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Advice please
smp24
Posts: 3
This may seem trivial but I have lived in my semi-detached dormer bungalow all my life, it was my mum and dad's house till dad died 5 years ago. 4 years ago the house next door changed hands and it has been one thing after another firstly they placed a trampoline right next to my garden fence, then they raised their garden by 2 feet so my 6 foot garden fence offers me now no privacy, they then wanted me to buy another fence as they complained they had no privacy. Then they altered the house removing walls, the fireplace and presumably putting down hard floors as I now hear every footstep, word spoken, everything really. Now this month it's back to my back garden fence dad paid £1400 for this 7 seven years ago,it states in the deeds it is our fence, it is slightly over into my garden by two inches as the previous owner could be awkward I have had garden pots on it for 2 years during the last month my neighbour has again begun yelling at me over the fence (literally and regarding the fence) she removed my pots and told me they have attached lights to my fence and I cannot have pots on the fence. I said it was my fence and I wanted pots on there and that she couldn't attach things to my fence without my permission, she then removed my pots again and said I was stupid and mental and that I could not have pots on my fence. So the pots are now on the floor where she threw them and I literally dare not go in the garden she has a very bad temper and I hate confrontation. Is she allowed to do this remove my pots as she has attached something to my fence, surely it's my fence? I would appreciate any advice to help me with this. Thank you
0
Posts
If the fence is yours, they have no right to put anything on it, let alone tell you you can't use it, but I understand how horrible these kinds of confrontation can be. You may well need to write down every incident so that you have some evidence of regular aggressive behaviour, but I don't know how seriously police take that either.
I'd certainly do as @pansyface suggests. You need some hefty back up with this. Do you live on your own? These sorts of bullies [because that's what they are] often pick on the easiest target. There was recent thread on the forum by a lady, concerning a similar scenario with a neighbour cutting boundary hedging/trees etc, and causing misery for her family. She hasn't posted recently, so I don't know how things are going for her.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Without a determination decision, there (quite incredibly but true) is no single definition of a property boundary in the UK.
So unless this has been investigated previously and the decision documents really do explicitly state the position of the boundary and therefore the fence (a fence won't be used in the deeds because it's a moveable feature), don't rely on that.
However you can always play this same game with your neighbor. Tell them it's your fence, you'll use it as you see fit, and if they disagree they can go and get a determination on the boundary.
As you can probably tell, I have been on the other side of this argument before - "the deeds say the fencing is on your land so you need to pay to repair our fence". Er, no.
Details here:
https://www.gov.uk/your-property-boundaries