To pour weed killer over the fence to next doors garden?

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I live in a mid-terrace house and get on well with neighbours 4 houses in each direction.
Except the house next door, which is semi-derelict and uninhabited, save for a visit once or twice a year. We've lived here for 4 years and in that time, all the curtains have been closed and an upstairs sash window has been open 24/7.

Next door but one (empty house's other next door neighbour) has lived there for 30 years and doesn't know the name of the person who owns it and why they only appear occasionally. The house appears abandoned.

We have a fairly new 6 foot panel fence between us and empty house, and there are now nettles and other weeds standing 2 feet above the top of our fence. All sorts is growing under the fence and through gaps, and it's starting to damage the fence.

WIBU to pour some weed killer over the fence into the garden?

Contacting the owner would be pointless. He doesn't care.

Does anything come up if you Google his name? Is he on Facebook or Linkedin or similar?

Surveyors don't always physically survey properties. The basic valuation often just involves checking online data to make sure there is sufficient value in the property for the bank to make it's money back if he never pays them anything. Given that he bought it on a right to buy he's likely to have received a discount that would have ensured this.

Sounds like one for the Empty Homes people - with a property shortage its scandalous that one is going to waste like this. He probably doesn't want to sell it as he will have made money due to rising prices. Maybe also an immigration or residency issue if he is of African origin?

The council have referred me to a form on their website, so I've submitted something through that. They said they won't necessarily get back to me, as it is something for them to investigate and deal with. I have merely reported it, rather than done something that requires them to follow up with me

barbara
All that comes up on Google is a directorship from 1988-2004 for a now-dissolved company. It lists his occupation as engineer and his nationality as Ghanaian
The electoral roll (free) search put his age as 55-61

Other than that, I can't find anything. There seems to be something in Glasgow with the same first name, but the surname is double barrelled with neighbours name and something else, and the electoral roll puts his age as 10 years younger

I'm starting to feel like Miss Marple!

new fences are expensive especially if you pay somebody to do the work

this summer i had 8 new 6ft panels,removal of old ones,some work to the wall £850,oh how i miss ex dp for those occasions but nothing else

Roundup will sort that out, lush green leaves, narrow garden that a sprayer will easily reach. I'd poison it without a second though, just been out doing mine as this thread reminded me about it! Without poison you would have to hand dig out the perennial weeds, and the light you let to the mud would have ever annual seed sprouted overnight! And, if you poison it, you can update us once it's all died for the satisfaction factor :)

We have this problem in our street. The neighbours at each side and directly over from the house are at their wits end between the vermin, smell, weeds growing out of fish pool, which I kid you not are at least 10 ft high, and squatters. Its a bloody nightmare for them, and the whole street has tried everything to sort it out. The guy owns it outright, which is part of the issue, but does own £1000s in taxes!

I'm wondering wether you live on my old street. There's an empty house and the owner only comes back to it very ccasionally for all of an hour. I lived there for 16 years and never met him and neither had anyone else on the street. He left a single window open too. I moved a few years ago but the neighbours say it's still the same story.

I've always thought he's probably growing weed.

I've long suspected he was growing drugs.

Didn't see that final sentence hiding there

5l of Weedol Extra Tough duly purchased

I can't use it today because it is bucketing down with rain but hopefully can have a go tomorrow

I'm going to ask DH to take a close look at next door to see if there is anything structurally dodgy that we need to also flag to the council.

Yay! There's nothing more satisfying than watching weeds gradually succumb to a brown willty death!

I've not done this, so apologies for the out-there suggestion, but if the council's involvement isn't doing much, could you write a "House is about to collapse from neglect" email to Santander? I.e there asset is fast losing value, they might like to pull mortgage? Could light a fire under owner's bum.

*their, even

My mum did this when the bit of church land adjacent to her garden got very overgrown. She tried over 3 years to get something done about it - nothing got done - so she chucked weed killer along the fence line. The problem was mostly brambles, bloody great vicious thick trunked things, and it did the trick.

Just a little update...
The 'Empty Homes' team from the council have been in touch and are coming to make an inspection. They are making a big push to get empty homes back into use, and think they can start the process with this.

The owner will be given a few opportunities to get it back into use, but if they don't, the council can eventually CPO it and sell it on to a developer.

They wouldn't give me specifics but said they have 'a number' of records relating to the house, going back 'quite a long time', so hopefully that's enough for them to start to do something about it.

In the meantime, they are going to inspect and put in a 'service request' for any things that need doing to stop it falling into further disrepair.

Thanks for everyone who suggested contacting them

I would not poison the land.

Can you drape a weed membrane down that side of the fence (pinned or nailed to top of fence) so things can't grow through? Or some screening? Sneak over, strim and then tack up the membrane.

Oops x post

Ooh, possibly progress? I wonder how it all works? They send him a load of letters saying 'live in your house and make it nice or else we'll sell it'. He must have a bank account with money in it to pay the mortgage? Utility bills for the standing charges and bit he uses when he's there. Council tax? Not sure what the rules are on empty homes and Council Tax.

If he doesn't comply they sell it and then presumably they'll pay the mortgage off, take their costs and there will be a sum left over so they'll have to say 'contact us and we'll send you a big cheque'.

Seeing as he has owned it for long time and bought it at a discount under Right to Buy, there must be quite a bit of equity in it even though it is in poor condition? It will still probably take ages though - months or a year or two at least - they have to give him chance to see the letters.

Great - it may still take a while to recover the home and they do need to keep it confidential while it's happening but good luck.

I hope it won't take years!
Although if/when it sells, we will be living next door to a big building site while it is brought back to life so wondering which is the lesser of the two evils?

The insane thing is that this area has gone a bit mad in recent years. Without wanting to accused of stealth boasting, even in its current condition, it would be worth well over £600k.
DH suggested we buy it, rent for a while and do a massive refurb job and move in
Sadly that would mean selling our lovely house, but I suppose it would mean we get to move back to our lovely street!