My neighbour (I'm mid terrace, he is end) has been doing a large extension since May/June. We live on a slight slope heading down from the rear of the house down to the end of the back gardens. His extension consists of coming out 4.5m on ground level but has dug down and put a room below and dug a tunnel to the stairs at the front of his house. He asked if he could dig out/underpin the party wall where out houses meet and I agreed. What he has done is dig out/down the entire width of his garden, in order to stop my rear patio/garden falling into his he has underpinned my patio with reinforced concrete and down 80% the length of our garden where we meet. However, rather than building the retaining wall on his side of the fence he has dug under my side and put the wall on my side of the fence. in some places it is 50/50 and goes down the middle of the fence line but at least 1/2 is fully on my side. It's about 6" wide. In addition I had an armoured cable that was under the ground (it's bright yellow) but now it's been dug up and above ground from where he has built this wall. The fence which he has put back up is also moved in more my side in places. I tried to stop him several times and say I was not happy with it but he just continued regardless. Things have come to a head recently after I insisted he stopped his 1st floor extension as it was in breach of planning and was crossing the 45deg line and now we are not speaking. Q: How do I go about getting him to move this wall he has built under my property back over his side? I tried the planning people who said it was a civil matter. Looking into civil actions it looks like it just escalates until someone gives up or someone loses their house and the only real winners are the lawyers. Is there another option? Q: He has also destroyed the back of my garage area with large lorries driving over it and smashed 16 paving slabs and a concrete slope going up into my garage and turned it into a mud hole, how do I get him to pay/repair? Cheers Creamy.
what plans is he working to? Who authorised the plans? where was the planning permission given and by whom?
Have you got the plans? All plans are available from your local government planning portal. If he hasn't stuck to the approved plans then building control can't sign it off. Again, I would get professional advice sharpish.
I am no expert here but as already stated get GOOD legal representation ASAP and get things underway immediately. The longer you leave it the more chance there is of the job being signed off by local planning as for them it’s easier. But with the right push behind you and make the local planners dept life a misery you should get things you’re way ie he will have to make good any damages on your property, the cable should be buried as it was, and anything encroaching your property is taken down. Sorry to say it’s going to be unpleasant and costly, some might argue that if you’re thinking of moving in the not too distant future you might look at your options.
Many years ago I had a developer erect a very substantial fence about 2 meters into my property and across the length of my boundary. I won’t go into the details but I went and got a local surveyor to come and survey based on my plans in my deeds . Built a strong case against the developer and took them to small claims court. Other party declined to attend so the judge awarded to me . Go get advice.
That sounds like a horrible mess. From the actions your neighbour has already taken it appears that they aren't going to listen to reasonable requests to put it right. As said above, I believe that you will need legal advice on this. If the wall isn't on his agreed plans then I would expect it should be fairly straightforward to get the local planning office to take notice of that however it may need a solicitor to make them pay attention and actually do something about it. Hope it can be sorted soon.
Poor old George.. I hate this stuff and have had similar several times throughout my life. Not sure if this is an area @Zhed46 could comment on?
I recently sought the advice of an independent planning consultant to address a boundary issue I was/ am having. He drafted a letter of objection to the planning committee in such an eloquent and persuasive way, fingers crossed they won’t get the permission they are after. £500 well spent , fingers crossed.
It sounds like you really needed a proper Party Wall Agreement tbh but that's by the by now. Building on your side of the boundary is a trespass to land. Entering onto your land without permission is also a trespass. Damaging your paving slabs etc is, you've guessed it, also a trespass to the land* if you didn't give permission. If you did give permission then it is negligently inflicted damage to goods and/or breach of an implied term of the licence (permission). If debris and effluvia are being discharged onto your land then that is a "nuisance". All the above are actionable and your remedy is an injunction to prohibit the conduct and make good, plus damages. You should initially seek an interim injunction immediately but take advice first and don't try to do it yourself. I estimate a good 30% of my income comes from trying to unravel messes that litigants in person have got themselves into, which kind of baffles me, as people rarely try their hand at DIY dentistry, yet they seem to think that lawyering is child's play. If his works go beyond what he has planning permission for then inform the planning office as they have the power to issue a Planning Enforcement Notice requiring him to undo any works which exceed the PP. However, most planning depts are underfunded/overloaded and some no longer even serve PENs or prosecute breaches of them, or rather they do, but ÎME only if the subject of the notice has made a profit (eg: by renting an unlawfully converted flat) which they can seize under a POCA confiscation order. By coincidence I was in the Crown Court today running an abuse of process argument on behalf of a defendant charged with breach of a PEN where I was arguing amongst other things, that the local authority prosecution had an improper (financial) motive. I say "arguing" but unfortunately it never got off the ground because the court had forgotten to book an interpreter so the hearing couldn't go ahead. Also, my girlf is a planning officer/designer/architect so I will ask her what she thinks. * or alternatively trespass to goods, depending on how permanently the paving slabs are fixed to the land. I'm afraid that is spot on but unfortunately unless the guy agrees to your terms there is no way around it. If you do decide to apply for an injunction you need to act quickly as injunctions are an equitable remedy rather than available as of right, and delay (also known as "laches") is a defence or a reason for the judge not to exercise their discretion to grant one. Also, do not instruct a solicitor. Go direct to the Bar by way of instructing a barrister on a direct access basis. I am not going to slag off our sister profession on a public forum, but by instructing direct access counsel you cut out the middleman/woman, and barristers tend to be less expensive than sols because we don't have their overheads and we tend to work faster. Some cases are not suitable for direct access work and a sol is needed to eg: carry out investigations, manage voluminous documents during disclosure or if experts need to be instructed, or the client is disorganised or lacks sufficient cognitive capacity to deal with the management of their case, but you and your case sound suitable. Also, barristers tend to approach cases slightly differently to sols as to my mind they often spend far too long fannying around engaging in keyboard wars with their opposite number but never getting the matter into court. This is most likely because the office rather than the courtroom is their natural habitat, so they're a bit "trial shy" but all that willy waving correspondence is very wasteful of clients' time and money. Barristers on the other hand are creatures of the courtroom and so tend to prefer to crack on with it. Therefore if after a couple of stiff letters it is clear the case is not going to settle just yet, they won't waste any more of the client's time, money and energy and will advise them to now issue proceedings, as it shows intent, tends to focus minds and often actually promotes settlement because the other side then have to start spending proper money on short deadlines or risk judgement in default. FYI - until recently I was instructed very in a very similar case to this one but I managed to settle it bar some loose ends to be tied up at mediation a couple of weeks ago. My client had burned through 3 firms of sols and over £50k's worth of effing about before he went direct access (to me) in March, and not blowing my own trumpet too loudly, I've managed to do what none of the others could and have negotiated a very favourable settlement for him.
For trying to be neighbourly/helpful he has taken this as a sign of weakness. Can he build on a party wall with only a verbal agreement? If not, would the build need to be moved onto his side. You can claim you never agreed to the PWA.
