Neighbour has built their wall half in our garden.

[Poppingmad123]

Thus the wall that is theirs is now a shared wall as its half on our house and half on theirs. Trouble is this now means if we want to make our driveway bigger, we have their wall in the way and can’t just build in our own grounds. Not sure if we can move their wall back to their side. Just don’t understand why they did this (other than greed for more space on their side) but they had plenty anyway.

I am so upset and angry about this. It doesn’t even match our other walls! It’s actually stressed me out so much that I can’t sleep and I’m thinking about this all the flipping time. I see it every time I step out my house so can’t just ignore it. I feel they have ruined the look of my house. I feel really resentful towards them now which I hate but just can’t help it! They never applied for a shared wall (party wall) or went through the process. They just acted as though they didn’t know what they were doing , didn’t seem to understand boundaries etc despite having professional builders. I can’t believe they wouldn’t have advised them. Also what kind of builders build walls not knowing where the boundary between houses is?

I just need some perspective as this is making me somewhat ill. Am I unreasonable for being so upset, is this normal that I’m letting it get to me this much or should I let it go? I know it’s just bricks and mortar but it’s my house! What would you do in my shoes?

By the way, we want to sell our house in the future so don’t want to be in dispute as that would put potential buyers off.

It sounds like you spoke to them at the time and agreed to have it built on the boundary line? Of course they’ve been cheeky, but if you agreed at the time and now regret it and want to put to them to the significant expense of moving it, I think they are going to quite pissed off. Why on earth didn’t you say no at the time?

Get a very old second hand car, drive it for a few weeks then crash it into the wall. Get it rebuilt in the right place. Job done.

Im Struggling to understand...surely a boundary wall is just that....on the boundary.

And you've not even spoke to them about it? They don't even know your upset.....ffs.

And how is a hand drawn diagram outing?

how much value have they knocked off your house due to this?

Paint the wall? Render the wall? Grow some climbers up the wall? Attach some fence panels along the wall?
If you agreed to it then I feel you need to just suck it up. If I were to buy a semi I’d want a physical boundary between properties to stop cheeky fucking posties cutting across my window anyway

I wouldn’t be happy if I felt it took away from the look of my house either. Trying to understand though, just how much of the wall is on your side? Is it the fact it’s on your land or the fact that you don’t like the wall that’s upsetting you? Could you build a fence on your side to stop you from seeing the wall?

I’m not sure this is what it looks like.

The wall it seems is down the boundary line, so half on the ops, half on theirs, which means it’s two inches, half a brick, into thr ops property and her and her husband agreed to it at the time.

@Poppingmad123 you need to do something about it quickly.
They need a party wall agreement. There is a proviso that they can build within your land (with the party wall agreement) but it is only half a standard brick width - so only 1/2 an inch.

Oh and that's only with permitted development too.

So your deeds don’t actually clarify where the boundary is? And you agreed to it on the day, and you haven’t actually told your neighbours you’re unhappy with it? So much going on here I’m having difficulty taking sides tbh.

1. It’s nothing to do with the builders. It’s not their responsibility to check the boundaries.
2. You gave your neighbours permission to build the wall partly on your land.

So, 3. if you took this to any legal action, you would get absolutely nowhere.

Your options now are (a) get over it or (b) knock down the wall and pay to have it rebuilt in the right place.

Next time, deal with things straightaway, rather than leaving it for months.

To answer you question OP you’re being unreasonable to be so upset when you won’t do a thing about it to even try to improve the situation.
You won’t talk to them which is rather baffling - not even one conversation?? You’re worried about neighborly relations but they’re the ones who’ve done wrong by you and you’re worried about offending them?
You won’t pay for a surveyor, very pricey I get that but at least you’d have some ammo if you were to front up to them to demand to have it taken down.
And you won’t even show us a diagram? Really??
I think if this is consuming your life so much then you need to decide what is more important - keeping up appearances with the neighbours and staying quiet or actually speaking up for yourself and go round there and let them know in a calm manner that what they’ve done is illegal and has to be corrected.
Otherwise, you literally just have to put up with it forever.

It doesn’t even match our other walls!

I'm not sure a diagram could possibly be any more outing. Wall collecting is a pretty niche hobby, so the chances of two such collectors being neighbours are so low as to make you unique and instantly identifiable already.

Does anyone know what sort of walls are being talked about?

Get a good, professional current survey of the property, and if the wall is, indeed, on your property, see a solicitor and demand that they move the wall and return your property to its original state.

I have a friend who went through this and the survey proved that the property did, indeed, belong to the neighbors. Best to make sure before taking action.

Many walls are more than one brick wide.

There's a few things to consider here. Firstly the emphasis was on your neighbour to come to you if they built on the party line (the name for the shared boundary). I've just been through this with a neighbour who is a sort of surveyor (there are lots of types) and they were a right pain. A friend employed a surveyor to sort out his Party Wall Agreement (which costs £2,000), if the neighbour (ie you) doesn't like that surveyor you can chose your own and the neighbour has to pay for him too (another £2,000). If they haven't done this I believe, as a layman, they have broken the law and you have recourse in law. But courts cost money. You also have recourse through the local council because they usually watch these things closely and, if they wanted, (I believe) could force your neighbour to pull down the wall, or at least the half on your land (if they can). In my part of the world the wall can't be higher than 2.1m. If it is that is another infringement. Your options as I see it are as follows: legal (expensive), council (free but slow and unlikely to achieve anything, councils are notoriously reluctant to do anything but issue threats but they would be a real pest for your neighbour - sweet revenge). you could also spend a few hundred quid and get a solicitor to send a letter (to save money write it yourself, ask the solicitor on the phone to polish it and send it once you have approved it, do not meet the solicitor they may charge you by the hour). In it you could ask the neighbour to take the wall down but as this is unlikely you could ask for compensation and point out if there is no such agreement you will alert the council and/or employ a builder to take down the part of the wall that is on your land. As the wall will then probably fall down they are unlikely to want this to happen. But I would point out one big positive - you now have a wall you can build from which has been put up entirely at the neighbour's cost. Having that wall would save you thousands if you were inclined to build in that direction. Finally, before you do any of the above consider that if you are, in extremis, thinking about selling the house in the next few years, if you get into a dispute with your neighbour this is supposed to be something (I believe) that would put in the sale documentation and declared to potential buyers, which would not be helpful. Hope this helps. RM

@Poppingmad123

Thanks everyone. It’s really helpful to hear all your opinions. At least I am not totally batty for being upset about this. Having a hard time letting it go though so I will certainly check if we have legal insurance. I did speak to a surveyor and they said they were happy to write to tell them about this issue for £700 but this paper was not going to enforce anything so I didn’t see the point. Maybe a solicitor would have been a better approach but potentially expensive/money we don’t have.

No we haven’t spoken to them about it. We’re rubbish at confrontation and still need to live here.
Don’t want to share diagram or too much as it would be outing. Checked deeds. Unfortunately they don’t clarify boundaries although it’s visibly obvious.

As for not stopping them at the time, they didn’t tell us what they were doing until the day they starting cutting through our ground! Turns out they planned to build their wall completely in our garden! Hence it got built half way but we had no idea how it would look or had chance to take anything in or consider the future impacts. Just so shocked at the time. They had months planning their driveway and not once did they reveal they planned to build in our garden! We had 5 minutes to take all this in. In hindsight we should have said no, but we didn’t want to fall out, yes, more fool us!

I like the idea of sledgehammer but only in my dreams. I would never destroy another’s property like that. But it is soul destroying for us. Still can’t believe how inconsiderate people can be to not think about the impact their build has on neighbours.

It doesn’t have to be bloody confrontational! You should have politely told them to stop!

You don't need to share an official diagram! Just draw one! A rough outline of the buildings and wall from above.

We’re rubbish at confrontation

Most people dislike confrontation, imo.
However, when it comes to something like this, you have to step up. I had a neighbour who, given half a chance, would have walked all over me, and my property. I didn't let it happen.

May be I am being really thick but I would do this:

1. Wait till they got on holidays or something.
2. Take a sledgehammer to the part that on your land.
3. When they get back and confront, you call police on them harassing you for demolishing your wall on your land.

Do you mean it's half a brick into your garden?

I would absolutely involve a lawyer (legal cover on home insurance?) and get this dealt with ASAP. The last thing you want is to leave it lingering and then when you want to move have it crop up during the conveyancing and put all your plans on hold. As long as you get it properly resolved, the fact there's been a dispute in itself shouldn't put buyers off

This could be a massive problem when you come to sell if it encroaches significantly onto your land so you do need to sort it now.

I would suggest you put a very firmly worded letter through your neighbours door, suggesting that this be resolved without "further action" but making it quite clear that lawyers can become involved to the detriment of both parties. Give them a realistic time frame to approach you with a resolution (say 14 days) and then take legal advice.

I do not know if I am correct, but, where was the planning permission for this wall, especially if it encroaches on your property? You should have had a letter from the Council and the neighbours should have had the common decency to speak with you about it. I'd see a solicitor and also have a look at your Title Deeds.

How much space have you actually lost?

If it’s an inch, I think you should let it go. Life is too short.

If it’s feet, then it’s worth fighting.

You really don’t want to end up as one of those families in the papers who have spent thousands and spent years fighting over an inch of land.

So you agreed they could build a wall in your garden?
Have they got planning permission? Did the council planning Dept write to you? If not, ask a planning officer to come out. If they don’t have planning permission then they’ll have to take it down!
I don’t really understand why you didn’t tell them to stop when it began going up.