Terrible Week Neighbours Builders!

Spender£

Apologies in advance if this is the wrong section although it is to do with builders it is sort of legal as well.

I was on my break at work last Monday and glanced at my cameras at home only to notice something did not seem right. My hedge which borders my back garden fence had been cut down and thrown on my side of the garden and the fence panels removed.
I told my line manager it was an emergency and rushed home, when i got there 4 men were in my back yard trampling over my flower beds and were spraying grey paint all over the fence panels laying on my lawn.
I explained you are not supposed to be over my side and no have no right to cut all my hedges down to which one of them replied "it is done now so forget about it as we will be gone soon, to which said I'm not happy about this. They told me my neighbour wants both sides of their fence sprayed silver birch so they get the panels out and because my neighbours have artificial grass they thought they would spray on my back lawn instead and keep all the mess my side.
My camera clearly picked up the men cleaning the paint spray gun out with a hose directly over my pond which resulted in grey Lillie leaves, when i confronted him over this he tried to claim it was just water.
I became very frustrated at this point and lost my temper they told me they were going to drown me in the pond and kill my elderly mother who was with me in the garden at the time if i don't shut up and go away.
One of the men tried to keep the peace as my elderly mother was not backing down to the man.
The neighbours who live there came rushing to find out what was happening so someone must of called them. But as they were apologising and asking if they can finish this job the builders were goading and chanting in the background whilst eating food.
I told the neighbour if you are planning something like this tell me about it to which she replied you were out so we thought we would just go ahead anyway my neighbours then got in their cars and left us to it.
The men continued working in my garden and then one of them out of the blue kicked a large rock from my rockery into my pond, i saw this and reacted in an angry fashion, he then did a double biceps pose and asked what i am going to do about it, this is when i realised i need to call the police.
The police over the phone told me to get everybody inside the house and lock the doors which we did and we could see the camera footage all day of the men trampling all the flower beds and deliberately enjoying our stress.
The police arrived over 5 hours later when everybody had gone home but they tried to play down the situation claiming it was probably just water in the spray gun and warned me in future phone them and don't say anything to these men.
They made it clear to my neighbours that the men should not of had a need to paint my side of a fence and as i actually first erected the fence they could of informed me of their plans in advance, they told them they must stay out of our garden from now on.
Unfortunately the very next day i checked my phone at work and they were over my side with ladders re felting the shed roof claiming they have to come my side to do this.
We called the police and they told us it has been logged however, no police came out this time.
My neighbours are sulking and not engaging about this and these builders continue to arrive doing small jobs also jeering and laughing at us when we go to work at the front of the house.

Any advice please we have never experienced anything quite like this before and it feels like we are left to just allow a lawless situation to continue, we feel like we don't want to go to work in case something is happening back home.

Devongardener

I don’t know if you own or rent your house, but either way there will probably be a clause in your or your landlord’s conveyancing paperwork that allows reasonable access between immediate neighbours for maintenance, but of course this should be by mutual agreement, not without discussion.
This type of intimidation from the workman is essentially antisocial behaviour and you could report to your local council.
If I was in that situation I think I would calculate the cost of any damage to the garden and pond, including pollution by the fence paint, and send an invoice to the neighbour.   Keep a diary of any more incidents.

LinLui

I can't imagine how you could have handled this worse. The issue is between you and the neighbour, but you decided to go directly at the group of workmen and escalate the situation to a point where it got entirely out of hand. The police don't have the resources to manage neighbour disputes, and whilst the neighbours are certainly responsible for managing their own workmen better, I can't entirely blame them for walking away from an enraged situation which was potentially becoming dangerous. You should have kept your temper - losing it wouldn't have done a thing about the damage already done - and gone directly to speak to the neighbours. 

Phone your insurers, tell them what has happened, that you have video evidence of the damage, and what needs doing to repair it. I can't see that anyone will be doing anything about the workmen - they will certainly be gone soon, and it is (even by your version) a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other. And that is exactly what the workmen will say happened - you were the instigator of the threats / behaviour. 

You can't change what has happened, but leave it to your insurers / cooler heads to manage it now. 

ThisIsWeird

This is all fully recorded? Including their return to your property the next day? Download and secure that video.

Although this is small fry for the police, they will at least have an incident ref and log of what happened. Armed with this, and a quote for the cost of putting everything right, you should be able to sue these morons with no issue.

However, if the 'damage' is actually hard to assess or put a value on, as galling as it is, you may be best just letting it by.

Do you know who these builders are? Do they have a 'reputation' they may wish to preserve (doesn't sound like it...). If so, there's always the option of posting honest reviews.

Or, you insist the police act to demand they cease and desist, and must not come on to your property again without your permission; you make a formal complaint against the police if they do not act. If the morons breach this, then the police should have an open and shut case.

Bottom line - your neighbour has the power here to get rid of these clowns. Have they even offered to make good any damage?

To clarify one part of this - yes, folk are 'entitled' to come on to neighbouring land to carry out repairs and maintenance to their property if there is no reasonable alternative. But, they need to seek permission, and if this is 'refused', they need to get a court order.

MoodyMand45

If I had builders acting like this to my neighbours they would be off the pay roll and gone asap. I think you have every reason to lose your cool. If you did not stand up for yourself they would use you as a doormat.
It all comes down to your neighbours sorting this out to reach out and apologize for giving these clowns the green light to do whatever they like. Once I hear them goading and threatening you they no longer work for me and my partner would throw them out.
Although the plods are not much use these days the important thing is reporting this in case of reprisals so I think you did the right thing showing your serious...

You will have to evaluate what compensation is needed and send them the bill as others have said.

GDB2222

One option, I guess, is to double down. Get the lawn returfed. Dig the pond out and redo it. Have mature hedges planted. Then sue for the cost. 

However, if the damage is not that bad, and the grass will be fine with just a couple of mows, etc, is it worth a legal battle?