neighbours tore down my fence and put up on of their own on my property!

[Pangurban1]

I came home from holidays to find my neighbours to my back removed my back fence and put up one instead with ancillary concrete works on my land.

The fence is denoted as my responsibility on my deeds. They are not shared fences. They concreted over electric cables to back of wooden shed. We have a built up patio area at the back and the old fence was a retaining type of fence.

A large limb from our chestnut tree damaged the fence and we were waiting to replace our other fence at the side at the same time. The fence still functioned as a divider and was okay for purposes. They have installed a very high one in its stead on our property.

So, they removed our property which was on our property and we now have their fence on our land. They said the posts were in the same place, but they have been newly concreted on our side so don't know if they were moved in much. There is less space behind our shed. We don't have pictures as weren't expecting someone to tamper with our property like this.

My husband went around and they said the fence couldn't be put back as it was all taken away. They seem to be saying it is a joint or shared fence and they are not asking us for the cost! Not sure if that is for getting someone to pull up our fence and destroying it or building their fence on our land. It is a cheap, dog rough thing. I am looking a a very rough surface. As well as all the lumpy concrete works on our side.

They must have seen the house in darkness for a week and then went for it. Even if it was shared, they should have waited to check. However, as it was our fence it is something else to rip it up without our instruction, never mind permission.

I do not want someone else fence on our property. I wonder if I should I report the theft and destruction of our property to the police? What route do I have to go down to get them out of our property?

Ironically we were going to do the fences in the next couple of months.

That's a really good idea - with a scale so you can work out how far the shed was from the fence.

Just tell them to remove their fence and replace it with your own as you were going to do anyway.

You need to speak to a solicitor. Check your house insurance as already mentioned, as this might include legal cover.

Cheeky feckers! In the meantime, I'd be composing a very strongly worded letter and would have to rein myself in from sending it until after I'd spoken to a solicitor

The rics person I was put in contact with was unavailable, but will get back to me tomorrow.

The fence was similar in composition with same side of it facing our property as a smaller one we have at the front side. I have an old picture of it at the back (not very extensive) and can take a picture of the similar one at the front if it goes official. Of course, that is not proof as such. My deeds explicitly say the 3 orientations we have responsibility for, this included.

Husband has spoken to one of the owners and couple of texts exchanged. They didn't respond to the last one. I guess for them, our fence is out and theirs installed. If they are the type to stealthily pull this sort of thing off, then I am not expecting decency or reason. It will have to be officially proceeded with in some way.

Has anyone gone through this sort of thing?

Can't get a focus on google earth when I zoom. It is not much, if they dug up. They removed where they have put in concrete slabs of some sort to place the fence.

The main issue is what was my property was removed and disposed of and someone else now owns the fence at the bottom of my garden and the concrete works are on my side, encasing electric cables behind my shed. This was all done by a stranger working with my property. My trellising is gone too.

You still own the fence. They have put it on your land so it belongs to you.

Just take it down.

I don't even know if they used a professional company, never mind who that company was. We came back to a fait accompli. We are completely ignorant of what works were carried out or anything about the removal and disposal of our property (theft and destruction, more like!). They are always doing work themselves in their garden. This is the first time they have ventured to do carry out works in mine!

I just need the integrity of my property back and not have some one else's fence where mine was.

So take it down!

We have asked them to remove it. Just us physically removing it now won't resolve the issue or their behaviour. It may just escalate an ugly confrontation and in any case could just lead to this just being repeated.

We are acting reasonably and proportionate to begin with. Given them a week to remove it. If it needs to be resolved beyond that it will have to be officially so there is no come back.

I will be talking to a rics person tomorrow re the boundary. Then probably talk to a solicitor.

I would be taking photos whilst the concrete and panels look fresh and of any damage (splashes, buried cables) as evidence in case this drags on.

What did they say when you asked them to take it down?

I hope they act reasonably and remove it. If not, and if you pursue this legally, I fear that it is going to cost you thousands. It's the type of thing you read about where costs have escalated dreadfully because both sides continue with it.

It will only cost the op thousands if she lets solicitors anywhere near it. Just remove the fence and be done with it - it's in her garden ffs!

I would check if a criminal offence has occurred. They have destroyed your property.

Otherwise, I'd check if it could go through a small claims court to recover the expense of removing it and installing a new fence.

Their last text message said roughly 'we'll leave the matter there'. Otherwise, we pulled a fast one and want it to stay as it is.

The fence was marked on my deeds as 'my' boundary fence. I don't know on what basis they sneakily destroyed my fence and erected theirs in its while we were away. There has been no addressing of that. I presume there is no basis other than they wanted to. Otherwise they would not have been as opportunistic and done it as slyly as they did.

Their garden is wider than ours is and our fence ends where my boundary ends and a completely different fence is erected on the remainder of their boundary with our neighbour. The fence only expanded the width of my back boundary.

There may be more misery if we leave it as they may claim the boundary to build over or something like that and suddenly we have another bigger problem.

Going to talk to rics tomorrow.

I'm wondering how I prove the fence was mine. The front wall is mine too. We didn't erect that either and similarly, I would be hard pressed to prove it is mine. It came with the house. Like the fence it is marked as one of the 3 boundaries we maintain.

So

1. The fence is marked on my deeds as one of the 3 boundaries we maintain.

1. It only extends the width of my land, not the full width of theirs. You can see that much from the google earth picture. it stops abruptly where my land ends and a different fence with slightly different line continues to the end of theirs.

1. It matches and was facing the same way of a similar fence along the front (side) of our house. not really evidence, but suggestive taking the others into consideration.

I need an expert advice on what you need to prove ownership.

I bet the Daily Mail would be interested in your story. That'll teach them!

Ending up in the Mail wouldn't be so great for me either.

Get over it - there i a decent fence in place - at most they have taken inches from your garden. Tackle them on the concrete splashes and cabling but let the rest go.

wd you need a surveyor to measure the exact boundaries of your plot? I ask because this was what i had to do when not only the old fence but also a hedge disappeared overnight . I must have been sleeping like the dead. Discovered the new next door neighbour laying out a string line in the newly cleared area. Went to speak to him and was pushed . My son called the police , who halted the construction and i had to pay for the surveyor. Karma paid him back tho as a tiny tree which was growing in the hedge was allowed to grow on his side of the new fence-which he paid for-and that tree decided to split apart right thru the trunk and nearly levelled their house. Cost them $1000s to get it removed as it was huge by then.

Carold, I presume you're ok with anyone coming along and ripping up anything on your property and plonking something they want down instead, then. Sure your are. Anyways, it is not a good fence. It is an ugly, cheap thing with rough wood.

armarmai, measurements won't really work as it is Edwardian, so not plotted like that.

Your experience sounds worse due to the confrontation aspect, armarmai. I presume your neighbour was doing an encroaching thing if hedge was removed as well.

Oh, if only Karma was a repercussion.

Op, I think your neighbour is on mn.

Is their house newer than yours? If it is can you get a copy of their plans? You might have a better view of what belongs to you. Whatever you do, don't let this go. They are nasty, arrogant fuckers and that last text might as well have said "tough shit".

FFS... Third world problems.