Aibu to report neighbours to the council

[K2608]

^A bit of back ground, we have lived in our house for 7 years. Next door 3.5 years. She's a bit moany but no big issues.
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In May we had our fences replaced which cost £2000 quite a large amount of money. We noticed this evening that next door neighbour has filled in holes using cement under our fences and also chucked a lot of loose rubble and bricks under too, it looks awful. Firstly we will not be able to replace them if needed. We paid quite a lot extra for kickboards, which we now cannot remove. The cement has also flowed underneath and has come out on to our patio and garden. It has also gone down into our drain blocking it. Secondly we are in the process of having the garden redone. The next step will be levelling the garden and having a patio laid, they will need to removed the fences and kickboards to do this and currently can't! Our fences were old and come down in the wind so we replaced these first.
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They didn’t speak to us about doing this which we would have said no to. We don’t understand why they have done this or whether this is allowed as it’s a council house? So I have reported them to the council and waiting for a response.... any idea what we can do. Photos attached (I hope)^

Was just thinking the same Walksen a nice bolster and weighty hammer will remove that in seconds.

@walksen yes we understand about water draining hence the drain on our side which the ground is angled to run the water straight into this. A lot of the water is probably from their own garden. Our grass at the back is pretty flat and level with theirs. The grass at the back of theirs slopes down to their own patio (which is just a few slabs on mud, which has no drainage. Would love to take a photo to show you but probably not appropriate

What are people talking about and having a dig at the op for?! 😂 She hasn't done anything wrong. No you can't just cement under someone's fence into their garden, and no you can't cement a drain.
You had every right to report it.

@walksen it's also pretty thick their side as they have run it all the way up the kickboards it looks pretty awful their side!

My husband is going to try and remove some on Thursday

@hotwaterbottle12 thank you! I can't believe she has done it. Everyone asking why we did the fence first... because we had a lot going on, my mil just passed away from cancer so a long battle and we put her first so lots of hospital visits and the garden went to the back of our mind!

I get that the drainage on their side may be poor and you feel that most of your surface water is directed to you drain but that is separate to allowing any surface water your garden onto theirs even if it only happens in heavy rain. Put yourself in their shoes; you say there garden is lower so they see this nice new fence go up but to them it will look like a bodge as there are gaps everywhere. As ive said this can allows weeds soil etc through which they'll think you dont care about since you didnt tackle your contractors about it

i know you think the pushed the concrete through tiny gaps but in reality they have just tried to smooth it out on their side and maybe mixed the concrete too wet. I honestly think you could tidy that up in less than an hour; maybe even half an hour

I built my own fences but i dug gravel boards into the earth because i didnt want weeds and ivy etc going from next door into my garden or even in future years weeds from my garden into theirs.

I get that you are annoyed but drain aside i dont think it is as bad a situation as you think it is.
Drain wise id expect that they havent poured concrete to block it: some has fallen through and just covered the grille so hopefully is not as bad as it looks.

@walksen the gravel boards have been put into ground in the soil... if they put a hole in the concrete the edge would have collapsed... I'm not quite sure what the contractors could have done on the concrete?

My husband will look at it Thursday and see what he can do to try and fix it.

One way to have closed that gap would have been to cut the board to match the slope of the concrete block. E.g the gravel board would be thicker slightly at the drain end and narrower at the other. This would require a bit more work and for the cut part of the board to have preservative added. I doubt they suggested it as it would be more work for them......

Regardless see what you husband finds on thursday. i would add that concrete gets harder for the first week and takes a month to get to full strength and can Take 6 months to fully cure. The point being that it will be easier to break up the sooner you do it. Hope you get it sorted.

Are you looking for a fight? Your neighbour clearly isn't going to fix this, sort it out yourself. Annoying but there it is.

@longwayoff no not looking for a fight but not going to take the flack if the drain is blocked!

As previously posted husband is looking at it Thursday on his day off

I'd have a smash yourself K2 very cathartic