Fencing - Kind of Dispute With Neighbour

divadee

The fence to the left of our property is our responsibility. The fence runs all the way along the property. About half way down is our garage, and then after that the back garden. When we installed the fence 4 years ago we couldnt fence part way behind the garage as the neighbour had a hue bos hedge about 2m tall. It wasnt really a problem as security was maintained as it was behind the garage etc...

Roll on a few years and a new neighbour moved in. Last summer he removed the whole of the hedge (as was his right im not disputing that). We then said to him, well we will get the fence put all the way along now that we can, but he refused access (again which is his right). We would not be able to complete the fencing without his consent as all the work would need to be from his side due to the garage being there.

Last october he put some bamboo screening up behind th garage initially on his side. When it blew down in the first gust of wind, he obviously had to think differently about how to attach it. Her decided to attach it hooking it through our fence panel (the last one before the garage so easily accessible from our side) and around our concrete post with metal ties. This has damaged the panel. We removed the ties, in the hope he would get the hint.

Yesterday mr divadee went to remove fence panel to paint it and make good the damage and we find we couldnt slide the panel out easily as he had tied it on again. But this time he had used thick thick rope so we had to cut it.

Mr divadee hadnt finished yesterday completely but for security he put the panel back in overnight to take out again this morning. This morning we go to take it out and the neighbour has tied it with the thickest electrical cord i have ever seen. This really annoyed me as he saw mr divadee doing the work yesterday so knew what we were doing.

I was livid at this (it was first thing i had just woken up and now i feel i was a bit petty) so out came the loppers and i chopped through the cable to remove the panel.

After all the history i will get on to my question Can i stop him from attaching things to our fence? It stops us doing maintenance etc... surely thats not right.

To be honest this is our forever home and the neighbour is moving in about a years time, so if i were to get in a neighbour dispute will we have to declare it IF we ever sold of he no longer lived there? What i mean is the neighbour dispute with the person or the house? I assume he would, and to be honest i would love him not to and then the new neighbours sue the pants off him!! lol i know thats evil.

He is a pain of a neighbour anyway, due to other things i wont go into here, but i have always let them go.

I hope some knowledgeable person will be able to tell me that he cant tie anything to our fence

If he cant should i write to him and inform of this?

silvercar

why not just talk to him.

he probably doesn't realise he's annoying you. He may even think the post is actually on the boundary so half on your property, half on his. He may be needled that your post is encroaching his land and is attaching to it to make his point.

As for the strict legalities, if it is encroaching his land he can attach to his side. If it is totally on your side but ends on the boundary, he could attach to his side without straying over; so using "hard as nails" glue would be OK as that wouldn't stray over your boundary line, but nailing into your post wouldn't.

divadee

silvercar wrote: »

why not just talk to him.

he probably doesn't realise he's annoying you. He may even think the post is actually on the boundary so half on your property, half on his. He may be needled that your post is encroaching his land and is attaching to it to make his point.

As for the strict legalities, if it is encroaching his land he can attach to his side. If it is totally on your side but ends on the boundary, he could attach to his side without straying over; so using "hard as nails" glue would be OK as that wouldn't stray over your boundary line, but nailing into your post wouldn't.

i would talk to him, but he is very agressive and when we have asked stuff in the past he just gets angry and defensive. He is a !!!! of a neighbour. He annoys all the neighbours round here.

I thought last year us offering to carry on the fence would be good for him, but as said above he wouldnt give us permission to come on to his land to finish the job.

Thanks for the advice though. I slowly feel i am turning into one of the grumpy old men out of that film!!!

country_sport

This is how nightmares start. I do sympathize with you, having the same problem but it can take over your life.
If he is moving soon, i would forget it for now. Sort it out between exchange and completion of the sale, he wont care then.
However, to answer your question, if the fence or wall is yours, he is not allowed to nail, screw, glue, lean etc anything to it.

divadee

country_sport wrote: »

This is how nightmares start. I do sympathize with you, having the same problem but it can take over your life.
If he is moving soon, i would forget it for now. Sort it out between exchange and completion of the sale, he wont care then.
However, to answer your question, if the fence or wall is yours, he is not allowed to nail, screw, glue, lean etc anything to it.

thanks for the information. I would leave it but it could be a year before he moves as he is struggling financially and is trying to do a development project in his garden to pay off his debts, this was refused permission, but he is appealing. Its unlikely he will get it and he has stated to another neighbour he will be gone if he doesnt get the permission.

I think i will have to just take some deep breaths and forget about the fence. even though it will drive me nuts!!

tbs624

Aah neighbours.........maybe those deep breaths will do the trick in the short term. You wouldn't want anything like this to follow:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=492023&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true

although the rubber glove did make me laugh!

As it was in the Daily Mail, it must be true .......................

pinkshoes

It's a fence.

Life it too short to argue over a fence post.

Go round, apologise for cutting his cord, but say you had to do it whilst you painted your fence, and you'll tie his bamboo thing back to your fence post afterwards.

If you don't want to speak to him, then just leave the fence as it is and paint it when he moves out.

Seriously, life is far too short.

Richard_Webster

I'm not sure that legally he can attach anything to your fence. However, to go to court over a point like that is silly and will cost a lot of money and inflame the situation further.

If he is likely to move on then you might mention in the forms when selling that you had trouble with a previous neighbour over the fence but he has now moved on and there have been no difficulties since. That's usually fine because the buyers realise it isn't the resent neighbour.

divadee

tbs624 wrote: »

Aah neighbours.........maybe those deep breaths will do the trick in the short term. You wouldn't want anything like this to follow:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=492023&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true

although the rubber glove did make me laugh!

As it was in the Daily Mail, it must be true .......................

:rotfl:

the rubber glove did make me laugh as well

i dont think i will take it that far. Mr divadee tells me to not worry about it, but i am slowly turning into Jack Lemmon or Walter Matthau from grumpy old men, and im a woman!!!

i admitted to everyone it was petty, but i cant help it now, mr divadee just sits there laughing as i go out to check he hasnt put anything back up.

i dont like slugs though so i wont be doing that!!! but the rubber glove now theres and idea!!!! :rotfl:

divadee

Richard_Webster wrote: »

I'm not sure that legally he can attach anything to your fence. However, to go to court over a point like that is silly and will cost a lot of money and inflame the situation further.

If he is likely to move on then you might mention in the forms when selling that you had trouble with a previous neighbour over the fence but he has now moved on and there have been no difficulties since. That's usually fine because the buyers realise it isn't the resent neighbour.

thanks richard for that information, just what i was looking for.

tbs624

Richard_Webster wrote: »

If he is likely to move on then you might mention in the forms when selling that you had trouble with a previous neighbour over the fence but he has now moved on and there have been no difficulties since. That's usually fine because the buyers realise it isn't the resent neighbour.

A Freudian slip, if ever I saw one.................;)