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Neighbour Stacking Stuff Against My House


Stutopia

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I moved into my house about 10 month ago, met the neighbour and had a chat all was well. I noticed he'd piled a load of stuff against the side of my house - covering an area of brickwork about 6 square meters. My house is detached but there's a path on his property which runs against my house, my gable end is effectively the property border and his storage location of choice. I initially had no objection to him storing all this stuff, ladders, some wood various other items as he told he was cleaning out/renovating and it was going to be moved, but so far as I can tell, not one item has moved in the last 10 months.

 

Ordinarily this wouldn't bother me in the least, but when my kitchen was replaced recently I noticed that wall suffered from a touch of damp, which has been addressed, my concern is that the crap he's got piled against it is restricting air flow and my damp will come back.

 

Naturally I've googled this, but all the results seem to be people whingeing about fences. I don't care what he lays against the fence as it won't do any damage, or if it does it will be cheap enough to remedy, but the house, on the other hand, could be expensive to sort.

 

Now I know the sensible way to deal with neighbour issues is to just politely ask if he could stop pilling this crap against my house, but I'd sooner know if he has the right to do so before I politely ask him to shift it. Anyone know from experience or profession what the rules are?

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Of course he has no right at all to do so: imagine if there was a fence there, he couldn’t do it at all then. No real difference in theory. 

 

Go and ask him to move it, job done. If he’s a **** about it then move it yourself. 

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That would only add fuel to the fire Dan - going onto a neighbour's land without permission is a recipe for trouble.

 

The damp issue is only likely to occur if materials like earth/brick debris is breaching the damp proof course.  That said, if the neighbour does not respond to a further, polite, request to stop piling things up against the wall then I would suggest Stu contacts his solicitor - as a letter from him to the neighbour should have the desired effect.

 

IMHO of course.....

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Inform your neighbour you've seen some questionable yoofs hanging around recently. Wait a couple of days. When he goes out, take the pile of crap to the dump. When neighbour returns, blame it on the yoofs.

 

If you want to hero of this story, save a couple of the items he might want to keep, tell him you chased off the yoofs who were helping themselves to his crap, "but look what I rescued for you.. it would probably be best if you don't store it there any more. You know, in case the yoofs come back...". ;)

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Have you checked your deeds? There may be a path but I suspect the border will be in the centre of it. I live in a detached bungalow with my drive on the right hand side of my house. It looks like the whole drive is mine but it is not. The property on my right owns the first meter if I look at the deeds and I own the first meter of the drive on the house on my left. When you think about it has to be like that otherwise how could my neighbour maintain his wall without being on my property?

Anyway. The stuff against your house is not good.

When rain hits a brick wall the brick absorbs the water. Don't be fooled by water repellent snake oil etc. This is the way houses have been successfully built for 100s of years with no problems. When it stops raining the brick dries out.

You get problem's when you do something that makes the brickwork experiences more dampness that the architect expected.

Thing like a continually dripping gutter or blocked downpipes, broken tiles or missing slates.

If you have stuff stacked against the wall you are going to get splashing, trapped water and lack of airflow for drying the brickwork.

I would have him move it. I would not be confrontational because the last thing you want is friction with your neighbours.

I would say something like "I have just had a kitchen fitted and noticed a bit of damp. The damp fixing guy suggested it might be because of me stacking stuff against the external brickwork. Any chance you can stack your sh**e against your own house?

 

In the nicest possible way if you get my drift.

Check your deeds before hand in case this does not work so you have something to go forward. Its easy to do.

TBH regardless of what the deeds say, even if he owns the land right to your brickwork its definitely your wall. Does your roof line not overhang his land then? Seems to be an un-lightly situation to me.

 

Be cool but defo get it sorted and check your gutters etc. as well.

 

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Be glad you don't have my neighbour. I took a load of old crap out of my house and put it in the yard to the side, which is my property, until I got a skip. Came grumbling that rats were on the scene and it made the area look untidy. I never knew rats were into old bits of wood, plaster board and electrical equipment. Council contacted me.

Edited by TT350
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all I can say is that with people like this you will never resolve things the nice way,I'd say punch him right in the face but that would just bring other complications :lol:,go down the hard way on him, sounds like he is a total as' anyway

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3 hours ago, SuperStu said:

In other news, he’s just objected to my dream garage build. :cry:

 

All I’ve done since I moved in is be pleasant to him.

Can you not erect one of those gazebo type car-ports without permission? Just make a remark along the lines of if you cant have a garage this eye-sore will have to do instead. See if they change their tune.

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10 hours ago, Sargara said:

Can you not erect one of those gazebo type car-ports without permission? Just make a remark along the lines of if you cant have a garage this eye-sore will have to do instead. See if they change their tune.

 

But has planning been rejected? I had 2 objections from neighbours (we have 6 properties that share boundaries with our house/plot) but planning was still granted so I have my fingers crossed for @SuperStu   :thumbs:

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Keyser said:

 

But has planning been rejected? I had 2 objections from neighbours (we have 6 properties that share boundaries with our house/plot) but planning was still granted so I have my fingers crossed for @SuperStu   :thumbs:

 

 

Cheers mate. It’s not been rejected, so fingers crossed.

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On a more serious note, on what grounds has he objected?

 

I have found from life experiences that communication is key.

 

Talk to your neighbours and find out what their fears are with your planning application and give them the assurances that they require.

 

Might be worth delaying the rubbish issue until a later date.

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45 minutes ago, ZMANALEX said:

On a more serious note, on what grounds has he objected?

 

I have found from life experiences that communication is key.

 

Talk to your neighbours and find out what their fears are with your planning application and give them the assurances that they require.

 

Might be worth delaying the rubbish issue until a later date.

Yeah, don’t worry, the fire/shooting is more like a plan B.

 

His objections are something to do with one of my outhouses being against a retaining wall which he assumes will immediately collapse if it gets knocked down, despite the other 300m of wall not being supported by a shed and not having fallen over. Something about the previous owner having dug a pit in the existing garage causing his cellar to flood, which is ironic as that will be filled in as part of this proposed work.

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3 hours ago, ZMANALEX said:

I have found from life experiences that communication is key.

 

Talk to your neighbours and find out what their fears are with your planning application and give them the assurances that they require.

I thought exactly this too.....until i discussed my planning application with 5 neighbours before submitting it to the council to see if they had any concerns or objections, none did, the moment it went in, one complained, it was refused so i went to them again and suggested i was going to amend the plans and resubmit and now was the time to highlight any issues or concerns, she didnt and complained again. 

 

The plans were approved though and she hasnt spoke to me since, the upside is any objections have to be valid and detrimental to be upheld in most cases, loss of light etc, so imho now, f*** em.

 

I wouldnt bother trying to communicate Stu, the council will only uphold any valid claims anyway, you may need to get a structural engineers report on said wall or even have to follow their measures if they do recommend a course of action for its integrity, it may be best to get that report now and submit it with your application dismissing his complaint, rather than them "possibly" refusing in the first instance and requiring you get that report for them to grant approval. The planning department love info, if a qualified professional confirms its fine or makes a recommendation, job done, complaint answered and ignored!

Edited by Jetpilot
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