Boundary dispute due to Neighbours building an underground bunker in a rented council house

Guitar

Hi,

I'm looking for advice on a boundary issue I have with my neighbour.  There's been a few boundary threads in the past that I've gone through but the critical point I face is that the neighbour is renting a local authority house whereas I own my house.  All the advice on the council website covers issues between private owners and suggests the council will just mediate between them.  My issue is that it's ultimately the council I might have to fight.

This problem started about a month before COVID lockdown.  The neighbour built an underground room in their back garden.  I'm pretty sure they've done this without the council knowing and there's no other neighbours impacted by this.  I've checked the council planning portal and there are no applications for this construction.  Since the gardens back onto a field, it's unlikely anyone else would ever notice.  Their builder used a digger to excavate the room and stacked all the dirt up against the boundary fence.  Within a few days the fence failed and collapsed into my garden.  Since the plans show this fence isn't my responsibility and it probably needed replacing in a couple years anyway, I wasn't too bothered.

The neighbour approached me and promised to replace the fence.

I came home from work one day and found they had built a retaining wall 2 foot high, annoyingly this was built on my side of the boundary.  The Land Registry plans clearly show the boundary as a straight line from the house party wall but the retaining wall was costing me around 60cm of my garden.  It's easy to see where the boundary line is because my house drops down about a foot and you can see the break in the roof line.

I immediately confronted the builder about this who claimed he wasn't able to get any further back because of all the dirt stacked up, I pointed out where the boundary line was but the builder wouldn't listen, insisting that the wall had already been built and it'd be unsafe to try and move it now.  He did promise to build the fence on the neighbours side of the wall.  This would still cost me part of my garden and leave me with an ugly breeze block wall but I figured I could build raised beds on the wall to hide it.  I was reluctant to press the issue further due to the growing pandemic and I really didn't want to get in a fight with a bunch of builders.

I returned from work the next day to find the builder part way building the fence on MY side of the wall further reducing the size of my garden.  When I approached him about this he claimed he hadn't been able to get the fence posts deep enough in the other side because of the retaining wall foundations.  This fence didn't even leave me with room to fully open my patio door.

What was particularly annoying is that they then built a large raised deck and walkway over the bunker.  This deck along with the raised land meant I no longer have any privacy in my garden.  They've raised the land by 3 foot and the neighbours walk by almost from the waist up above the fence.  We also now have to keep the blinds closed constantly as the neighbours are able to see right into the lounge, kitchen and my daughters bedroom!

Because they've moved the boundary and raised the land, it also means they've raised the land against my back wall, above the damp proof membrane and I noticed mould issues in that corner when I recently replaced the skirting.  While cleaning up some of the mess the builders left, I found they'd almost entirely blocked an air brick with the boundary wall.

Unfortunately the country then when into COVID lockdown so I knew that it's unlikely the council would have been interested in looking into this during lockdown.  I also work for the NHS so my attention has been on other things the past year.  Now that we're hopefully getting on top of COVID, I'm wanting to get this resolved.

I don't really have the money for a solicitor but I'm unsure how the council will react to this.  My concern is that they'll just take the easy route and decide that since the building work is now done, I'll just have to accept the loss of my property and privacy.

Can anyone advise on how best to go about this?  Should I go straight to a solicitor to show the council that I'm serious or start with the council in hopes I can avoid having to get a solicitor?

thanks

FreeBear

Got legal protection on your household insurance ?

Have you approached your council planning dept. about the works ?

Finally, get on to the housing association and make them aware of the problem. Point out to them that if no action is taken by them, an expensive court case could ensue.

If none of that elicits a response, contact your local council member. Now that local elections are over, who ever was elected will need something to do to justify their votes.

TELLIT01

It's a council property so you need to speak to the council about unauthorised buiding work being undertaken.  There is no reason at this point to get a solicitor involved.

Mojisola

I can't understand why you didn't contact the council as soon as the work started. 

Martin_the_Unjust

Underground bunker? Last unofficial one of them I saw was used for some dodgy horticulture!

edgex

Contact the council, first thing in the morning. (housing dept & planning/building control)
Tell them you need an urgent site visit, & explain why.
Then email your local councillor with a record of what has been said.

Take photos of EVERYTHING on your side of the boundary.

knightstyle

Just make sure you do everything in writing!  Officials memory about phone calls can be different to yours.

jbainbridge

Contact the council .. now!

Speedster2

@Guitar Any update?

Guitar

Hi, 

sorry for not updating sooner but it took a month before the council came out to checkout my complaint.  

Surprisingly they came to my house, instead of the neighbours, but they took one look at what the neighbour had built and conceded the neighbour wouldn't have been allowed to build what they've done.

However, the council rep was then surprised to learn that the neighbour is in a council house.  At this point they were unsure who was responsible for dealing with the issue as the council houses are manged by an external company.  So they felt the next step was for them to raise the issue with the management company on my behalf.

Another week later they updated that they'd spoke to the management company, but there was still uncertainty about who would be responsible.  They did admit that the management company had no idea all this building work had been carried out.

The only update that they could give me was that the management company might send someone out to check out the building work and then "we'll see what we can do."

They suggested that the neighbour might refuse the management company entry so the council asked if it was ok to pass on my details so they can arrange access through my house.

So otherwise there is no change.  I've still been deprived part of my garden and privacy.  I've not been able to enjoy the nice weather and I've been avoiding the neighbour so we don't get into a shouting matching in the street.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Guitar said:

I returned from work the next day to find the builder part way building the fence on MY side of the wall further reducing the size of my garden.  

Take the fence and it's posts down without damaging anything and return it to your neighbours garden. I'd be tempted to take down the wall as well if it's vey clear where the boundary is.  

Regarding the decking:

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/11/decking

Putting up decking, or other raised platforms, in your garden is permitted development, not needing an application for planning permission, providing:

• The decking is no more than 30cm above the ground
• Together with other extensions, outbuildings etc, the decking or platforms cover no more than 50 per cent of the garden area.
• None of the decking or platform is on land forward of a wall forming the principal elevation.

Worth a report to the council planning department.