Neighour's extension on my land

hethmar

Clutton, Ive a feeling you havent had a neighbour from hell - we have had to deal with one for nearly 3 years and Im sure that the OP has already spoken to this guy on various occasions . We ignored the rubble blocking the ditch on land prone to flooding, we ignored the planning permission that had 3 windows overlooking our garden (fortunately the Planning Department objected for us), the drilling at 5.30 a.m. and building works every evening and weekend and we tried to play the nice guy, but he just kept taking more and more liberties because of that.

I dont think going to the CAB and having a letter calmly pointing out your objections is "guns blazing", I think its a sensible act to ensure that your objections have been made. IF this neighbour is anything like ours he will swear the OP gave him permission for all these works and if there is nothing in writing to say he objected then he will be up a creek without a paddle. A letter does not mean you are going to take him to court (at this stage). I was advising not to tackle the situation face to face when he feels wound up about it. A third party would keep it at arms length. Of course he could always take the solicitors advice and write the letter of objection himself as long as he makes sure he has a copy (although the neighbour could, in theory, "lose" his and forget he received it). Clutton, just cos you play fair, doesnt mean everyone else does - which we have found to our distressing cost.

I wish the OP luck and it would be wonderful if they can have a chat over a cup of tea and settle the matter and the OP's concerns but he needs to ensure he is prepared. Hopefully the parents offer is genuine and that would settle everything.

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

I would be wary of the parents offer and even if it does go ahead, make sure that you still disclose the dispute regarding the land to your solicitor dealing with the sale. Just so that the parents can't come back and sue the OP for none disclosure of a dispute which they are in full knowledge about.

hethmar

Victor, this site may be of help:

http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/index.php

VictorMeldew

I've spoke to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and have a number for a CS in the area. I'm trying to get in contact with him today.

Tbs624, thanks for that but I'm not sure the Party Wall Act is applicable now that the extension has already been built, but I'll certainly ask the Surveyor about it though.

No word from the council as yet, I've just phoned to escalate my 'call back' as it's been longer than 24 working hours now since I phoned them.

VictorMeldew

Right. I've just spoken to the chartered surveyor. He said that to come out and assess the situation, it would cost me £850+vat, and then £90 per hour after this. Apparently I would be able to re-coup this fee from my neighbour as I shouldn't be left out of pocket because he hasn't done things correctly.

It is too late for the party wall act as the extension is already up, my neighbour should have sorted this initially before any work was started. The surveyor did say that structural damage to my property was possible due to his extension, so basically if I don't get this checked out now, I could end up with even bigger problems in the future.

I'm going to go round to my neighbours tonight and explain my concerns.

hethmar

Good luck Vic dont let him sweet talk you

clutton_2

good luck victor - is there a friend you can do a "role play" conversation with before going next door - and dont say this is a daft idea - its exceptionally useful in stressful situations - your friend will probably come up with responses that your neighbour might and which you may never anticipate - then - you will have had practice dealing with these responses and wont be surprised at them when the neighbour comes out with them ......

do let us know how you get on

bw

VictorMeldew

Thanks everyone again for your help. I phoned another chartered surveyor this afternoon to get another opinion on the matter. This one seemed really good, and said that he was just about to be listed as a mediator in situations such as this. His advice was to first of all go around and tell my neighbour of my concerns, and then after that, he'd write a letter to him expressing all my concerns. I was impressed that he didn't immediately didn't want to get involved and was encouraging me to sort the matter out myself.

So, I went round to my neighbour's this evening and told him of my concerns; that the two storey extension is on my land, that the gutter will overhang my land, that the work has left my garden unsafe and that the extension could possibly cause structural damage to my house in the future. I said that I am concerned that when I come to sell, these things will show up on a survey and make the selling process more difficult. ( ps- thanks clutton for the role-play tip. I only saw your post afterwards but as it was I was pretty calm anyway)

He then proceeded to list reason after reason as to why I was wrong about the boundary. First of all he said that it must all be ok because it had been passed by the council. I said that the council have nothing to do with boundary problems as this is a civil issue. He then said that he'd already paid a surveyor around a thousand pounds to ensure that he was within the boundaries. I asked him to produce some evidence of this, which after a brief search in his house he couldn't.

I then offered to show him my copy of the land registry plan showing the boundary lines which I'd downloaded from his planning application on the council website. I showed him the straight boundary line which he had crossed. At some point during all this his mate showed up claiming to be surveyor, and with a ruler started measuring the boundary diagram (about 1cm squared of this is the area of our houses!) and pointing to where he thought the boundary should be! I started getting a bit annoyed at this point although looking back it was quite funny! It reminded me of something off Jeremy Beadle!

I said that there was a perfectly good fence that shows where the boundary is and there is no reason to suspect that the boundary is anywhere else. After another few minutes of them squinting at this diagram, I called it a day and said that as we were not getting anywhere, I'd have to get my own surveyor to determine the boundaries. In the meantime, I asked my neighbour to make the work safe, which he agreed to.

I feel loads better about it all now, a bit of the weight has been lifted at least. I'll phone the second surveyor again tomorrow and get him to start the proper proceedings. He said that I should be able to make my neighbour pay the fees if he has done wrong.

I tried to keep it as friendly as possible with my neighbour, although I nearly lost it a one point with his mates pathetic surveyor impersonation. Is it an offence to impersonate a surveyor in the same way as a police officer?!:D

Will see how it goes now, thanks again for the support and help.

simcla

Take a photo of the fence with todays newspaper before he rips up the fence - he sounds like a nightmare!

clutton_2

sounds like you handled it really well !!! and sounds like next door did a whole lot of bull-shotting !!!!

hopefully there is now a way forward, since he now clearly knows exactly what problems he has caused