New neighbours

[EWAB]

Last year our lovely neighbour died; the house had been empty for about a year before as she had gone to live with niece followed by time in a home.
We were pleased when the house was sold as its being empty for so long was beginning to impact negatively on ours.
The new neighbours have restored the house beautifully sash windows etc and the garden has been done. We were totally fine with noise etc early and late seeing it as just one of those things.
Another neighbour did complain and was given the details of the builders by the owners; the new owners didn’t want to know.
The house has an L shaped garden and the new neighbours have put 10 feet fences up ... the sort you might see in the park surrounding tennis courts etc. Two thirds of our garden now appear to be an exercise yard in a prison.
Because of Covid the usual introductions etc didn’t take place. And when my partner introduced himself when they were in drive they just smiled and went in. I have now written to them about the fence and its impact they wrote back suggesting we seek an impartial vies via a small claims court.
I have no intention of doing this.
What do people make of this attitude? I am stunned.

Excellent sensible post by @Seeline

Maybe they really like privacy!

Does it actually impact you or is it just not to your taste?

It's planning you need to speak to, 6ft is the max. Measure them before you make an official complaint, they are highly unlikely to act under 7ft

One of our newish neighbours has the same attitude. Everyone locally hates them after they decided to do loud building work pre-7am on a weekend, had day after day of large bonfires during lockdown to burn everything from their house refurbisment, raised the ground level and then built a giant beauty salon in their garden that overlooks three other gardens and then put bright security lights up that are on all evening in their garden and shine into the three neighbouring properties plus the properties begins their house.

The nuisance neighbours response was, "we're not changing our lifestyle for anyone".

Another neighbour went to the council and was told these are all too minor an issue for them to deal with.

So, yes, some people do have this attitude and get away with it.

Ps mine is 6ft with 2 ft trellis, because anything lower and the dog escapes - 6ft he nips over like it's nothing hence adding the trellis!

Maybe they thought you were putting them on notice of legal action since you wrote to them instead of having a chat? If it’s definitely over 6.5 feet just email planning.

www.topsecurityfencing.co.uk/news/16-6m-high-loc-form-noise-barrier

This is what 6 metre fencing looks like , if it's for tennis they must be incredibly bad players. I'm amazed that someone would build this and it not an issue with pp .

I just wonder is it actually 10 feet. Have you measured it?

Check it out with your local planning department, OP because I think there is normally a height limit of 2m. If this is correct, and you point it out to your neighbours, the onus will be on them to remove the fence and replace with something more appropriate. Get the council planners on side to help with this.

SpiketheDragon
Your neighbours could get together and pursue these antisocial types via the law of nuisance. Get a solicitor to write a letter about this. You are all entitled to the "quiet enjoyment" of your homes, which should include privacy. As regards raising the level of the garden and putting up a building on it, that is definitely a planning issue, so get on to the council planning department to get them to take responsibility for doing their job.

@HasaDigaEebowai you know you’re going to have to post a photo!

@wowfudge yes I am worried that their behaviour will escalate if we don’t challenge it,
They have sympathetically restored the house and my letter began by saying how good the house looked. It was not confrontational. I would have spoken to them had it not been for Covid.
@Ohcaptain while it is not to our taste it is more than it. It is enormous, casts a weird shadow and spoils the view. While we haven’t got a tape measure out we can guess its height just by looking at it and using other neighbour’s office as a reference.
It’s not a net it’s kind of plastic coated metal in battleship grey, the kind that you see in the park.

That does sound horrendous to be fair.

What are they planning that they need to put that up?!

@HasaDigaEebowai you know you’re going to have to post a photo! grin

I'm in open dispute with my neighbours so I won't but I can assure everyone that it's six metres. They put up an eight foot wooden fence on the boundary line (which I'm fine with) and then started building an illegal house behind it without planning permission and have erected the six metre high fence between the illegal house and the boundary fence to try to hide the building from view. They have welded and concreted in tall metal poles, joined this together with further metal poles that are like scaffolding poles, put braces on both ends and then used tennis fencing. They have then put fake hedging over the top of the tennis fencing when they realised the sunlight means we could still see through. The fence is more than three men high. It's literally like a prison compound.

Anyway OP yours sounds like it could still be considered a boundary fence to me if its only a few inches away and so I'd contact planning.

Mine is a bigger issue (and the gap between the boundary fence and their prison fence is about 15 metres) and TBH I'd rather look at the prison fencing than look at my skanky neighbours.

Your neighbours are loons Hasa - there's already precedent in the Fidler case that hiding a building which should have pp but doesn't does not exempt it from enforcement action however much time has elapsed.

the 19ft fence people do they have pet giraffes by any chance ?

If you don’t contact planning your house is going to either fall in value or be difficult to sell. Give planning a ring on Monday. Don’t do nothing as it cause issues in the years to come.

Your neighbours are loons Hasa - there's already precedent in the Fidler case that hiding a building which should have pp but doesn't does not exempt it from enforcement action however much time has elapsed.

Can't say too much for obvious reasons other than my neighbour isn't really bothered

I shouldn’t laugh really. But reading thr posters who are pissed off you won’t formally complain and give them some entertainment so trying to goad you into it, is highly amusing.

It’s perfectly fine for people not to wish to engage with neighbours. It’s also perfectly fine for the op to not wish to formally complain.

The op is asking what to make of their attitude, she’s not asking how to handle it.

Be careful what you wish for OP, it .ight be to keep their cats in.
Our NDN has 6 cats which all shit in our garden.
I would love it if they had a huge fence. I would plant Rosa Philippe de kiftsgate all along it.

Why would anyone need a fence that high, unless they keep kangaroos or something.

Jada as I said upthread, any means of enclosure over 2m high requires PP, not just if it's in a boundary.

I assume you have reported the hidden house to the Council?

I'm wondering whether you have a reputation for being nosy and maybe a little interfering. Perhaps that's why they don't want to interract with you.

You've already been told by someone legal that it looks potentially like temporary fencing. Why not wait and see?

Otherwise, unless you're prepared to take formal action there's nothing you can do.

It doesn't sound nice to look at but when we next move I'm getting really tall fences because of our previous experiences. You could look into planning permission for it. As long as the neighbours are not noisy now the work is done it wouldn't bother me.