Potential Boundary Dispute, Resolution tips and Impact on Selling

ThisIsWeird

eddddy said:

ThisIsWeird said:

Of course not. But they should get involved in 'criminal property damage' and/or threatening and/or intimidating behaviour, which is what this would be.

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They will usually also briefly look and listen to both sides, and judge whether something is patently 'obvious'. In this case, the independent 3rd party - the fencers - would be able to confirm the OP's position; "Yes, that was the line of the original fence, and - yes, we messed up when we put in the new one. We are trying to fix our mistake, but this neighbour is demanding to keep the new line, I guess because it gives them more land! He used...(insert examples of intimidating behaviour) to prevent us sorting our error..."

I think it's unlikely that a fencing contractor would get involved in that. As the OP has explained, not surprisingly, the fencing contractor decided to walk away when the 'trouble' started...

To clarify - I said the police should become involved when it's a case of 'criminal property damage', as it would be. No, the fencers - unless they fancy it - shouldn't.

I would hope the fencers would, tho', have enough mettle to remain there and explain the situation to the police, tho'. I mean, what can happen to them?! The neighbour isn't actually going to beat them up! (And they should be recording if there's any hint whatsoever.)

ThisIsWeird

Sapen1518 said:

@ThisIsWeird we do have photo evidence to show the error. The fencers jack hammered away part of a cement slab and that accounts for the almost 2 feet we've lost. As the fence is long, it gradually corrects towards the back garden so its not the whole way along however it has narrowed where the gas meters are so has reduced the communal accessway, through which I get to my front door. 

Its a stressful situation and the neighbour bombards us with lengthy threatening emails about suing us so we'd prefer avoiding a confrontational situation.

His argument is baseless, there is no evidence and all his messages in the lead up to having the work done were very amicable and in no way indicated a past problem. He has currently benefited from the errors so it is truly baffling why he has taken this approach.

 

This is an astonishing situation, Sapen - just crazy!

Have the fencers explained what the heck they were doing? They must have a rational explanation for moving the fence line? They are surely not just shrugging and saying, 'Oops!'.

Ignore the emails from this neighbour - but keep them all safe. 

The bit-in-bold^ - what are you saying? Surely it's because he is benefitting that he's taking this threatening action - he wants to stop you in your tracks, and keep the fence where it is?

Ok, I'd first want a concrete answer from the fencers on how and why they got it wrong. Do not accept any horsepoo. Were they approached by this neighbour half way through the work, for example, and were so spineless that they moved the fence for him?!

Have you paid them? If not - DON'T. They have landed you in this unpleasant situation. And they have not fulfilled their side of the contract.

WHAT, exactly, is this neighbour saying and doing that's so threatening, and making people so intimidated? Give us some concrete examples, please. If it's firing off emails, then ignore it. If it's having a silly rant about 'rights', then ignore it. If it's threatening or intimidating or aggressive, clearly designed to prevent you from correcting this error, then I suggest you report them to the police - with evidence. Ideally recordings, but at least with a dated and timed log of all interactions, ideally targetted towards as many different folk as possible. Tell the police that the fencers made a mistake, and that they have agreed to come back out to sort it. However, you are not sure if, based on his actions so far, the neighbour may try and physically intervene.

Then get a date from the idiot fencers to return, and get as many folk from your building as possible in attendance, all of them with their phones ready to record - tell the fencers they will be there. (If it's only you, then hey - you'd better have your phone working.) And sort it - make it a fait accompli.

What can the neighbour do? Legally? Nothing. Physically? Well, he'll only do that once.

There's always the risk that he'll damage the fence afterwards, of course - is there any way you can protect against this, a CCTV camera covering that area for example? 

sheramber

I would be surprised if the fencers agreed to return. 

ProDave

What baffles me, is the fence has moved 2 feet.  Yet the OP is still able to reach is front door.

Just how wide is this access?  It must have been pretty wide to start with if now 2 feet less it is still adequate to walk down.

And have they replaced (moved) the entire fence along the entire boundary, or just the bit you use for access?  If just the bit you use, then it will have left a great big step in the fence line that will be plainly obvious.