To think my neighbour can drill a whole in my house to permanently hang a 15ft tarpaulin?

[Euro21widow]

So, name changed as obviously outting as pretty sure this isn't a normal occurance!

My neighbour has drilled a hole in my (grade 2 listed) building so she can permanently hang a piece of tarpaulin about 15ft up (as high as my 1st floor roof) for "privacy". Surely she can't just do this? Where do I go from here? It blocks all the light out to my ground floor windows now. Have included (bad) diagram.

Oh and take details of any builders at hers from now on. Write them down and say politely she’s had some cowboys in before who’ve agreed to attach things to my wall and damage it , obviously without my permission, so after that I always get details of people.

I also wouldn't wait for the planning office and would seek legal help asap.

You have to go through the Council. Work to a Listed Building without Consent from the council is a criminal offence. The homeowner could be seen as responsible so it is imperative that the Council are involved from the beginning to ensure that they are aware of the full story and to protect the OP. The OP doesn't want to end up in prison because of what the daft bat next door has done!!

I am so sorry for you OP this is going to take sometime to sort out and your relationship with her is going to be difficult. Given how inconsiderate she has been I expect it would never have been good.

I feel quite stressed reading this, op. I can't imagine how hard this is, and will be, to solve. Even if she takes it down, she doesnt seem the type to let bygones be bygones.

An earlier suggestion of contacting your home insurance company is a good one. We had something similar last summer. Neighbours suddenly decided to use lockdown to escape to Wales and do up their listed London house, so started without planning permission or being there to supervise. Our house shook and the neighbour on the other side had long cracks in their wall.

Insurance company held our hands throughout. They required us to get a precondition survey (basically photos taken by a surveyor) and to speak to planning enforcement. They then dictated rather formal letters to send to the neighbours about party walls etc. Finally when neighbours failed to pass on structural engineering information to our surveyor, they dictated a letter threatening an injunction if the information was not handed over within a week, and confirmed they would pay for the injunction. We got the information.

Bizarrely the neighbour's husband then asked that we did not communicate further with his wife as she had mental health problems. It was clearly her project and indeed the builders are still in over a year later and at one point were working 7 days a week up to 10pm at night. To be honest for us protecting our house came before sympathy for someone who got themselves into their own mess.

They were forced, presumably by the Council and our threat of an injunction, to scale back their plans considerably (they were planning to knock holes in supporting walls over three floors.)

We don't like our neighbours but do like Aviva!

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@Empressofthemundane

I’m on tenterhooks to hear the council response. She is surely, surely in the wrong.

Yep. Can't wait to hear what she gets fined.

Really hope you've got some useful answers from the council today OP. I can't believe your neighbour thought that'd be a good idea.

Sorry no reply update. Can't get through to anyone on the phone due to covid and no reply apart from the auto-reply from Friday. I do promise to update when anything happens. Might be a few days though. Send rum.

I'm hoping CFN gets a hefty fine
And possibly made to Walk the Plank

I meant... sorry no real update!

You have no idea how invested I am in the good ship Flappyhouse. Pouring some grog into an envelope for you as we speak....

It has been really flappy today @Yesitsbess as fairly windy and rainy here!

Came back to check for an update too, hope you get a reply soon.

Splice the mainbrace me hearty! I'm amazed the giant red dorito hasn't ripped itself to shreds already. The tarp on my chicken coop is flapping about like a pair of witches knickers.

Here's hoping eh?

Really want to see a photo of the Dorito-sail! It sounds like she's spent a lot of money on this monstrosity (sails of that size aren't cheap, plus hiring professionals and scaffolding to install it) what on earth was she thinking!?!

@Euro21widow

Sorry no reply update. Can't get through to anyone on the phone due to covid and no reply apart from the auto-reply from Friday. I do promise to update when anything happens. Might be a few days though. Send rum.

Do speak to your local Councillor - it really is the best way if getting things moving, especially if you can't speak to Officers direct.

When it's windy video it every time
I second contacting your local councillor, ours was brilliant

I would echo contacting your councillor if you can't get through to Planning Enforcement. Another route would be via your Council's Facebook page - these are monitored by PR department who are generally very good at tracking down the right people.

@fiftyval I hadn't even thought about Facebook! Will try messaging them on there and see if I get any response.

And I will definitely look into who my Councillor is and try and contact them if planning take much longer to reply.

Your councillors should have their email address on the council website, and that might be worth a go as well.

Definitely try fb or twitter being public theyre more likely to respond

That is so bad. You have done well to keep cool about it. Your neighbour sounds like a right witch.