Neighbours....I just love them

So, our neighbours are knob heads to put it politely, just after we moved in they submitted a planning application to build a two story guest house on our boundary, so not only would it be two meters from our house it would also mean they would require constant access to our property until it had been built. We said no due to the height and close proximity to our house, the planning application was rejected.

On Friday evening we got home and found, our wall on our property had been knocked down all along side the house where they planned to build their house, there was a mass of scaffolding in our garden (and covering the only access point to the front of the house) and our wall was strewn everywhere.

The 1992 act allowing access isn't in our deeds for the house (aceness), so we have a breach of planning permission, damage to property and trespass.

We went to the council building yesterday, they'll deal with our complaint within four weeks...this is going to be fun...

More moaning to come!

I would be jumping up and down screaming Samuel not just moaning.

Hope you get things sorted out quickly.

Whose wall is it that was knocked down? If it is the boundary wall you are typically responsible for one side or other of the garden. If it is your wall you could always contact the insurance company and get them to press the issue, or maybe even the police for damage to your property. People can do a lot of things in 4 weeks!!

I'm assuming the scaffolding was on the floor rather than built up. Did it prevent access or was it just in the way?

Bastards! That's awful. Sorry I don't have any real words of wisdom as these people clearly have no respect and so words would probably be wasted on them. Really hope you get it sorted ASAP, having neighbours you don't get on with is really horrible as your home should be the place you can come back to and relax.

orc30 said:
Whose wall is it that was knocked down? If it is the boundary wall you are typically responsible for one side or other of the garden. If it is your wall you could always contact the insurance company and get them to press the issue, or maybe even the police for damage to your property. People can do a lot of things in 4 weeks!!

I'm assuming the scaffolding was on the floor rather than built up. Did it prevent access or was it just in the way?

It was our wall within our boundary (thankfully most bricks are intact so we wont have miss matched brick work when it is re-built). The scaffolding stops us using our entrance which is near our drive way, so now we have to walk all the way around the house, which is just garden, so you have to carry a push chair/the kids if you want them to have clean shoes. It is quite high, it reaches our upstairs hallway window.

Like this height wise, only it is longer, there are more diagonal bars on the under part as well, which is why we can't walk under it, the platform is a foot away from our house, but the scaffolding poles going horizontal are a few inches away.

If it was me I'd just go to the police. They are affectively trespassing, and have performed criminal damage. Plus I am sure that even if they get away with that they should not be blocking access to your property.

Hope you get it sorted!

Well, the police are now 5 days late...so today we took all the scaffolding down, as it was left on our property without permission we don't have to return it, I wonder how much scaffolding sells for...we have billed next door for our wall. We'll see if they accept it without hassle or not.

Any update on here then Samuel

Blimey! 😲

Hope you've got somewhere Samuel! I would assume the council aren't going to just let them build anyway, they are usually quite forceful on those sorts of things? Look at the guy in the news recently who tried to hide his house behind bales of hay, he had to take his down in the end!

We once had to apply for planning permission to convert our loft in our old house. Just for converting we had all sorts of conditions imposed and had to inform all neighbours of our intentions and give them the chance to object. We ended up moving in the end anyway!!

hope you can figure that out quickly!!

I hope you'll fix that soon, it's fun, but it's not that easy.. You have all the right because it's your property who've been knocked down.
And it's a serious case.

Goodluck.