Neighbour’s damaged gutter my rights

Jeepers_Creepers

Whiterose23 said:

The nightmare neighbour is at no. 21. TWENTY ONE?

Image of title plan attached.

I'm confused.

Your house is bordered in red? The houses are at the road end of their plots, so it's your gardens that adjoin at their bottom ends? What is that space that runs between them that looks like an alleyway? WHERE on that plan is the garden wall in question, 'cos I can see two walls - one is yours, then a space, and then the neighbs'?

And which neighb has the leaking guttering? Surely not no 21?

Anyhoo, one thing at a time... Is there another plan which shows more clearly the extent of your property - also with a red line around it all, but perhaps also showing 'T' marks along some of the boundaries?

Or, does the content of the deeds indicate which boundaries you have 'responsibility' for?

To answer your Q, IF that wall is theirs, then you shouldn't attach anything to it without permission, and def not if they say not to. Would they be able to do anything about it? Yes. If they also have LP, it would almost certainly act on their behalf as - as far as the LP solicitor is concerned - it's an open and shut case that they will win. If they don't have LP, then they would have to dig into their pockets to pay a solicitor, but if they do this, then you'd be nuts to not take it down immediately with a "Oops! Sorry - I honestly thought it was my wall! My bad!" Or it'll end up costing you.

Even if they did nothing but rant and rave, you would have done wrong, and you then would not be on the moral high ground - so shouldn't be surprised if they up the ante. Have you met their Ante yet? You don't want to.

Say you did this and the neighbs became really aggressive to the point you had to call the police. First thing they'd ask is, "Why do you think she is behaving like this?" What would you reply?

Whiterose23

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Whiterose23 said:

The nightmare neighbour is at no. 21. TWENTY ONE?

Image of title plan attached.

I'm confused.

Your house is bordered in red? The houses are at the road end of their plots, so it's your gardens that adjoin at their bottom ends? What is that space that runs between them that looks like an alleyway? WHERE on that plan is the garden wall in question, 'cos I can see two walls - one is yours, then a space, and then the neighbs'?

And which neighb has the leaking guttering? Surely not no 21?

Anyhoo, one thing at a time... Is there another plan which shows more clearly the extent of your property - also with a red line around it all, but perhaps also showing 'T' marks along some of the boundaries?

Or, does the content of the deeds indicate which boundaries you have 'responsibility' for?

To answer your Q, IF that wall is theirs, then you shouldn't attach anything to it without permission, and def not if they say not to. Would they be able to do anything about it? Yes. If they also have LP, it would almost certainly act on their behalf as - as far as the LP solicitor is concerned - it's an open and shut case that they will win. If they don't have LP, then they would have to dig into their pockets to pay a solicitor, but if they do this, then you'd be nuts to not take it down immediately with a "Oops! Sorry - I honestly thought it was my wall! My bad!" Or it'll end up costing you.

Even if they did nothing but rant and rave, you would have done wrong, and you then would not be on the moral high ground - so shouldn't be surprised if they up the ante. Have you met their Ante yet? You don't want to.

Say you did this and the neighbs became really aggressive to the point you had to call the police. First thing they'd ask is, "Why do you think she is behaving like this?" What would you reply?

Yes my property is bordered in red on the row of terraces on the left (ignore the row of terraces on the right as that is another street).

The road is to the left and the alleyway at the back of the houses to the right in between two rows of terraces. 

The shaded area is the house itself and the gardens in white.

The garden wall and gutter in question are on the red border between 21 and 23 (I am at 23). No 21 isn't labelled on here but it's next to 19 as they are odd numbers all the way up on this side.

You can see No.21 has the long extension.

There is no other documentation that shows a 'T' and I'm informed that older houses often do not have this information. This is from the Land Registry download, which I didn't need to do as I already have this information in my search reports.

Mistral001

Whiterose23 said:

DB1904 said:

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Cool, so when Whiterose puts up their ladder and drills numerous holes in another person's house wall, there's now't they can do.

Fab.

There you go, WR - what's you waiting for?

As it stands what law do you think has been broken?

The police are not there to deal with the neighbours lack of maintenance on their home.

DB1904 What would you suggest?

I'm not sure how I can deal with this but I do have to deal with it somehow. It was never my intention to call the police but if I fix trellis to the wall to gain privacy, I guess they could call the police on me?

So basically they can cause damage to my side by not maintaining their property, ie water damage from poorly maintained gutters and pipework, and they can also leave a rotting fence with a big hole cut in it so their numerous cats can jump through and mess on my garden, yet my hands are tied?

The land on myside where the fence is has been concreted over, so I can't plant anything there, so my only option is to spend money on having holes drilled, new posts sunken and a fence built, when a simple piece of trellis would solve the issue straight away (the fence issue that is, not the gutter issue).

Surely there's somebody I could call or talk to about this?

You could call a solicitor or a chartered surveyor.  Their job is to advise on matters like this and will know the law in connection with it.

Jeepers_Creepers

Whiterose23 said:

Yes my property is bordered in red on the row of terraces on the left (ignore the row of terraces on the right as that is another street).

The road is to the left and the alleyway at the back of the houses to the right in between two rows of terraces. 

The shaded area is the house itself and the gardens in white.

The garden wall and gutter in question are on the red border between 21 and 23 (I am at 23). No 21 isn't labelled on here but it's next to 19 as they are odd numbers all the way up on this side.

You can see No.21 has the long extension.

There is no other documentation that shows a 'T' and I'm informed that older houses often do not have this information. This is from the Land Registry download, which I didn't need to do as I already have this information in my search reports.

Do'h! Sorry - of course, I see the house you mean. It's to your left as you look from the house fronts.

Although not writ in stone, convention used to be that you had responsibility for the boundary to your right, so chances are the nasty neighb's boundary is 'theirs'.

Whiterose, we are 6 pages in and I think you have all the info we can provide.

Yes, you can force them to repair their guttering, and this should be pretty painless IF you have LP on your insurance (have you answered that Q?!)

You can try just going ahead and fixing it yourself, and good chance you'll get away with it - ie, you'll fix it, it'll be a fait accompli, the neighb will either do nothing (except rant) or will call the police or engage their legals. For the latter two options, they will both go "What?! Your kind neighb fixed this at no cost to you? What do you want them to do now - put it back to the leaking state it was in - whereupon they will then take legal action against you to force you to fix it?! Surely not..."

If you DIY this, then get your engagement behaviour in order - big patronising smiles, lots of "Oh, don't be silly!"s, that sort of thing. Sad shakes of the head accompanied by "I don't believe what I'm seeing' chuckles should they rant - it'll drive them NUTS.

Then get some concrete post brackets, and fix some posts as close to that wall as you can, attach some strong trellis between them at the max height you are allowed, place some large and tall planters on the ground next to each post, and plant some Clematis in there - in a year you'll have a bright colourful screen, and you'll wonder why you hadn't done this earlier. Screen the idiots off, and ignore them.

Whiterose23

Jeepers_Creepers Thanks so much for your advice :-)

Rosa_Damascena

That is one long extension compared with the others in the row, how did they swing that? Privilege comes with responsibility.

Whiterose23

Rosa_Damascena said:

That is one long extension compared with the others in the row, how did they swing that? Privilege comes with responsibility.

The houses were built around 1910 and their property was once part of a dairy and became a shop before being used as homes so I guess it’s always been that way. It’s in a dreadful condition.

Rosa_Damascena

Whiterose23 said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

That is one long extension compared with the others in the row, how did they swing that? Privilege comes with responsibility.

The houses were built around 1910 and their property was once part of a dairy and became a shop before being used as homes so I guess it’s always been that way. It’s in a dreadful condition.

Having a house comes with responsibilities although I realise that people's budgets won't always match. I can understand that people not wishing to sell the roof over their heads but if upkeep is a problem then I don't see why the neighbours should have to bear the longer-term costs. (I speak for my own situation here).

My home is having a centenary makeover and next doors chooses to neglect and I have paid dearly for righting this.