They’ve attached a GIANT fence… to MY fence !!

[Finetoday]

Exactly that !

Neighbour behind has a 6 foot old wooden fence.
I have a 6 foot fairly new 6 foot fence of the concrete posts and board variety.
There is a 2 foot ‘No man’s land’ in between that the builders of my house/estate left when they erected this perimeter fence (we are on edge of development).

Came home today to find neighbours erecting a fence with 12 foot posts and 10 foot panels ! It’s flipping huge !

On Inspection, I can see he’s attached said monstrosity to my nice fence by drilling holes in my concrete posts, and attaching wooden battens which form a framework with metal brackets that bridge the 2 foot gap !

I asked him to take it off my nice fence - he turned his drill on and turned his back to me and carried on. It’s now fully installed.

I’ll try and upload photos for you all to appreciate his workmanship.

AIBU to contact Council ?
AIBU to saw the metal brackets half way ?

Definitely the height! Sent photos & everything. Chased numerous times. They couldn't have been less interested. Makes me bloody furious!

Ridiculous thing is, we'd not long replaced the fence, couple of years prior, at 100% our cost because the neighbour refused to go halves - it's a new, 'normal' 6ft regulation fence. Pre-stained so no ugly painting required. Erected on the shared boundary line - no 'land grabbing' occurred whatsoever. No access to her garden was required. Nothing was destroyed or trampled on. (Old fence was really knackered & fell down during a very windy weekend!)

So quite why she suddenly decided she needed another 2ft, at significant cost to herself, is anyone's guess. Like I said...batshit.

I would definitely think yours and your neighbours houses are all at risk of that unstable structure during a storm.

Get infront of it by contacting police, council, planning dept and regulations, your insurance company and asking for legal advice.

Follow up everything with emails to confirm what you have told them and your concerns.

My friends neighbours had an issue with a tree on their neighbours boundary and reported, many times to the neighbours which they ignored.

When the tree half toppled over during a storm, taking out two lots of fencing, a conservatory, a shed, and electricity and television lines it was scary.
It required the fire brigade/electricity contractor involvement to secure it.

Their insurance companies sorted both neighbours out but unfortunately I don't know the consequences for the tree owners themselves who had ignored about 3 years of requests to top it.

The damage could have been so much worse.
Storms have gotten so much worse over the last decade.
I would make clear note that those fences could lift and go anywhere because they have been secured to YOUR property illegally.

Spell out the worst case scenario and the damage he has done to your fencing.

Clearly he is lawless.

A few people are quoting 6 feet which is not correct.

The maximum height fence allowed before planning permission needs to be sought is 2 metres (roughly 6 feet 6) unless the fence is next to a highway in which case maximum height is 1 metre.

If only the council paid someone to fix broken public fences, or patch up some potholes instead of deploying someone with a measuring tape to check people’s fences 🤣

Fences are ugly at the best of times but that is absolutely obscene.

Why does he need a fence that big??

Also clearly illegal.

Pls let us know outcome!

Fixing pot holes... now there's any idea 😂

It looks from the photo as if you back onto each other, so the high fence serves to restrict your view into each other’s houses, which some might consider an advantage, especially if the gardens aren’t very long.

Using your existing fence posts etc. without your permission isn’t polite or friendly, and the fence may exceed permitted maximum height, but it could be improved from your side with trellis on top of your existing fence covered with clematis and roses. Possibly.

I would imagine this is why he built a huge fence. Why do you have videos of him on your phone?

He's damaged your fence and his actions amount to criminal damage. He didn't stop when you asked to discuss things with him. He acted in an aggressive manner. Report to the police via 101 - probably easier to fill in the online form. I think I'd have called the police whilst he was doing this and refused to engage with you. Very intimidating behaviour. He probably wouldn't have treated a man in the same way. You need a crime number in order to get your insurers involved in getting his fence removed from yours and the damage repaired.

You could always … REMOVE your fence and his will fall down.

Neighbor … he has created as bundle of issues for himself … idiot

Oh gosh! Maybe grow some climbers up it, make it lush and enjoy the extra privacy.

She took them when he was building his illegal fence.

This. I don’t understand the reluctance to phone the police when he’s acting in a threatening and frightening manner with power tools in hand.

Take my post with a grain of salt, as I live in Australia.

Fences here are the dividing line between properties of both neighbours. If a neighbour builds an extra higher fence in their land, they can still use the existing concrete to drill for the new fence. We only involve a council when a neighbour is building a fence in our own land.

I have no idea about regulations in the UK, specially in the "no man's land" you referred to in your op. You need to contact the council to understand what it means and if your neighbour is encroaching on your property.

That’s a beast !!!!

He’s drilled into her posts on her property!!

Alondra the neighbour has used a fence which is the boundary structure between the OP's land and a strip of land which belongs to the council to attach his fence to. The OP's fence is nothing to do with him. He's aggressively making his garden bigger by taking over the strip of council land up to the OP's boundary and intimidating the OP in the process.

What happens when you need to change out your fence posts, replace your fence etc? He hasn't really thought this through has he? You'd end up taking down his fence with them...

Those posts belong to the neighbour on his side if the fence was erected as a dividing one between the properties. If the OP put the fence on her land, and it's not just a divide, she needs to take it to council as encroachment in her property.

Frankly I still don't understand what the OP meant by this "There is a 2 foot ‘No man’s land’ in between that the builders of my house/estate left when they erected this perimeter fence (we are on edge of development). It's why I advised her to speak with the council.

I would image the no man’s land is because the more recent house building firm didn’t use a neighbours boundary fence as the boundary for the estate, ie they went in a bit, and put up their own fence for the estate to look smarter. Quite common, and chances are the space in between was owned by the housebuilders.

Thank you for making it clear for me. I couldn't understand the problem.

The issue though doesn't really involve the OP, even if the neighbour is an aggressive arsehole. He's making his land bigger by claiming council land as his own which is a council problem.

I said at the beginning to take my posts with a grain of salt. I live in Blue Mountains in Sydney and our council doesn't care about fences disputes between neighbours unless someone is building private fences on public land. You can then expect an inspector visit within 48 hours.

The OP needs to talk with her council or make a complaint if she can't talk directing with them. However, I don't know how things work over there, and maybe the council doesn't care.

There are three separate issues, all of which affect or may affect OP.

1. The no-man’s land. OP does not know who it belongs to. This may belong to the council, in which case you are right it has no direct bearing on OP. But it could do indirectly, for example causing access issues down the line, as presumably there is a reason the strip is there. It also could be owned by OP, the neighbour or shared between OP and the neighbour, depending on where the actual boundary lies. So OP should clarify but whatever the outcome it may have an impact on OP.
2. The height of the fence. If, as OP thinks, the fence is over 2m then it is in breach of planning. Planning rules are essentially there to benefit neighbours and stop people building unsafe eyesores so this impacts OP too.
3. The fact the fence has been secured through attaching it to OP’s fence. The fence belongs to OP and it has been damaged. Unlike how you describe it working in Australia, this is OP’s fence - it doesn’t appear to be on the boundary line in this case (due to the no man’s land) but, even in most cases where it is, usually the fence is owned by one property or another. Generally you’ll own the fence on one side of your garden and your neighbour will own the fence on the other side. it’s set out on the title to the property. Your neighbour is not entitled to do anything to your fence and doing so is damage to OP’s property.

It's pretty obvious you don't understand from your post.

It's not shared in anyway with the neighbour because there's a strip of land belonging to the council between the neighbour's property and the OP's property. These are often referred to as "wildlife corridors" and pretty normal when there are developments of new houses on land, especially if it was previously greenfield land.

Not all concrete fence posts are reinforced. It is also entirely possible to drill into a concrete post and not cause long term deterioration to it.

Thank you so much for all your posts it’s been so helpful and encouraging when it’s been so stressful today 😛