Neighbour has built porch roof encroaching on my property

solentsusie · 6 November 2021 at 9:59AM

Hi

Not sure where I should post this but would appreciate advice.

Live in a terrace house, neighbours are building a roof covering their bay window and their doorway as the roof on the bay is falling apart and rather than replace it they have covered it with another roof and extended this over the doorway to the property.

We are in a terrace where our doors are tightly next to each other, my house brickwork is painted and there is a clear 'boundary' line down the fronts of the houses.

They have employed someone to undertake the work, on the first day he attached a piece of wood directly up to the boundary between the properties and screwed it to the wall. I questioned this and told him nothing could overhang the demarcation of my property, he kept assuring me that it would not.

I came out the second day and there was some roofing material clearly overhanging the boundary, once again he told me this was being cut back and that nothing would encroach on my boundary line. Once again I informed him he could not build over my property, pointed to the boundary line and told him nothing could hang across this.

Yesterday I came home and the porch is clearly over my property. He was stood there with one of the owners of the house and I had a heated discussion with him in front of them, told them both I had voiced my concern about this twice already and that he had clearly ignored me and that the roof is over my property, which you can see quite clearly. I told him this had to be sorted out as it could not overhang my house.

It is very clear that their builder totally ignored me and just carried on regardless.

If he had moved the piece of wood by a couple of inches when I pointed this out we would not be in this position and I said that to both him and the householder. I am blaming their builder and not the householders, although it is their responsibility to get the builder to rectify it.

What do you think my next course of action should be? Should I also put my concerns in writing? Is this something that I should contact the local planning department about? Looking on their website I can't see where I would report it to. I know porches come under permitted development but that does not permit people to build them overhanging other people's property. The roof itself is pretty ugly and not something I would add to my property, nothing I can do about that, but I certainly don't want it encroaching on my home.

Image: https://us-noi.v-cdn.net/6031891/uploads/editor/hm/ekj2qk089ysx.jpg

Image: https://us-noi.v-cdn.net/6031891/uploads/editor/f1/qgdmha0k282b.jpg

Bradden · 6 November 2021 at 10:08AM

Slightly off topic but looking a the timber in the second photo.. I'm pretty sure it's not pressure treated so not really suitable for exterior use. You may find this useful when discussing with your neighbour.. he's less likely to backup the contractor if he knows they are doing a poor job.

Doozergirl · 6 November 2021 at 10:25AM

It looks ready to fall down, already.

GDB2222 · 6 November 2021 at 10:30AM

Agreed. This isn’t going to last very long.

Planning is not an issue unless you are in a conservation area.

If the neighbour refuses to move the overlapping part of the porch, you have three choices

Get a solicitor involved
Shin up a ladder with a saw and cut it back yourself
Forget about it. As land invasions go, it’s pretty minimal.

Bear in mind that you probably need to declare this dispute if you come to sell your house.

solentsusie · 6 November 2021 at 10:38AM

Bradden said:

Slightly off topic but looking a the timber in the second photo.. I'm pretty sure it's not pressure treated so not really suitable for exterior use. You may find this useful when discussing with your neighbour.. he's less likely to backup the contractor if he knows they are doing a poor job.

This is the second lot of cowboy builders they've employed. The last lot did a botch job on their patio.

Bendy_House · 6 November 2021 at 10:44AM

Do you have LP on your HI?

solentsusie · 6 November 2021 at 10:51AM

GDB2222 said:

Agreed. This isn’t going to last very long.

Planning is not an issue unless you are in a conservation area.

If the neighbour refuses to move the overlapping part of the porch, you have three choices

Get a solicitor involved
Shin up a ladder with a saw and cut it back yourself
Forget about it. As land invasions go, it’s pretty minimal.

Bear in mind that you probably need to declare this dispute if you come to sell your house.

Planning may not be an issue but our council has policies on residential design which is expected to befit the area/property. This does not.

Solicitor is last resort, they just want to make money.

It might seem 'pretty minimal' from your perspective, but when you look at the hideous roof as a whole picture and the front of the houses from across the street it is very clear their awful roof overhangs mine.

More than happy to declare it as a dispute, the house has been in my family for generations so when my kids inherit it that will be their problem not mine.

I'm more annoyed that their 'builder' took absolutely no notice. No idea why he has left that bit of wood hanging out the end either, he should of planned it so that it did not show, not cut the horrid plastic around it. What was he thinking?

solentsusie · 6 November 2021 at 10:54AM

Doozergirl said:

It looks ready to fall down, already.

You should see the state of the bay roof that they just 'covered up' rather than actually repairing it. It has holes in it, so they will still have problems with insulation.