Neighbours removed our trellis - ongoing antisocial behaviour

[MsMitford]

Hoping that the Mumsnet hive mind can help me solve this so that I don't send myself mad with Googling.

Our garden is (was) surrounded by a six foot wall topped with trellis. The same wall runs on all three sides of the garden, and was installed by the previous owner.

We are having ongoing issues with these neighbours - we've been working with the police and council (they are council tenants) to try to resolve their constant marijuana use, and they have responded with a variety of petty antisocial behaviours, from name-calling to loud music. We've just come back from a short holiday to find out that they have removed the trellising. This opens up our garden and kitchen to direct view from them.

Police have spoken to them: neighbours claim that it's down 'for maintenance'. (Haha - they've not shown any interest in maintaining anything in the ten months that we have lived here.) Technically they are allowed to do this, as they have legal responsibility for maintaining the fence on that side of the garden. But they've damaged some of my plants and can see into our garden, and it's pretty obvious that it is meant maliciously.

So what I need to know is this: Are we legally entitled to fit new trellising to our side of the fence post? Or are we stuck with our neighbours peering in and intimidating us for the rest of eternity?

(We can't move - we'd never be able to sell with an open anti-social behaviour case of this scale going on).

All thoughts appreciated.

You can put a fence up within your own boundary, but not attach anything to their fence (or fence posts) without their permission.

If your wall was built by the previous owners of your house, on your side of the boundary then it's yours and they have no business touching it. It being marked as 'theirs' on the deeds has no relevance if it's fully within your garden and they didn't pay for it.

Check exactly who owns the fence and trellis - if it is theirs i would put my own fencing and trellis up just within my side of the border which they cannot take down,

@Faranth

If your wall was built by the previous owners of your house, on your side of the boundary then it's yours and they have no business touching it. It being marked as 'theirs' on the deeds has no relevance if it's fully within your garden and they didn't pay for it.

Faranth - thanks, this is just what I was hoping to hear. Do you know where I should look (website etc) for legal back up for that?

I suspect it might technically be on the shared fence line, so I'm not sure where that leaves us.

Both trellis and actual fence panels are on our side of the fence poles, which might indicate those bits are within our garden?

Hmm, off to do some more googling...

If your house is Ex-council the fence might be yours. When I worked at a law firm I dealt with properties in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. There were a lot of ex-council houses where the owners are responsible for two or three boundaries. It was usually done if there were properties still owned by the council on the other sides at the time of sale. It was an easy way to get rid of some of the maintenance costs for properties they still owned. When they did, it was written very clearly in the title deeds of the property.

Op do you mean wall? Not being funny but I can't see one?

@myfuckingfreezer

Op do you mean wall? Not being funny but I can't see one?

I mean fence. Sorry - newly appreciative of the fact that there is a difference between a fence and a wall in law.

How high was the trellis? Your fence itself looks pretty high but hard to see from the photo. If you draw a straight line out from the back of your house, is the fence right on the line or more on your side of it (or theirs)

6ft plus trellis would be above the legal limit which is 6ft.

If the wall is on the boundary line, then its irrelevant who paid when it was built as it remains the responsibility of the neighbours to maintain and do with as they wish.

You can by all means have what you like, up to the 6ft height on your side of the boundary line.

Legally, it doesn't sound as though they've done anything at all wrong. If, you however, attach anything directly to the wall, without their permission, you will be doing something wrong! The damage to the plants, arguably wouldn't have occurred if they weren't tethered to "their" wall.

Downloaded deeds for both our properties and turns out that the boundary is legally defined as 'shared' - meaning that they should have discussed the removal of trellis with us formally in writing with us before taking it down. On advice of police we're giving them 3 weeks to 'make good' before pursuing action for criminal damage. (Appreciate that would be absolutely OTT in any other circumstances, but makes sense in this one).

@MilduraS

If your house is Ex-council the fence might be yours. When I worked at a law firm I dealt with properties in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. There were a lot of ex-council houses where the owners are responsible for two or three boundaries. It was usually done if there were properties still owned by the council on the other sides at the time of sale. It was an easy way to get rid of some of the maintenance costs for properties they still owned. When they did, it was written very clearly in the title deeds of the property.

This was helpful - turns out it's not the case with ours, but it encouraged us to download and check deeds. Thank you.

@BusyLizzie61

6ft plus trellis would be above the legal limit which is 6ft.

If the wall is on the boundary line, then its irrelevant who paid when it was built as it remains the responsibility of the neighbours to maintain and do with as they wish.

You can by all means have what you like, up to the 6ft height on your side of the boundary line.

Legally, it doesn't sound as though they've done anything at all wrong. If, you however, attach anything directly to the wall, without their permission, you will be doing something wrong! The damage to the plants, arguably wouldn't have occurred if they weren't tethered to "their" wall.

Looks like legal limit is 6ft6 (which we are within - just measured!), but this encouraged me to check, so thank you.