Hi everyone, advice is needed, please.
We bought our home last October, semi-detached bordering two rented properties. On the right-hand side live a family who recently emigrated from Pakistan and has three children, the oldest of whom is severely autistic (this is a key detail). Those of you who may have read our previous post know we have had concerns with their son damaging our front garden and very loud noises throughout the night. We have wanted to avoid making the family's life any more difficult and so have not issued a noise complaint or put anything in writing, only endeavouring to put up higher fences at the front when we can afford this (currently on lower income due to maternity leave and back to work in September).
Our title deeds do not state party wall agreements and anecdotally boundaries are shared.
In Janurary and February, there were severe storms in our area, riping down numerous fence panels on the road, including between our two properties and a branch from a tree on their land brought down the roof to our shed. The next door family has limited English skills and so I went around twice to tell both parents about the fences and the health/safety concerns with them being down (backs onto common land that has numerous hazards and their garage has a lot of broken glass)- both for my family and their son. I asked them to speak with their landlord regarding the need for repair. They said they would but then weeks later no reply. I then spoke with the father and said I was going to repair/ take down the panels depending on if they were salvageable. The front of the garden panel was serviceable but the rear garden backing onto a gated common land service lane was not. He said this was fine (I took this to mean he had informed his landlord and I had received no objections).
I took down the remnants of the back panels and as a temporary measure planted 4ft hedging which we had spare to fill the gap between the properties, providing a screen so their son could not easily get between and importantly ensured they were planted on my side so as not to inadvertently move our boundary. I told the family I would consider jointly replacing the panels when we could afford to do so.
This week we received a knock from their landlord (the first time he has visited since we moved in) and a follow-up text accusing us of removing the panels without his knowledge or permission and he is demanding a professional replacement at sole cost to us within the next month - not going to happen as we can neither afford nor feels this is fair.
Could you please advise where you would go next given the landlord seems driven to pursue us for the replacement of the panels?