Shared balcony

[Sleepflower22]

We moved into a new flat two weeks ago. Had requested, and been told it was ok before we moved in (signed lease five weeks before) that the next door neighbour would move her things over from the shared balcony - say it's 10ft long, she's put up a makeshift fence that gives her 8ft of space and we have 2.

On her side is just piles of rubbish, old posters, rotting tea towels etc. She's pulled back the pigeon netting on our side to put her barrier up so there's bird shit everywhere.

Agency have written to her but said no one has ever complained about it before so she's very shocked and they will follow up again in June to see if she's managed to move her things.

Aibu to think this is unfair and we should be able to use a space we're paying rent for?

Pull it down. That's not even a foot

@sunshinesupermum It's bigger than it looks! Beautiful Edwardian building too.

That’s awful (and looks really unsafe, I’m not sure I’d want to be out there anyway!)

I'd also pull it down, and move her crap onto her side. It's a tiny balcony even without her encroaching onto your side, and I can't stand selfish entitled behaviour. Also i'd be emailing the agency about the balcony fence, it looks so unstable, surely it can't be safe.

That balcony fence looks terrifying! Is it safe?

There's proper (well-secured) railings behind the fence that you can see in the pic. I think neighbour erected it when she put her dividing fence up so she had something to tie it on to but they're basically just tied over the railings - something else to remove this week.

I was just about to post about the fence too - is that bit (2 bits?) of wooden fence the actual barrier of the edge of the balcony as it looks incredibly insecure and unsubstantial... hooting that it’s just a bit of trellising your cf neighbour has put up to hide the actual safe barrier!

Phew. Cross posted and just seen that there are proper railings. That’s one good thing anyway!

I thought it looked hideously unsafe but there's a metal railing fence behind the awful trellis panels by the look of it.

Oh now you've pointed it out I can see the black railings. Thank goodness the trellis isn't the actual fence, although it still looks very unstable. I am curious though as to why you haven't just taken down the barrier she has put up, and moved her things onto her side. It's a shared balcony, she can't have it all to herself.

@icerebel There's been no way we could take it down from this side. She'd wedged in a trellis panel which was fastened onto the railings and the fake fence she put in front. Because of the angle it's wedged at (next to some brackets fixed into the wall, we couldn't pull it through onto our side). Then in front of the panel was boxes and boxes of picture frames and stuff and a table, then more stuff in front of that. Most of the boxes have been removed today so I think if we cut the things the panel is fastened on with, a good shove should move it over a bit.
Have knocked again to speak with her this weekend but no answer.

Sounds stupid but until I went down the fire escape to take the picture to send to the agency last week, we didn't fully realise how bad it was or how shit the trellis looks (it's also much bigger and deeper than it seems from the pic).

Shared balcony??? With no wall between each flat? Sounds weird. I'd put a solid divide up, a fence or wall. Just pile her stuff up and leave it by her door if she won't answer.

She clearly doesn’t want you using it. She likely doesn’t like the noise so has made it inhospitable

Surely the point that of the balcony is that it provides you with an emergency escape route should your flat be on fire and you can't get to the front door. A feature that's completely negated by the pile of crap and fence??

I would remove the barrier even if it meant destroying it to get it down, carefully stack all of her belongings on her side, then put up a new barrier.

you’ll need it!

That trellis needs to come off too, get on to the agent to get someone down to remove it as the panel on your side looks like it has broken. You don’t want pieces of wood falling on anyone below.
Reminds me a little bit of Esio Trot.