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.

In the UK walls constructed on the boundary line, at the front of the property, which are under 1.2m do not require planning permission. Any walls (or fences) constructed at the back or front of the house, which are not part of a building, so just being used to delineate boundaries, are not subject to party wall rules.

If your neighbour believes they are responsible for the fences/ walls on whatever side of the property it is, they may think they are doing you a favour by footing the bill to build a wall for both properties. If you never raised that you didn't want a wall, how would they know?

I understand your frustration but I think you need to get over it I'm afraid.

So my last comment got deleted by MNHQ for troll hunting 🙄

Let me clarify and put things straight for MNHQ - OP this situation is very odd, you’ve been good advice on how to deal with the situation. Please come back and talk to us. Please explain where the wall actually is. I’ll reiterate the advice I gave earlier, in good faith and wanting to help, 1. Talk to your neighbours, 2 if that fails, contact local council planning/building regulations, 3 if that fails, check your house/car insurance to see if you have legal cover and speak to a solicitor.

Hope that’s better MNHQ

Some of the semis in my area have quite narrow drives so it's quite tight to park 2 modern cars next to each other at the side of the houses (the drives between seta of semis are next to each other). If someone built a wall straddling the party line between two driveways then it would prevent people parking.
If the OP is in that sort of situation, I wonder if the neighbour started trying to build it all on Op's side so neighbour didn't lose space, and then instead of doing things correctly has been sly and put it straddling the boundary so they can still have their wall, whilst not using as much of their land/garden/parking space.

What twoshedsjackson said

I'm no expert, but more knowledgeable friends warned me that, if I left it, I would eventually be deemed to have accepted it, and as well as loss of land, would be held liable for any maintenance issues. That's one reason not to let it pass, never mind "It's only a tiny bit of your garden")

I viewed a house I loved where the neighbour had roughly poured concrete onto the drive of the house I wanted to buy to give them extra room on their drive. They then used this bit of concrete to park their car

The owners of the house were deceased. My solicitor said it would be an absolute nightmare getting the issue resolved legally and for the mortgage (surveyors report)

I bought a different house

Solicitors dont like boundary disputes but you need notify the neighbour that you think their wall built in
Is in the wrong place. A solicitor will recommend you try to seek mediation the local council will have details of the mediation service. Also they ought to have served a party wall notice so you can appoint your own surveyor. If they have built the wall in the wrong place you can require them to remove it However things can escalate and if it goes to litigation can be expensive NB check whether your house hold insurance covers litigation costs

You won't be able to sell your house. Or it will be difficult and put people off, if the boundaries of the land you are selling don't match up with the plans eg are smaller.

You really need to address this by talking to the neighbour and then if unfruitful, planning

I read this several times and still don't quite understand.

Draw on a piece of paper the situation. That in no way would out you.

Another OP who writes a huge post, 1 follow up, then you don't see for dust.

Got time to write it all down, but not answer to answer any questions

Careful BRB ... you might be deleted and accused of trolling ... I was.

Approach them about it now while its still 'fresh'. If you leave it, they will start acrruing time towards adverse posession of your land. We had a bit of a ruckus with our neighbours last year as they had removed a hedge and replaced it with a fence that effectively nicked about 20-30cm of our garden the whole way down.

It happened before we lived here when my poor Gran lived here, she was in her 90s with dementia and there was no way she would have even realized, never mind confronted them. Some people are just cheeky and/or stupid and you should acquaint yourself with boundary law and your rights immediately.

In our case, I got a copy of the plot from the land registry, to show the boundary and shape of our garden. Fortunately, there were end wall boundaries to use as reference points and the plot width in our title deeds to show that the fence was too far on our side.

I know it sounds petty, but it does matter. I stewed on it for a year before I finally presented them with a little package of documents, including photos of just how distorted our garden boundary was from the end and even Google maps! They had helped themselves to a lot of our land and our garden isn't big enough to concede anything. The husband was a bit miffed but grudgingly accepted we were right. The wife, who is a vindictive piece of work, argued that my Gran was fine with it - that standard piece of boundary law!! Anyway, she was eventually told to be quiet and they moved it within a month - on what would have been my dear Gran's 102nd birthday had she not died a month earlier. When it was done, I almost cried, feeling like I'd defended my Gran from her horrible invading neighbours or something! Afterwards, it was obvious the fence needed moving and, even though it caused me a fair bit of stress, and the wife stomped around slamming doors and playing loud music and bitching for months afterwards, I am glad we raised the issue and got it sorted. I haven't lost anything, I didn't like them or their stupid barking dogs in the first place!

Don't let it go, they should have agreed a shared or party wall with you beforehand, otherwise it stays on THEIR SIDE. If you feel you can raise the issue verbally with them without a fight then fine, but I found myself swiftly attacked by my shifty neighbours, who are clearly practiced at talking their way out of trouble, and I was glad I had everything on paper and clearly written out to back me up. The phrase you need in a legal sense is 'occupying without permission'. Good luck!

I think some folks are missing the fact it’s an inch or two on her land, half a brick, and with her permission,,,

I want a diagram because I need to know how half a wall (potentially a brick wide) can prevent making a drive bigger because the wall in the way and stop the OP building on her grounds.

I need a diagram. So I think it's a wall between two driveways and it's been built directly over the line which it was previously up against. But we need confirmation and a DIAGRAM please OP.

Had similar at my house. Next door just starting cutting down our drive (tarmac) to instal edge stones narrowing our drive . I was straight out the front door to speak to the builder ... he basically laughed at me , my husband was at work & I had a baby on my hip. So I had a friend come round and as builder put down the edge stones my rather large friend removed them , it got very messy that first day and there was blood involved. It went in for months then we went on holiday, came home to find a wall had been built. We took it down - it hadn’t dried out and put the bricks on her drive. Then it all got very nasty, police were called . She wanted us done for criminal damage, I had the deeds , showed police, they saw wall was 5ft into our property boundary and as such I requested her being done for trespass and littering. ( it wasn’t a police matter but a civil one. It raged on for months , it was horrible.
Although it was stressful and horrible to live through - I have no regrets we kicked down that wall in the middle of the night as we arrived home.

@SquirtleSquad

The diagram doesn't need to be outing, you could replace your house with a giant cock or something.

But if its only half brick how can it make much difference to the op and mean that she can't have a driveway?

If you can't afford a solicitor then you can use the legal team attached to your buildings insurance

If it's "soul destroying" contact a solicitor so they'll have to correct it. It's not worth stressing out so much. If it really bothers you fix it, spending time stressed on here or losing sleep won't sort it but a solicitor will. The neighbours are relying on you being too meek to say anything

Our deeds definitely don’t show the boundary to a scale that would allow half a brick of encroachment to be identified. Are we unusual? Do other people’s deeds have exact measurements or very large scale diagrams? Ours are probably only accurate to the nearest meter at very best, probably less.

dish ... it doesn’t matter how little it is - it’s OP’s property, not her neighbours.

1more ... you can use the legal cover on any insurance, including your car insurance, not just buildings.

Half a brick in any legal/selling issue is still half a brick. Official boundaries are impacted

I’d like someone/anyone to randomly give me half a brick of their boundary lease

Boundary disputes are notoriously difficult to resolve in court, and expensive. The obvious starting point would be a friendly chat with the neighbor, but I suspect they won’t be pleased at the prospect of rebuilding the wall. There are other avenues you can take to resolve things but it will most likely destroy the relationship with the neighbor. So, I’d advise caution. It would have been much easier to resolve before the wall was built, but you can’t go back in time.

It doesn't take 5 minutes to build a wall.

@Poppingmad123 can you come back

Mn love a diagram but in this case we can’t understand how a wall can be built in your grounds and why you didn’t stop it

HVe you checked land registry for boundary’s

If the wall is on the boundary line, and equally straddles both boundaries, then your neighbours have built the wall in the correct place! Why would anyone built a wall to delineate a boundary all on their side? It wouldn't make sense.

I know people are trying to help, but advising the OP to get a solicitor involved isn't good advice if their neighbour hasn't technically done anything wrong. You're encouraging the OP to waste money on something they can't win.

If the OP feels the wall devalues their property, they need to address it with the neighbour. The neighbours may be being selfish, but that doesn't mean they're wrong I'm afraid. The only way is to address it with them directly.