We have been renting a house which we are now in the process of buying.
The house has a 20 year old extension with a kitchen diner with two windows looking onto our side/ back garden then across to a low stone wall -less than 1 metre high. The neighbours house is older and the stone wall boundary is about 2 ft from their kitchen diner. They have clear glass in their windows and they look directly into our garden and into our house - no net curtains.
I have always felt very uncomfortable about this because our privacy is affected massively and the solution we agreed whilst renting was to put 2 large azaleas in pots belonging to the landlady in the front of their windows by the wall which has improved it a bit.
Now that we are buying I want to improve the privacy so w e can actually have a private garden and noone looking into our house - several people have said to me that we can legally erect a 2 metre fence on our side of the wall (which belongs to them). I was so looking forward to this
We went round to have a chat with the neighbours out of courtesy - they are moving on and their house is on the market. I explained we wanted to put some screening up (either a solid wooden fence or I guess a slatted one would be kinder as their light would be less blocked) I would prefer solid as then they couldn't hear us on the patio eating in the summer so much either.
But I was very clear that we would wait until they had sold as we wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardise their house sale. He let us into their kitchen diner and we could see straight into our house. He sad we legally couldn't because of the 'right to light'. But they have 1 more window and 2 Velux's in that room ..... He quite rightly pointed out that we could negotiate with the new people. He was keen we planted shrubs on our side but that will be tricky as there is a magnolia tree there so not much sunlight.
Everyone else thinks we should just put up a fence once our neighbours exchange contracts and safeguard our privacy. I just don't want to upset the new neighbours who we may well be living next to for many years. The two widnows are a) by their kitchen sink and b) by their kitchen table
I think we have a right to privacy but I don't want them to threaten us with a right to light argument or for us to get off on the wrong foot
Feeling so uncomfortable and unsure whether to get legal advice or just crack on!