Should I be concerned?

Snuggles

Hi, I don't know if I'm worrying unnecessarily (I'm one of life's worriers!) - I've tried to find info but I'm still unclear.

My neighbour is a bit odd and can be awkward to deal with. Our houses are attached with very small adjoining gardens. He has a raised fish pond in his garden. This has got bigger and bigger year by year as he keeps replacing it with an ever bigger pond. He mentioned to me in passing that one day he wants do dig out a massive hole in his garden to install a huge pond which will take up most of his garden and cost thousands. At the time I thought this was pie in the sky and didn't take much notice.

However, I believe he is now seriously planning this as I have heard him talking about access to his garden for mini diggers etc. Due to the small sizes of our houses and gardens (garden is about four metres wide and five metres deep), wherever he is planning to dig will inevitably be close to my boundary and close to my house (and his). I have no idea if he really knows what he's doing, or how deep he is likely to be digging. 

Would you be concerned about this? Or is excavating for a pond highly unlikely to have any affect on my property? I know I should speak to him but it's generally not easy to get any sense out of him.

EnterUserName

If the excavation is going to be within 3m of your house, and deeper than your foundations, I believe he will need to serve a party wall agreement notice. Google party wall etc act 1996 and there are some useful documents on gov uk website.

However if you don't know how deep your foundations are, or how deep he is going to dig, there's no way to know if he ought to serve you notice.

How old is your house? The main risks would be subsidence or heave but it involves many variables, and is something I know very little about... !

stuart45

That's the trouble with ponds. However big you build them your wife will tell you it should of been bigger.

Snuggles

EnterUserName said:

If the excavation is going to be within 3m of your house, and deeper than your foundations, I believe he will need to serve a party wall agreement notice. Google party wall etc act 1996 and there are some useful documents on gov uk website.

However if you don't know how deep your foundations are, or how deep he is going to dig, there's no way to know if he ought to serve you notice.

How old is your house? The main risks would be subsidence or heave but it involves many variables, and is something I know very little about... !

Thank you, yes I found that info, but I also have no idea how deep the foundations are! Houses were built in 2005. 

Snuggles

stuart45 said:

That's the trouble with ponds. However big you build them your wife will tell you it should of been bigger.

Not in this case - he lives alone! It just seems as though it's one of those hobbies that once you start, you want something ever bigger. Unless it's just part of his general oddness.

Grenage

I've never put a pond in my garden and not thought 'I should have made this bigger'.

Jeepers_Creepers

I suspect what he intends will fall foul of PP. And a 4x5m garden ain't roomy to begin with.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/43/outbuildings

"No more than half the area of land around the "original house"* would be covered by additions or other buildings.", and I think 'additions' include things like ponds.

If you want a clearer answer beforehand, it might be better posting on here (or similar): https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/ponds-and-the-law-uk.23511/

Are there any other neighbours who might also be affected?

I think I'd try places like that other forum to get an idea of what is considered 'ok', and then just wait. I suspect it'll become obvious if and when he intends to do this - he'll likely have the area marked out on the lawn before he takes a fence panel down or actually turns up with a digger. The instant it becomes clear it's going to be a 'biggie', call up Planning.

Snuggles

Thank you for those links @Jeepers_Creepers, really useful!

shinytop

Grenage said:

I've never put a pond in my garden and not thought 'I should have made this bigger'.

I've never moved into a house that had a pond and not filled it in (last 2 houses).