Neighbour is damaging our property with a marquee tent

[DiscoBob]

We have never had any issues whatsoever with our next door neighbours. They've lived there probably since the late 90s.
Basically the majority of our kitchen wall is located in their back garden.

They've put a marquee tent in their yard about 10-20cms away from our kitchen wall. This has been there for a year and a half. Obviously the water run off has caused damp that's now seeped through our brickwork into our kitchen.

We've paid a damp specialist to do a report and showed it to the neighbours. It includes instruction to move the tent so it's at least a metre away from the wall and this would allow the damp to dry.

Unfortunately the neighbour accosted me while I was helping my disabled friend into my house so I was flustered and started saying the tent wasn't touching my wall, and that the overgrown plants on her yard came from my property. They don't. And if they did we'd be happy to cut them back as we regularly pay for gardening maintenance. So that threw me.

They never have done any gardening once except to borrow my loppers to make enough space to place this marquee tent. Which we assumed was temporary.

I'm now in a dispute with my mum who says I shouldn't contact the council about it. That she might contact a lawyer? But she doesn't even have a lawyer and the neighbours I doubt have money to be sued. Plus I'd hate to get into a dispute with them. Surely the council is more sensible as that's their landlord. After we've tried to explain and reason with them once more.

I don't want them to hate us but I really don't know what to do. Both of us are disabled and can't really handle conflict. But if she doesn't move her tent it's going to cause rising damp that could permanently wreck my home and the neighbours. We told her it could be affecting her house too but she was unbothered.

The diagrams are a treat, especially if you see them first.

Is the fridge a special cheese fridge for the escaping elephants?

The cake was a nice touch, I hope they move the circus tent soon👍 and there's no 🤡ing around.

Was it a wedge-shaped cake, with half of the icing actually belonging to a different cake?

Great diagram, @DiscoBob Is the Marquee of Doom blocking your kitchen window btw? Assuming you have a window, I think the only place it could go is where they've plonked the tent, which makes them doubly thoughtless and inconsiderate!

Am I the only one who's desperate to know why they've had a full on marquee up for eighteen months?! What on earth have they been doing with it?

It's for socializing in apparently. It's weird to have it up over winter as I can't imagine it's warm enough to hang out in much. But I guess they cba to take it down and obviously didn't know it was causing any damage. I don't mind it being there, just not anywhere near my wall! 😄

No the tent starts just after our window. Thank gawd! The garden wall is right next to back window but there is a bigger front window too.

Haha, it should've been! 😂 X

Lol you're very kind. 😂

Oh sorry I think I called it the wrong thing. There's 'damp proofing' on the walls in our basement utility room/wc, it's like some kind of plastic sheeting/bubble stuff with plasterboard on top of it. It does seem to have worked. Been there about 15 years.

The bloke who did the report was definitely not trying to sell anything. We called him just to have proof for the neighbours. He said there was no need for anything if they move tent.

He's definitely a qualified surveyor, measured the moisture etc and we've used his company before.

I hope he's not dodgy!? Gawd I'm getting freaked out now! 🥺

It is about 10cm from it. Water has nowhere to go when it rains and it can't evaporate properly. Our house is also very old/constructed on certain land so the whole terrace is prone to damp. So it's more risky maybe at ours than a newer house?

Doesn't really make sense though. Like presuming neither the bottom of the 10cms gap or the area the tent is on is concrete, there's still plenty of run off space. Yes more water might be going down that gap than there would be on that area of land if the tent wasn't there, but the water would still soak away. Unless the gap is filling up with water, then there's not a problem.

The garden floor is concrete or flags or something. It's not grass.
I don't see how it doesn't make sense if a surveyor says it does. To me it seems like common sense. You don't put a temporary marquee tent next to a wall and let rain bounce against the wall and soak into it or the floor beneath it constantly. Without it exacerbate damp. Council say it's not even meant to be there at all for more than 28 days.

Oh I wasn't picturing it on concrete. I was thinking that even in really heavy rain on our heavy clay soil, the water doesn't sit for that long before it soaks in. Therefore even heavy rain with run off from the tent, it would have to be absolute monsoon rain strength for a prolonged period of time for the ground to fail to keep up with absorbing the water and therefore the run off to be pooling massively enough to affect your house. If it's concrete though, then that's different because there's no soak away. How have they erected a tent on concrete?!

Thank you. Yeah, no clue how they erected it but it's still there now!
Yeah it's definitely causing it. 😕 X

Have you got on to The Council then both planning & housing?

That'll be the next step if cordial relations break down and them taking it down as asked doesn't happen in the next few days.

It's ridiculous, I don't know why they don't just move it. If a neighbour came to me and said your TEMPORARY marquee is causing damp can you move it away or take it down I just would. So selfish. Looking at your diagram again (top marks both for diagram and for persistence in overcoming the uploading problem! ⭐️) I'd say they've put it where it is because they'd rather it was next to your bit of wall than their own!
It's been up way too long now. I think you should dob them in it with the council. I know it's hard to take the hard line but your house is suffering damage - the council won't want to be held liable for that so I imagine they'll do something.

Can you get over the fence and cut a little barcely noticable slit in it? The side farthest from you so they do not suspect foul play. The wind will do the rest over time.

Alternatively you should have done a wordy email to the council about their legal obligations that their tennants are not causing your building damage. Councils do not like getting into legal battles.