The next door neighbour, the new fence and the question - are we being unreasonable?

[zazas]

This is a strange one (well for us at least!) - not sure if anything that has been done is not ‘OK' but it’s very weird…and a bit annoying and of course checking that we not just being unreasonable?!

Our next door neighbour moved in about 7 months ago. Our properties share a retaining wall that is at the back our house and at the side of their garden. At one end, the wall is only about 2 feet tall and the other end, as the garden slopes up is about 7 feet tall - the top of the wall is level with their garden. It is a little bit of a strange set up due to it being previous farmland / cottages (from the 1840s) so the plots are not uniform (as per my diagram). We have lived here 13 years and the previous owner of the neighbour's house didn't replace a small trellis style, 3 ft fence when it blew down about 10 years ago. That fence was placed on her land inside the retaining wall.

The back of our house overlooks their garden completely (as do the other houses) which is not ideal for them but it is the way it is. When they moved in we introduced ourselves and in his words, "You seem like a nice lady, I might not then build a 2 metre fence then." We had no concerns with them building a fence as obviously they also overlook our back garden when they are in their garden.

Now he has built the fence - absolutely fine.

However this is where we are confused...he has built the fence about 2 feet away from the actual retaining wall - the actual edge of his property. Even more perplexing is that he hasn't actually taken the fence right up to the wall at the end of the garden leaving about 3 feet that is open to his garden (as in the picture from our window). Once again we were, 'OK, strange but hey ho." However now he has started to come behind the wall and dump his garden rubbish in the space between the wall and the retaining wall. At first it was just an extra concrete pole left over from the fence, then it was small rocks from the flower beds he was clearing out, then it was uprooted plants and twigs, then large slates and general small bits of rubbish - plastic bits from gardening supplies etc. It now looks quite the mess and the dumped stuff is actually starting to be in places higher than the retaining wall.

To top it all off our window from the dining end of the kitchen overlooks this part of the wall and as our house is only a few feet away from it, not only do we see the dumped stuff we also were granted recently the delight of him going into that space while we were having lunch and dumping it - and with him being two feet higher on his land, when he bent over (he wears no underwear and he wears his joggers hanging off so most of his butt is exposed) we were given a right eye fill! The fact my daughter has to look at his exposed butt from her window whenever he’s in the garden is another story!

Ignoring the butt view, it is the fence not up to the boundary, the gap and the dumping that is just so strange!

We really don't want talk to him if we can help it. When he moved it we explained (neighbourly kindly) that if he parked his large van on the small road, to be aware that often large delivery / oil trucks drive down it and wouldn’t get through. He got really aggressive and said that no one tells what to do. We just left it…Other than that no interaction.

So do we ignore him and the rising mound of rubbish. Do we just take it away ourselves so to keep it level and OK to look at? Or do we also put up a fence to block him / keep the mess out? If we do, do we erect it against the retaining wall on our side or do we put it on top of the retaining wall or on the top edge of the retaining wall - where he should have built the wall originally. Or are we just unreasonable and it is his land, can do what he wants and we need to just live with it?

This possibly might help: section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 .
If you report to the council under the above they can take action to make people tidy up land/gardens/backyards. Depends of course on the rubbish and how on it your council are. Mine are hot on it. Sent a friend a letter threatening legal action about a sofa in her yard (that the bulky waste collection had failed to pick up; they aren't shit hot on everything)

Block with own fence. I must say, we did lots to our garden last year and the previous owner/s appear to have used the space between now removed trees and the fence as a proper dumping ground! Entire double glazed Windows, a door, lots of tools, empty bags of concrete, bits of plates, car parts, hard core, a wall (in bits). Bloody horrific when we were trying to put up a decent fence with deep footings. We filled two skips. It’s lazy and anti-social.

Knock on his door/post letter saying you've seen rats 🤷🏼‍♀️

@SynchroSwimmer

Great diagram.

He sounds so selfish, but I love to try and help with ideas for solutions (having dealt with similar myself)

Would you have an opportunity to “bump into him” - to chat when he is putting his bins out or something, and ask him cheerily how he found the “ground conditions” (thinking the ground conditions when they dug for the fence might have precluded him going closer to the wall perhaps?)....then depending on his response, there might be an opening to talk about your view of his rubbish from your main living areas/
I like the expression “you are probably not aware but.....how it drops over into your garden/keeps blowing over in in the wind/causes a nuisance)....you will then get a clearer idea of his attitude going forwards?

Closely cropped pyracantha growing hard against your wall and upwards might also suit? - decorative berries in the autumn, can also choose decorative bicoloured leaf versions.

I am about to challenge a neighbour who is throwing all his garden rubbish over into mine. Going to ask him to have a word with his gardener about it. (He hasn’t got a “gardener” 😂 - but it’s my way of telling him to stop)

I can't see me having a conversation with him unfortunately. He's very aggressive and swears and shouts rather than talking. The two conversations I've had so far with him, he didn't listen to a word I said, just shouted at me, telling me how he knows everyone and pays 'good money', all cash in hand to get work done on his house so he doesn't need to wait for trades people. No idea why he shared that?! He's managed to annoy the other neighbors as well for other reasons. I just feel that any conversation, no matter how well intended will escalate in a way I'm not keen to be part of...

I'll see how this week goes, the fence has only been up just over a week. He usually gardens Sunday to Wednesday but with the wild weather and non stop rain he's not been out there today. If more rubbish is dumped I'll look into reporting it to the council. The thing is that he can't really put too much there as there's nothing to hold it in place before it tumbles over the wall into our garden. I just wish he would complete the fence up to the wall end (it seems finished as the end post is turned in a way that no more fence panels can be added) so we don't need to see his butt while eating!