Potential privacy problems with removal of fence

Rossie64

The side of my house and garden adjoins the car park of an old community building which has just had planning approved, to build flats and it is currently being knocked down. The car park will remain as it is and will be used for the new residents. There is an old boundary fence which runs all the way up to the side of the old community building, well past the boundary of my house and borders the street in front of my property (which is an unadopted road to make matters worse). My deeds are clearly marked that I am not responsible for this fence, and there is some question historically as to who actually owns it. The fence has never been maintained as as result. Up until now it has never been too much of a problem as I have conifer screening on my side but now this developer has bought the land I’m very worried that someone could get into my garden if the fence is suddenly pulled down as there are gaps between the conifers. What are my rights? Do they need to give me notice if they remove it? I understand that I have a “right to privacy” but what does this actually mean in law? I live on my own so this is very unnerving and I’m worried I will end up with the expense of having to put up a fence between the gaps on my side to secure my property. Incidentally there is no mention in the planning proposal documents relating to this fence at all but it wouldn’t look too good for potential new owners. 

GDB2222

Plant pyracantha.

stuhse

If you want a fence around your property, it is for you to arrange, its no one elses responsibility.  If there is an existing fence which isnt yours, it is nothing to do with you, the owner can do what they like with it.  

Brie

Is there a tree protection order on the trees?  If so the council will be very interested to hear if someone has been tampering with them, no matter whose property they are on.  

As for the fence......if it is not on your property and is not your responsibility there's little you can do about it.  They can tear it down, not replace it, put a string up instead, or put up something both sturdy and lovely.  If they do the last then they should take care to not damage your trees but it already sounds like they might not care about that bit.  That said if they are putting in fence posts and cut through roots of your trees that have grown to their side of the boundary well not too much can be done about that.  You may lose some of your conifers as a result.  But if there's a good fence up that may not be a big concern.

Maybe approaching the builder with a positive attitude would help?  "oh I see on the planning that the car park will go to this point.  Did you plan on a chain link or solid board fence?  Would you mind if I stain the fence dark brown on my side?  I'm love to do that before the boards go up to make it easier."   

sevenhills

Rossie64 said:

Up until now it has never been a problem as I have conifer screening on my side but now this developer has bought the land I’m very worried that someone could get into my garden if the fence is suddenly pulled down as there are gaps between the conifers. What are my rights?

In addition to this, on our side one mature conifer tree looks like it’s been poisoned and my tree man thinks it has. It’s not near my house it’s further up the road so is in effect owned by all of us residents and is in the way of where the developer wants to run a drain pipe. This is suspiciously convenient in itself but now I’m worried about my own conifer hedging trees. One started showing signs of illness a few weeks back and now it definitely looks very sick, brown leaves all over.

The revised plans for the approval stipulated that the trees would be left alone and that approval was only granted if certain conditions were met. I’m scared to approach the builder himself in case he just makes things worse for me. 

Conifers are very susceptible to die back, it's very unlikely that they were poisoned.

There seems to be doubt about boundary line, you need to clarify.

If these trees are yours, why would the plans stipulate that they should be left alone?

eddddy

If a builder/developer is building a brand new block of flats, I expect they will want a smart, robust fence around it's car park - to impress prospective buyers/renters.

If they're spending hundreds of thousands building the flats, I suspect they'll be happy to spend a few thousand on a fence, to finish off the development nicely.

But you can ask them what their plans are. 

gwynlas

If they need to tear down the fence and remove trees to aid construction they will and there is little you can do about it. However they will want to make site secure from theft so it is likely they will erect a temporary fence possibly mesh panels or wood and not erect permanent fencing until development completed. If you wish to erect a permanent fence on your boundary prior to this that is up to you. Dependent on the size of the coompany you might make contact and negotiate above as being a concerned neighbour able and willing to provide Neighbourhood Watch for site security.

Elliott.T123

The idea that deeds show who is responsible for a boundary is very misleading. Anyone can put up a fence on (a fraction inside) their boundary, once the fence is up there is no requirement (I am sure there are probably some special circumstances but we are just talking about the majority here) to maintain it or do anything else. Just because one part previously had a fence there is no requirement for them to replace it. They could choose to pull it down and not replace it. My parents have a 400ft long garden with lots of plants straddling the boundary, rather than fence the full length, kill lots of plants both parties are very happy with a piece of string and some pegs. If new neighbours moved in with a dog then that would be up to them to secure the boundary. 

In short, there is no requirement for the current fence to be maintained, replaced or anything else by the developer. If you want peace of mind that there is a fence there then put one in yourself.

Dustyevsky

Rossie64 said:

I understand that I have a “right to privacy” but what does this actually mean in law?

It means you are allowed to put up your own fence to a height of 2m on a boundary not adjoining a public road, or to grow a hedge of unspecified height.

However, as others have said, it's unlikely a new development site will be left unprotected from theft and probable that swish new flats will have their car park boundary properly protected too.

You're jumping the gun. In your position, I'd wait and see what transpires.Chances are, the end result will be better rather than worse.