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 ?

This happened to me once. I had spent the whole summer trying to improve our small and shitty garden and by the time we went on holiday it looked lovely.
Came home to a horrible light-coloured fence tacked badly on top of the original fence (Victorian terraced houses). Was about as outraged as I’ve ever been by the sheer thoughtlessness of it, and took some time to work out which house on the parallel road was even responsible. I don’t think people who back on to you have the same feelings of neighbourliness as adjacent neighbours, but they can of course do just as much damage.

I would tell other residents in your own road first, attaching photos if you have a neighbourhood WhatsApp group. You might find someone who knows or is in the local council replying and sharing your outrage (as they consider this as a set precedent that might soon affect them). Then I would send a tonally neutral fact-based letter to the neighbours reminding them of the 2m rule and asking them to take the fence down if it exceeds this (which is manifestly does). Less sure about his encroachment on your fence — in our situation we only had one shared boundary. But as others have said it is probably illegal.

I love your last sentence.
@Finetoday If you can be arsed and finances allow, up the stakes by taking your fence down including your concrete posts. Then he's fucked as his will have the structural integrity of tissue paper.

The absolute cheek. Why does it not surprise me that a man has decided that the best solution in terms of achieving what he wants is to take advantage of a woman. If I were you I would absolutely pay somebody to be at yours tomorrow detaching his structure from your fence. I’d then be putting the invoice through his door with an expectation the funds are received within 24 hours or he can expect court proceedings where you’ll be claiming back the cost of your legal fees.

Edited to add (after seeing the builder comment) that you can say when you invoice them to expect the next invoice once you’ve arranged for someone to replace the concrete they damaged.

Your council planning department will probably have a website form for you to annonomously report planning breaches. An officer will investigate and, if a planning breach, will inform your neighbour. Then several things can happen, e.g suggest planning permission is applied for, or request it be taken down, or issue a formal notice and an enforcement. Some of this can be ignored by your neighbour and it can take ages to conclude. None of it will deal with the damage done to your property for which you'll need another strategy.

Wow that is beyond obnoxious. I have no idea about the best course of action but good luck.

Proof-reading might have helped here!

I support @YourAzureEagle

Drilling into concrete posts is liable to start a crack, and will encourage rusting of the steel reinforcement.

A letter of complaint will be a start, you might want to claim damages from the neighbour if your posts are damaged and need to be replaced (it is very arduous to dig out posts that are set in concrete).

Haven’t RTFT, and at the risk of being a “cancel the cheque” - Is the gap between the fences classes as a wildlife corridor? Lots of those near us.

Cheeky fucker though. Good luck with the council tomorrow. Ours were very good when Keith the Teeth had an illegal erection (fnar fnar) of a car port on his front drive. He’d made it out of old decking planks and sold old wooden doors.

Go and drill some holes in his tyres. What's good for the goose...

F

What a shithouse he is.

“Up the stakes” 🤣 Good one, @L0bstersLass

Speak to planning enforcement urgently - he needs planning perm for more than 180cm

In the uk fence panels are no taller than 6''. Usually 5' maximum height when using a gravel board. I'm guessing they've piggy backed onto your concrete posts.

Report to your local authority. Don't waste money on solicitors, the council have the right to enforce action against your pillock of a neighbour.

"In the uk fence panels are no taller than 6''. Usually 5' maximum height when using a gravel board"

Surely most people have a 6 inch gravel board and a 6ft fence panel making the overall height 1.95m?

Imagine spending the cash doing this, being videoed, and photographed, and just giving the neighbors attitude and blanking them. He's either oblivious to the law, or a completely entitled idiot. I'd have to be very sure of what I was doing to proceed like he has. Some people just baffle me.

I’ve no idea what sort of saw/tool you’d need to cut through those metal straps but I’d be getting one and cutting them In half!

There are two different matters at play here.

1. A fence being erected that is too tall and grabs some extra land for your neighbours garden
2. The damage to your property as the result of the above

The council can investigate and potentially act on point 1. However point 2 is a civil matter between you and your neighbour that the council has no remit to investigate.

You need to seek advice from a legal professional in point 2.

Wow cheeky fucker of the year!

It looks like he's built his actual fence on his own land, inside the old fence, but the wood battens and those metal brackets are out of order. It's as though he's using your concrete posts as reinforcement for his own old and new fences. I hope you get a positive response from the council this morning. If not, definitely check for legal cover on your home insurance and get a solicitor to write a letter, giving him X amount of days to remove the brackets and battens and make good the holes in your posts.

Placemarking (what a lot of stress you don’t need OP)

As well as contacting the Planning Department at your local council, who will refer to enforcement, I recommend also contacting your borough or district councillors. Perhaps copy them in on any emails to the planning department.

I’d be concerned that if he’s having to attach it you your fence, then it’s not properly dug in, and as soon as it’s windy again your fence will be damaged.

My husband is a fencer, you can get in trouble for having a fence higher than 6.5 foot, is the fence on your side? It should be on your deeds, one side will be yours and the other the neighbours. If it’s your fence on your side then you might be able to take them to court.

We have a new development next door to us with a similar gap between our garden and the adjoining gardens. My understanding is that bit of land belong to the developers. I was told It’s to stop either one of you selling your gardens as building plots with access from either side. The developer would then either refuse access over their strip or sell to you at an exorbitant price!! That’s how it was told to me! So might be worth contacting the company that built the newer houses as they might be interested in somebody encroaching on their land! Just a thought?