What would you do?

[fedupwithbeingnice]

Any advice appreciated. These are the views from our conservatory & kitchen window, our neighbours (couple weeks ago) have put up a tarp on a wooden frame as a "fence" it's on their property but up against our fence.

Looks like it is taller than the 6'6" maximum height before planning permission is required.

On the assumption you don't like it, you could check whether the local authority have the usual rule (6'6") and whether there is any planning permission.

It is! The fence is ours a normal 6' one, they've put in a 6'6" post and the "frame"

May be worth a phone call to the planning office.

Have you spoken to the neighbour about it?

Yes we've mentioned that they need planning permission

And what did they say and why have they done it ?

Apparently they didn't know they needed it & they don't like our conservatory

Seems weird. Your conservatory cannot look out on to theirs unless you stand on a chair or something ? So they prefer looking at a plastic tarp to a conservatory.

If I were them I would have just put a fence on my side and added a generous trellis and then grown stuff up it.

If you had asked me why it was there I would have guessed they were thinking of installing a hot tub or something and wanted to screen it off from upstairs windows.

We can't see out that side of the conservatory at all, as it faces our fence we decided on panels rather than glass. They've "lived" with our conservatory being there for 7ish years ....

Maybe, though to be honest we've got better things to do than standing looking out the upstairs windows at them - in fact the window that is now screened off is a spare room only used occasionally when our baby grandchild stays.

I suspect that a tarp over a frame does not count as a fence, so if the council came round they’d explain that it was only temporary, and they’d be taking it down soon.After a number of years they’d claim that, as no one objected, they can now have their 6’6” fence. It depends how much it actually bothers you I suppose.

It's actually about 8ft! but even if they tell us/council it's a 'privacy screen' isn't it too close to our fence? But yes I can very well imagine that's what they would do

I’m sure it’s too close to your fence and 8’ is huge! I just think that they know what they’re doing and have deliberately found this loophole, whereby they can claim it was temporary and for amateur dramatics or something. The odd bit is that it must be uglier on their side. So unless amateur dramatics really = outdoor porn shoots, I’m not sure why they’d do it. Even if they are shooting porn, why start at the coldest time of the year? Sorry, that’s probably less than helpful.

IME of people they generally do stuff for a reason, even if they are nuts.

Nuts often means the motivation is imagined or something strange or unlikely, but I think there are hardly any reasons why someone does something like that at random, especially as there was probably some effort involved in doing it.

Do they have a habit of doing other weird and strange stuff ?

I would have added a 2ft trellis because you are far more likely to get away with something like that rather than sticking some sort of random ugly barrier in the way. Of course it takes longer to take effect that way as the plants have to grow on it.

But my guess is that they want to do something over their side in that area that they don't want you to see, or have decided either rightly or wrongly that you are looking in that area excessively for no reason and want to try to stop it.

I suspect they will be impossible to reason with anyway, so if you want it removed you will probably have to go down the route of enforcement rather than trying to understand their reasonings and propose another solution.

Seriously, it is not worth falling out with neighbours over this. Or maybe you already have? Remember that if you want to sell in the future you have to disclose any disputes you’ve had, including those that didn’t lead to formal action as well as those that did. Just ignore it. It’ll blow down at some point or they’ll get fed up of it.

Think it could be a little bit of the green eyed monster, after we got our conservatory they said they wanted a bigger conservatory or extension, but as they'd already spent out to put a proper roof on their conservatory it would cost too much.

Yes one of our friends just mentioned the 5 Yr rule if we wanted to move 😕

I would ring the council for advice but not report at this stage.

You really need the council to determine if it is permissible, but it is too high and those posts are not temporary.

Once the council advise you, I'd tell the neighbour they need planning permission so you're giving them good warning that you're intending to notify the council.

I'd also tell them you're doing all this verbally so neither of you need to declare a dispute if you sell.

Does the light from the top of your conservatory windows annoy them perhaps? If so I would also offer to put blinds up.

Just a thought, there must be something annoying them, and I'd be happy to try to resolve that if not painful.

Umm depends if the fence like structure has been erected to hide something perhaps? Can you see over from an upstairs room? Is the tarpe covering noisy in the wind? It would be better if you can come to an agreement, remember neighbour disputes need to be mentioned should you want to move OP.

If neighbours dont want to see your conservatory, would it not be better to agree a way to block out their view without it looking so awful? Trellis on top of fence with an evergreen climber, pyracantha hedge, whatever.

No the lights we have are on the opposite side of the conservatory away from their house and they are lamps & there are no windows that side just the roof. They have lights on in theirs & their kitchen ones, which would come across the top of our fence, but was never an issue.

Since moving in they've complained about all sorts of things and not just to us to other people too

I would do as the previous poster suggests and call the council for guidance. Once you have that guidance you can decide whether to make it formal. Once you write, it will be an objection that would prevent any form of right to keep it after a certain time period which I believe is now 15 years and not 5.

It wouldn’t worry me but it would make me rethink my ‘cordial relationship’ with those particular neighbours. I rather suspect that the next big storm and it’ll be down the street somewhere.

That does look ugly OP, I sympathise.

Oh! Didn't realise its as long as 15 years!! Yes sounds like phoning the council is the way forward

Unfortunately don't think it will as its quite sheltered where it is and is in concrete posts.

We've gone above & beyond what most people would put up with for a quiet life - always thought being neighbourly was a give and take relationship but when you're the ones doing all the giving there's nothing left in the tank & to be honest I'm fed up with being nice 😕

That is so weird and must be ugly from their side too !