Neighbour has raised garden level. Advice needed.

[Stewjitsu72]

Good afternoon, I’m hoping someone can help.

My neighbour has recently had some garden improvements made. In the back garden the land slopes down away from the house by about 6 inches every 6 feet. Our neighbour has erected a level surface that extends between 20 - 25 feet away from the house. This surface is the entire width of the property and as such adjoins joins the fence between us. We are responsible for maintaining this fence and have a copy of the original plans that have a “T” pointing into our garden from the fence.

At the edge of the new structure, farthest away from the house, the ground level has been raised approximately 18 inches. As such this new level surface is now at the same height as the bottom of our fence panel. The fence panel is only 4ft tall but has 3 x 6 inch gravel boards underneath. Since our garden is on a slope and there are steps down the side that is adjacent to the fence, more gravel boards were added to keep the bottom of the fence panel away from the steps to keep them from rotting.

I haven’t yet lifted the fence panel and gravel boards to inspect what lies behind as I am fearful that building material will fall into our garden. Equally if there has been a concrete pour of some sort I may not be able to lift the gravel boards.

I have already notified the local planning department who are investigating the structure and its possible breach of permitted development. However they have told me that they cannot help me in respect of the question I have regarding retaining structures. I contacted the county building control department who told me that they couldn’t help either.

Do I need to hire a builder or surveyor first to find out what (if any) retaining structure is in place?

It doesn’t help that our neighbour recently painted their side of our fence and attached fairy lights to it without asking our permission. It’s therefore not surprising that they didn’t notify us prior to carrying out these engineering works and ground level changes.

I can post photos if it helps.

Thanks in advance.

[Stewjitsu72]

Still waiting for the planning department to give me a definitive answer on whether or not this is permitted development.

I suspect it did indeed require planning permission since I have calculated that:

*some of the newly erected fencing exceeds 2.5 meters above the original ground level

*15 - 20 cubic meters of infill was used to raise ground levels and create platform and steps

*a retaining wall 1.2 meters high and over 2.5 meters wide was constructed to hold in the majority of the infill

*60% of the surface area of the platform is higher than 30cm above the original ground level

* nearly 2 meters of our fence line can now be easily overlooked by any person over 4 feet 6 inches tall and another 2 meters of the same fence line can be overlooked by any person over 5 feet tall.. I have inserted an extra 6 inch gravel board under the existing 4 foot fence panel in the bay that starts around 1.5 meters away from the rear of our house. You could still just see over it if you were 5 1/2 feet tall but it is much better than it was.

As far as the damage to our fence goes, I have lifted two fence panels and around 10kg of decorative stones fell through the gap. I’ve left the panels raised on house bricks to prevent them from taking on excess water and rotting prematurely.

Further up the slope I have tried to move the gravel boards but they do indeed seem to be stuck fast and I cannot see any gap between them and the newly built patio / raised platform on the other side.

Should I wait until the fence line is obviously visibly different (ie. leaning over or bulging) before I can claim that any damage was caused?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[paulajayne]

The way those fence panels are fitted indicates that the fence is not yours to maintain, as the face side apears to be pointing at the neighbours side.
Can you post up the plans (redacted as required).

[Stewjitsu72]

The way those fence panels are fitted indicates that the fence is not yours to maintain, as the face side apears to be pointing at the neighbours side.
Can you post up the plans (redacted as required).

i replaced these panels in spring 2019. I checked our deeds before doing so and the plan indicates the responsibility of fence maintenance is ours since the “T” on the boundary points into our garden.

[paulajayne]

Do you deeds match this. Trying to be 100% sure as if neighbour is fence owner then different way to deal with problem.

[Stewjitsu72]

We are plot 11, our neighbours are plot 10.

[Stewjitsu72]

We are plot 11, our neighbours are plot 10.

Btw the way the house numbers are not 10 and 11. These are just the plot numbers allocated before the build was completed.

[paulajayne]

The best way to deal with this is to speak to your neighbour to sort out your problems due to the changes made. Going down any legal route will cost and that cost can be very high.

Am amicable solution is the best way forward, explain your concerns in a calm and measured manner. Best to jot all points down so that you can refer to them and hence cover all points.

[Stewjitsu72]

We had already drafted a polite letter expressing our concerns about the fence damage and ground level changes. We were waiting for the local planning authority to decide if the development is permitted development or if retrospective planning permission is required before posting it through their letter box. 4 months later and we’re still none the wiser regards the planning status.

[echat11]

Hi STEWJITSU72

I'm not saying take the legal route. The courts require you to show that you've tried 'everything' else to reach a resolution. As PaulaJayne says the costs in these matters can spiral. I post the following as it has some good information.

https://hardwicke.co.uk/boundary-dis...-and-practice/

[Stewjitsu72]

Just a quick update:

Local planning department have declined to take enforcement action citing that there is little material difference from what was there before and what is there now.

Any ideas if there is a route for challenging this?

I have contacted my local councillor who is on the planning committee for help.

I don't know what else to do.

Thank you.

[Stewjitsu72]

According to the councillor it looks like the only options available are to either make an official complaint to the local council or to build a taller fence and get on with our lives.

There is something in the deeds (covenant) that restricts certain behaviours towards neighbours. Do you think this is a viable course of action?

Thank you.

[Stewjitsu72]

So I have spoken to our neighbour and expressed our concerns. He doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong. He's 100% certain that no unwanted force is being exerted on the fence structure but seemed confused when I pointed out the concrete behind one of the gravel boards and said that he didn't understand why it was there.

I am about to write him a polite letter stating that:

1. He has no right to land support from his neighbour above the natural ground level. As such he needs to build a small retaining wall to shore back the patio and leave sufficient space between that wall and our fence.

2. He has no right to lean anything against or attach anything to our fence without our express permission and by building up against it and using it to retain building material he has contravened common garden fence law.

3. By doing so he has made the job of maintaining / repairing / replacing the fence very difficult which will cost us more in labour terms when we get any work done on the fence. This is in breach of our restrictive covenants which are supposed to stop neighbours behaving in a way that would cause annoyance or nuisance. Therefore what he has done is a private nuisance.

4. He has 4 weeks to move all building material and concrete away from the fence and to retain the structure in the correct manner. Any damage caused to our fence in the process will be his responsibility.

If I'm wrong on any of the basic legal issues here, could someone please correct me?

I have a builder coming on Tuesday to assess the edge of the patio where it meets our fence and give me his professional opinion on the way the patio interferes with our fence and what action is required to fix it.

Thank you.

[R0b]

Sounds like you are going about it the right way, certainly a polite letter might help instead of an aggressive legal styled letter could just cause your neighbour to dig their heels in. A few flowery sentences might help such as, that your willing to work with him to resolve the issue but obviously if neither of you are able to agree then the only option might be to involve the court and ask for a final determination on the matter.

It might be helpful to hold off on sending the letter to your neighbour until you've received the assessment from the builder. Ideally, you need the builder to give you a written opinion on headed paper if possible that contains the following information:

The issue and what's causing it
The likelihood of damage caused by issue whether long or short term
The remedies available to resolve the issue
(Optional but nice to include) a short sentence about the builder's experience and years in trade would help.

I would be inclined to then forward that letter on to your neighbour and see what they say. It will also support you if you did decide to go down the legal route.

[Stewjitsu72]

Thanks ROB for your guidance.

I feel more at ease with the way this is going now.

This has been dragging for so long now, waiting 4 months for planning to give us a decision on enforcement etc. BTW I've lodged a stage 2 complaint with the council over this as they seemed to have missed the point regarding privacy. No measurements taken on 1st site visit and yet it was decided to close the case. Stage 1 complaint resulted in second visit but to our side of the boundary. Measurements taken with the promise of sharing those measurements to give me an opportunity to feedback before final report was written. I never saw those measurements.

Planning have not been able to determine natural ground level so have used this as an excuse to underenforce. Despite my sharing a photo from Google maps of the property next door before any engineering works had taken place and in the same photo one can see our fence posts and gravel boards are in situ with 5 feet fence panels and 12 inch gravel boards. Hence the ground level then is right under our lowest gravel boards but planning have chosen to ignore this evidence.

Neighbour drew up his own plans for the build seemingly without a survey so was not aware himself where the natural ground level was therefore he can't really challenge any enforcement action.

I am not a happy bunny.