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Environmental Law of raised beds next to neighbour's garden
Lucid
Posts: 387
Hi everyone,
We've been in our new house for a few months and have got plans coming up to remove a line of conifer hedging and put up permanent fencing. Our next door neighbours have said we're contravening environmental law because our garden has raised beds and they have to hold back the soil with slabs on their side. It's not really a raised bed but the garden does have a step up. I can see a little bit of their slabs through the gaps and it doesn't look like they're very high, so I assume our garden isn't too much higher than theirs. I believe their garden is also a little raised etc. I know you'll probably say photos will help you to visualise but I've not really got photos to show this area of interest as the conifers are so thick. Here's a photo to show the step up at least (please excuse the mess but we were left with all the old plant pots and rubbish of the previous owners):
I was just interested if anyone knows what they mean by contravening environmental law? We've only been there a few months and the garden is extremely mature and has clearly been like it for decades.
When we come to remove the confiers they think their slabs are going to be left to collapse and cause damage, which obviously we're going to take great care not to do. Is it our resonsibility to hold back the soil for them, if it is a bit higher? Or is that down to them for anything that's over the boundary line? We'll be having concrete gravel boards installed so presumably that will do the job, but we'll only be putting them in line with our boundary edge. So if there is raised soil left on their side is that our problem to sort out?
I've tried to research this online but am not having much luck, so thought there might be some of you on here who have had this situation arise before.
Lucid
We've been in our new house for a few months and have got plans coming up to remove a line of conifer hedging and put up permanent fencing. Our next door neighbours have said we're contravening environmental law because our garden has raised beds and they have to hold back the soil with slabs on their side. It's not really a raised bed but the garden does have a step up. I can see a little bit of their slabs through the gaps and it doesn't look like they're very high, so I assume our garden isn't too much higher than theirs. I believe their garden is also a little raised etc. I know you'll probably say photos will help you to visualise but I've not really got photos to show this area of interest as the conifers are so thick. Here's a photo to show the step up at least (please excuse the mess but we were left with all the old plant pots and rubbish of the previous owners):
I was just interested if anyone knows what they mean by contravening environmental law? We've only been there a few months and the garden is extremely mature and has clearly been like it for decades.
When we come to remove the confiers they think their slabs are going to be left to collapse and cause damage, which obviously we're going to take great care not to do. Is it our resonsibility to hold back the soil for them, if it is a bit higher? Or is that down to them for anything that's over the boundary line? We'll be having concrete gravel boards installed so presumably that will do the job, but we'll only be putting them in line with our boundary edge. So if there is raised soil left on their side is that our problem to sort out?
I've tried to research this online but am not having much luck, so thought there might be some of you on here who have had this situation arise before.
Lucid
0
Posts
@pansyface - Sounds like we've got very similar neighbours. I'm hoping we don't start to get official letters from them. We're not trying to cause issues for anyone but just didn't understand the contravening environmental law part.
@JennyJ - Thanks for your pointers on the conifer roots. Just to clarify that we will be planning on having the gravel boards level with their ground so that our soil doesn't spill over, it's a matter of centimetres I think rather than inches, but they seem to think this is going to cause great issues for their slabs. Presumably if their slabs aren't within our boundary line then it shouldn't be an issue? My query was more that if there is raised soil technically on their boundary, before we've removed the conifers, are we still responsible to keep it back? Sadly the neighbours are most probably not going to allow us on their side to check it out before hand, but we'll try.
@KT53 and @BenCotto- We're in the UK. I'll try asking the neighbour and hope they can let me know which section they're referring to. I'll post back here if we hear anything back.
@Lizzie27 - Thanks for this and I was wondering if this is along the lines of what they mean, but I can't find anything specific either. I think it's only a matter of centimetres as I think their garden also steps up, so was hoping that the gravel board will act as the wall in that situation, but will glad to hear if that's definitely not right.
One further query to follow on from @JennyJ 's earlier comment. We are happy with the idea of taller gravel boards if that's what needs to be done to keep all of the soil back, as we don't know for sure how it all looks until everything is removed - unless they let us take a look ahead of time. But if we had to use taller gravel boards, or double gravel boards etc, would they then have a case to say our fence is too tall as a result? You can only go up to 2 meters can't you?
Lucid
Court of Appeal case where a dividing wall on higher ground collapsed into an adjoining garden.