence would move to the very edge of your patio. Looks like you should have only had half the width of the fence at the ‘dead end’ beside your property. At a guess I’m assuming the fence is currently at the blue line I’ve drawn on your map, instead of the red boundary line shown?  

I think you must be right, although, by eye, it meets the proportions of A7.  It's so tough to guage when I don't have the docs with measurements to hand... 

Judging by that plan, the passageway to the side of each house looks like it's about a door width wide, judging by the door swing appearing on lot A1. So that's only about 80-90cm or so. And looking back at the photo you provided, your passageway does look a bit wider than that (though hard to judge without measuring of course). As the developer only wants 40cm of your garden, it may appear that the fence was actually built midway between UnderOffer's blue line and the red boundary line?

Otherwise, in the absence of measured drawings you might be able to guesstimate based on how much of that length of A9's fence is beyond your fence. E.g. from a quick PDF measure, based on the above image, it looks like 1/7th of the total straight length should be beyond your "real" fence line. If you can go measure what proportion of the fence is actually beyond it, it may give you some more clues.



Of course, no guarantee those were built correctly either so.. grain of salt!