Daily Mail are fuckers
V outing but here goes. Long post sorry.
I live in an end-terrace house and have relatively new neighbours on the connected side. They have a drive big enough for one car and own two cars. Instead of blocking their own drive, they put one on the drive and one parks on the verge in front of my house which is annoying but perfectly legal.
Months and months ago the woman, let's call her Penny, came to complain that our bins were too close to her car on bin-day. My husband pointed out that this is what happens when you park on the verge and she said they'd be taking down 'the' wall soon so they could get both cars on their drive.
When my husband spoke to me about it I said - 'She must mean her wall, right, there are two walls in front of her house, but only one will be her boundary?'
Assuming that was an error.
Nothing happened for months, then one day a skip arrived. The next day they start taking down THEIR wall (between them and the next neighbour along). Then I see them start to remove bricks from my wall too.
I went out to talk to them saying 'erm, I think that's my wall'. Penny wasn't happy, said we'd agreed to have it taken down. I said a conversation months ago where you mention maybe taking something down wasn't an agreement. That it would be polite to tell us work was happening even if you thought it was agreed.
I said I was pretty sure that side of the house was my boundary (only 'pretty sure'? she said), and could they at least stop taking bricks off it while I check the deeds? She was really defensive and angry. She said the wall was on their land - yes (it has quite big ugly posts), but it was on my land too and they knew where it was when they bought it.
I pointed out the wall was attached to my house (cemented on at one end) and they couldn't just remove a boundary and would have to fix or replace it. Penny shouted 'I'll replace it then' and I commented that that wouldn't be up to her.
When I said 'this doesn't have to be a big deal, but let's take the time to sort it out' her partner agreed with me but said basically nothing else. The woman stormed off inside.
I found the deeds and my husband went around and talked to her partner, saying it was our boundary, that we want there to be a boundary, and they could fix or replace the wall - but if they replaced it it had to be done quickly.
A few weeks have passed with nothing happening. Their skip was filled with other things - they didn't get the bricks they'd taken off the wall out of it - and taken away.
Back to the present. This week they finished taking down their wall and have been lovingly weeding the front garden.
Nothing's been done to our wall or said to us. I wonder if they realise they're in the wrong but rectifying it will cost. Also technically it's a party wall and they definitely should've had proper agreement from us even if it was their boundary, which it's not!
I plan to ask them about it next time I see them but a) they seem to be avoiding us and b) my husband's away this week and I'm not sure having an argument with the neighbours will go well.
What do I do next? They've taken a row of bricks off about half the wall, and the tiles off the top of it. It was probably a DIY job wall in the first place to be honest, and now that it's been damaged it will need replacing sooner rather than later. Given they've taken one wall down and not the other, I'm guessing the neighbours will refuse to do anything at all now.
We can't really afford a new fence at the moment. We could try and get some cheap tiles to put on top of the wall but if we do that, will they say it's negated any responsiblities they may have?
Small claims would make it a neighbour dispute I'd have to report if we ever sell.
I feel like ultimately I will have to do nothing BUT oh my god it is grating on me so much.
Basically they did something wrong and instead of saying sorry had a go at me and will now do nothing.
It's really winding me up. I know I should try to let it go but it's difficult when the damaged wall is right in front of my window!
Sorry if I've explained any of that badly.