Dispute with neighbours over fence removal

honey_bee23

My neighbours are planning an extension and want to remove my fence, which I do not give permission for. The neighbours are insisting the builders will just remove it anyway when the build commences, whether I like it or not. Where do I stand on this? Will a party wall surveyor be able to help with this? TIA

MattMattMattUK

honey_bee23 said:

My neighbours are planning an extension and want to remove my fence, which I do not give permission for. The neighbours are insisting the builders will just remove it anyway when the build commences, whether I like it or not. Where do I stand on this? Will a party wall surveyor be able to help with this? TIA

If the fence is yours, on your property, then a third party removing it without your permission would be criminal damage. If you want to make a thing of this then attach notices on the fence stating that it is your property eg. "This fence is the property of #10 Downing Street, removal prohibited". 

Why do they want to remove the fence, are they planning on using your property as access? 

p00hsticks

Playing devil's advocate....

Do you have a good reason for not wanting it removed (e.g.do you have dogs or children that need to be restrained when in the garden) ?

Have they given a timeframe for how long it will need to be down for ?   

What sort of fence is it ? Is it the sort where they can simply lift and then later replace panels, or is it something that will need to be destroyed to be removed  ? And if the latter, have they offered to put back a like-for-like replacement when they have finished ?  

Brie

building on the previous comment....if they take it down perhaps you can get them to build a new fence on their property so it becomes their problem if it blows down, gets damaged, whatever.  

honey_bee23

Thanks for your replies. They want to permanently remove the fence panels to build their extension wall - they say the fence panels are in the way, even though their plans show they are building away from the fence boundary (so the fence can stay in place). The fence runs alongside our extension. They removed 3 panels without our permission and caused physical damage to our house wall, and then afterwards started using our wall as a storage area to lean all their concrete slabs/equipment/canoe etc against. I think they just want to gain extra space. We then put the fence panels back as they were, and want them to remain in place to protect our property.

TELLIT01

If your extension is as close as possible to the fence and the neighbour plans to do the same from their side, how are you going to maintain the fence.  Even with the fence removed it won't be possible to access a strip of land not much more than a foot wide.  I'd be more concerned if the neighbour was planning to build right up to the boundary and the possible damage to the foundations of your own property during building work.

ThisIsWeird

Hi Honey.
This sounds like a case where a PWA surveyor would be a good idea... We only have one side of the story, of course, but in a situation where two neighb's have serious disagreements about what can, and can not, be done, and it involves a boundary/party wall, a surveyor should be able to help find the best path through the troubles.
Find a local PWA surveyor and call them up. They should be able to guide you on how to put it all in place. If you see your neighbour, explain to them that since they have damaged/crossed your boundary, you will need to insist on a PWA surveyor - which they will be paying for.
(Assuming, of course, your situation is included by the sorts of things they oversee.)
Do you have Legal Prot in your house insurance? If so, call them up too.
Oh, and be as certain as you can about what IS your land, and that what they are doing is 'wrong'.

Alfrescodave

Now is the time (if you haven't already done so ) to take many pictures of the area before it all kicks off.  Also make sure that your neighbour sees you doing this which will enforce your reluctance for the changes to happen 

mi-key

Are you sure they want to permanently remove them and they don't just mean removing them while the builders are there so they can get access to the outside wall of the extension for rendering etc..  which is quite common? Builders wouldn't remove a fence without the owners permission as they would be liable for it and it's not worth the hassle.

MeteredOut

OP, pictures really would be helpful here.

I suspect the fence is on the boundary line today, and the neighbour is planning to build their new extension right up to the existing boundary line (or as close as they can get). To allow them to do that, they want to remove the part of the fence where their extension will butt up against the boundary. That extension wall will thereafter effectively become the boundary line between the OP and the neighbour.

OP, do you actually own the fence? Also, make sure your neighbour does not plan to build up to the boundary line if that means their gutters will overhand your boundary. This is technically trespass.

ThisIsWeird

Honey, have you called up a local PWA surveyor to ask them yet?

If you have LegProt, have you called them up?