Neighbour building on land.

EB75

Hi, I am after some advice. Following several parties over the lock down period, we decided to have a calm quiet word with our neighbour about the effect on our family and the risks, we were very polite.
A few weeks later our neighbour erected a 6ft fence right next to our fence on our land which was already in situ, our fence was originally only 1 meter in height. We were unsure where we stood with regards to what we could do with our fence and felt the new fence was very close to ours. We paid for a boundary survey to confirm where we stood. The results were shocking, our neighbour has put his fence 0.4meters into our land, he had also years before erected an extension, saying it was fully on his land, he had done all the checks, all above board. The extension was shown to be partially attached to our back wall. Upon investigation and looking back on old photos prior to the extension being built,  he has actually built his extension and then pebble dashed passed the original boundary line, making it appear to be fully on his land.
It also seems our neighbour has cut down half our hedge at the front and block paved our land to make his drive appear bigger, this was done whilst we were on holiday with our 3 young children.

Most people ask, why did we not notice.
During this time we had 3 young children, 1 with diagnosed Autism and my daughter was born with a hole in her heart and needed frequent hospital visits. We were in fact busy trying to survive, plus I very much doubt we could afford to pay for a survey at that time. As discussed steps were also taken to cover up making it all appear credible(plus our neighbour is a policeman and we never thought he would be anything less than professional at that time)
Following the survey I then sent my neighbour a letter stating the findings and asking him to remove his property, I said we would be willing to go through mediation to help find a solution. My neighbour totally ignored my letter. We contacted our home insurance who put us in touch with a solicitor. Due to the possible cost of a court case and the land/damage involved this is not looking like an option at the moment. 
I feel this is unfair and wonder what else our neighbour will do now he knows he can get away with it.(We never had any party wall agreement or any other agreement prior to the work). I would be grateful for any advice on this please. Our neighbour has also seemingly built on canal land the other side of his property, making it into his garden.

moneysavinghero

Hope you're not semi-detached or you will probably come home one day to find that your neighbour has knocked through into yours and taken one of your rooms.

frogglet

Did he climb over your fence to put his fence 0.4m in your garden?

LudaMusser

Can we have some photos?

I take it you weren’t in when the 6ft fence on your land was erected. If you were in, how come you didn’t notice? It’s not a quiet five minute job

Take it down if it’s on your land. It sounds like you’re being bullied. You’ve lost land and driveway. Legal advice required for sure

pbartlett

if you are sure the hedge was on your land then your neighbour in cutting it down has committed a criminal offence and you could report it to the police

ditto if the new fence is on your land you can remove it and return the bits to him.

be sure of your facts first though

EB75

The original fence was on our land and put up by the previous owners of our home, they had left a gap at the bottom of the fence so that they could access both sides and paint/upkeep it. We were not 100%sure at the time the second fence was erected of how far into our land our fence was and had no proof or measurements until the boundary survey was completed, which did take some time due to Covid restrictions.

EB75

I have been informed that I could actually be charged with damaging his property if I remove it from my land! He is however fine to put it there without permission damaging my land, and it is up to me to follow civil proceedings to get him to remove it.......which could cost up to £5000.000 in court!

ProDave

I would be interested to know what features the boundary survey used to establish where he thinks the boundary is.  you can't usually tell that accurately from a plan, the key is looking for features that the boundary lines up with.

It would be a pretty usual assumption when buying a house that the existing fence is on the correct boundary, and thus erecting your own fence on your side of the existing fence would to most people seem to be a normal thing to so, if anything you could be potentially giving some ground to your neighbour by erecting a fence to your side of an existing fence.

Unless there is some clear evidence showing where the fence should be, I don't think you have much argument.  If the fence has been in it's present place for 12 years or more, the neighbour would if nothing else have an adverse possession claim.

UnderOffer

Your neighbour who is a policeman, held parties through lockdown? 🤔

Anyway, so the 6ft fence has been erected following the same boundary as your much shorter fence? I’m sure your neighbour thought they were just putting up a taller fence on their side of the boundary. 

EB75

Our fence was erected on our land and originally there was a clear line in the pebble dash which was beyond our fence into our neighbours land. The drainpipes also changed to our neighbours drainpipes(which were a different colour) at that point- at the centre points of both properties. Our conveyance details also clearly show the fence is owned by us and on our land and the centre point between the properties is the boundary line. The land was used by us so could not be claimed by our neighbours. The problem was when our neighbour erected their extension they actually then pebble dashed beyond the central line, therefore when the fence was erected it was not clear how far across it was from our fence. We could also not gain access to measure our neighbours wall to assess where the real centre point was between the properties. 

ProDave

I think the message here to readers is make sure if you put up a fence, put it up on what you believe to be the boundary.

If you deliberately put your fence some distance into your property and not on the boundary, you are just asking for a future boundary dispute, particularly after the neighbouring house has changed hands once or twice with the fence in the new position.