Big Outbuilding In Neighbours Garden

[BlackZeD]

He must be good with wood, being that close, hows he gonna put the back on, unless hes using your fence.
It looks like any guttering would be on you property aswell.

Time for a couple of tons of concrete before the roof goes on

[TA14]

He may believe that he's just within the rules, esp if his ground is slightly higher than your ground: if you said that the double doors were 1.9m wide and high then the length would be 3x1.9=5.7 and at 5.2m wide that's just under 30m2, with 1.9m high doors plus 580mm for the mono-pitch roof is just under 2.5m. If he's just outside those dims he may think that he's got away with it...

[xstian]

Although its a bit close to the fence, its not that bad. He could have moved it 1 meter away from the fence and put the high part facing you and it would have been just as bad, if not worse.

In reality what are you really going to be able to do about it now? It might not be right, but it looks like he has built too much now to want to move it. Make sure he fits some guttering and directs the water away from you fence and put some trellis or something up and get on with enjoying your life.

[anonymous-user]

TA14 said:

He may believe that he's just within the rules, esp if his ground is slightly higher than your ground: if you said that the double doors were 1.9m wide and high then the length would be 3x1.9=5.7 and at 5.2m wide that's just under 30m2, with 1.9m high doors plus 580mm for the mono-pitch roof is just under 2.5m. If he's just outside those dims he may think that he's got away with it...

The ground is pretty level and I'm certain it's taller than 2.5m at the highest point. If you can make out the wire mesh fence in the background, that is the edge of a playing field and it runs the length of all the houses on this side of the road. I measured the height of it in our garden and it's at least 3m tall. The top of his roof is higher than this mesh fence.

xstian said:

Although its a bit close to the fence, its not that bad. He could have moved it 1 meter away from the fence and put the high part facing you and it would have been just as bad, if not worse.

In reality what are you really going to be able to do about it now? It might not be right, but it looks like he has built too much now to want to move it. Make sure he fits some guttering and directs the water away from you fence and put some trellis or something up and get on with enjoying your life.

What am I going to do? Firstly have a polite word with them, then get the council planners in to check and if they say it's fine I'll let the matter drop, plant some hedges and carry on with things.

If the council pull him up on anything, then he'll be the one who has to worry about what to do, not me. I'd rather it was as you said; further away and with the high part facing. That way we wouldn't have the entire pitch of the roof to look at.

An important factor is the complete lack of manners. We've seen him out there sawing and chopping and he's looked up (and quickly dived out of view again) and not once did he casually mention his plans. Even if the structure turn out exactly the same we wouldn't have minded so much had we have known, but to build something that imposing so close to your dividing fence and not acknowledge it is bad form.

Edited by abitlikefiennes on Tuesday 26th May 20:39

[xstian]

abitlikefiennes said:

TA14 said:

He may believe that he's just within the rules, esp if his ground is slightly higher than your ground: if you said that the double doors were 1.9m wide and high then the length would be 3x1.9=5.7 and at 5.2m wide that's just under 30m2, with 1.9m high doors plus 580mm for the mono-pitch roof is just under 2.5m. If he's just outside those dims he may think that he's got away with it...

The ground is pretty level and I'm certain it's taller than 2.5m at the highest point. If you can make out the wire mesh fence in the background, that is the edge of a playing field and it runs the length of all the houses on this side of the road. I measured the height of it in our garden and it's at least 3m tall. The top of his roof is higher than this mesh fence.

xstian said:

Although its a bit close to the fence, its not that bad. He could have moved it 1 meter away from the fence and put the high part facing you and it would have been just as bad, if not worse.

In reality what are you really going to be able to do about it now? It might not be right, but it looks like he has built too much now to want to move it. Make sure he fits some guttering and directs the water away from you fence and put some trellis or something up and get on with enjoying your life.

What am I going to do? Firstly have a polite word with them, then get the council planners in to check and if they say it's fine I'll let the matter drop, plant some hedges and carry on with things.

If the council pull him up on anything, then he'll be the one who has to worry about what to do, not me. I'd rather it was as you said; further away and with the high part facing. That way we wouldn't have the entire pitch of the roof to look at.

An important factor is the complete lack of manners. We've seen him out there sawing and chopping and he's looked up (and quickly dived out of view again) and not once did he casually mention his plans. Even if the structure turn out exactly the same we wouldn't have minded so much had we have known, but to build something that imposing so close to your dividing fence and not acknowledge it is bad form.

Edited by abitlikefiennes on Tuesday 26th May 20:39

By all means have a quick chat with him about it, but if he refuses to move it, you can't win. If you report him to the council and he has to take it down, you are going to fall out with him. If the council say it is OK and can stay, you will still fall out with him.

The part about getting on with enjoying your life, a unfriendly neighbour can soon put a stop to that. I'm sure there are some people on here who can tell you some stories about bad neighbours.

[Zato]

Be nice. My old neighbour was a tosser. Gave up in the end and moved.

[blade7]

BlackZeD said:

He must be good with wood, being that close, hows he gonna put the back on, unless hes using your fence.

He's taking the fence down to make space for his decking .

[CorradoTDI]

Andehh said:

Ask them if you can stick a gutter on it & direct it back towards them, suggest large water butt or some such? That'd remove one problem/ Then look to put trellis on your fence some large plants?

It's so close the gutter will either be sitting on or overhanging the fence - can't be legal surely?

Who owns the fence?? I'd be tempted to raise the end part of the fence to the same height as the rest but you might not be able too once the roof's on.

[blueg33]

In terms of roof water draining from the shed into the Op's property, unless the title makes a provision for it, it is generally not legal to drain water onto someone else's property (its a form of trespass) so there may be a remedy if damage ensues

[SAB888]

The first thing I'd do is check with Planning and Building Control to see if the LA are aware of the structure and whether it has been approved. There certainly seems to be several areas that may be problematic. The rainwater gutter looks like it may be over at least part of the boundary fence.

[anonymous-user]

xstian said:

By all means have a quick chat with him about it, but if he refuses to move it, you can't win. If you report him to the council and he has to take it down, you are going to fall out with him. If the council say it is OK and can stay, you will still fall out with him.

The part about getting on with enjoying your life, a unfriendly neighbour can soon put a stop to that. I'm sure there are some people on here who can tell you some stories about bad neighbours.

Having thought about it, as they didm;t have the courtesy to mention it to us, I'm going to skip the chat part too. He wasn't going to move it on my say so. I've contacted the council planners - they can pay him a visit.

If they say it's fine that's okay with me, I won't harbour any ill feelings but I may reserve the right to think they were a bit rude in assuming they could go ahead without thinking their neighbours might have thoughts on the matter.

They are an odd couple anyway, we say hello if we pass in the street but that's all. Certainly not a couple who's friendship I am bothered about.

CorradoTDI said:

It's so close the gutter will either be sitting on or overhanging the fence - can't be legal surely?

Who owns the fence?? I'd be tempted to raise the end part of the fence to the same height as the rest but you might not be able too once the roof's on.

The boundary is ours on that side so we can do what we like.. I'm interested to see how he's going to tackle the back wall and guttering.

[Gafferjim]

CorradoTDI said:

It's so close the gutter will either be sitting on or overhanging the fence - can't be legal surely?

My own garage is right on the boundry line between myself and my next door neighbour, and his garage which is offset down the boundry line between him and my garden also is on the boundry line. So much so, that where the garages are, they become part of the fence ,both garages would drain onto each others land (his driveway from mine & my garden from his) but they have passed planning & building regs, and have gutters that take the surface water back onto our respective sides.
So, as long as it passes the required regs / permissions applicable to it, it certainly can be right next to your fence (with gutters!)

Edited by Gafferjim on Wednesday 27th May 07:51

Edited by Gafferjim on Wednesday 27th May 07:51

[Evolved]

Some neighbours can be a complete nightmare. My previous were and this is exactly the sort of thing they would do.

[xstian]

In my last house 2 neighbours a few doors down, had a dispute about where one of them kept there wheelie bin. This ended up in the police being called twice, because it broke out into a brawl. One of them got head butted and had to spend the afternoon in A&E. The other one then tried to poison there cat and horse. There is constant arguing and swearing at each other, including abusive language and threats to each others wives. They have both ended up with police cautions and one is now trying to sell there house.

These guys are in there 40/50's and live in a small row of cottages. One of them I know quite well and is a nice chap. Him and his misses rescue and care neglected animals, hence why they have a horse.

[anonymous-user]

Gafferjim said:

So, as long as it passes the required regs / permissions applicable to it,[/b] it certainly can be right next to your fence (with gutters!)

It can be right next to the fence if it's under a certain height, a certain square footage and not made of combustable materials (which this is). I feel that this fails on at least 1 of those points.

[DavidY]

abitlikefiennes said:

Having thought about it, as they didm;t have the courtesy to mention it to us, I'm going to skip the chat part too. He wasn't going to move it on my say so. I've contacted the council planners - they can pay him a visit.

If they say it's fine that's okay with me, I won't harbour any ill feelings but I may reserve the right to think they were a bit rude in assuming they could go ahead without thinking their neighbours might have thoughts on the matter.

They are an odd couple anyway, we say hello if we pass in the street but that's all. Certainly not a couple who's friendship I am bothered about.

That's just sinking to the lowest common denominator level, be the bigger person, go and talk to them. It can't make the situation worse, but it can make it better.

[guindilias]

Just have a cheery conversation with him about it, saying how good it is to have the old outbuilding back again - "The last owner had one, in fact I think he had seven or eight over the years - we never did work out how they kept going on fire..."

[paulrockliffe]

Gafferjim said:

So, as long as it passes the required regs / permissions applicable to it, it certainly can be right next to your fence (with gutters!)

Neither planning or regs would look at the legal rights over the land. They wouldn't even check that the neighbour owned the garden, let alone anything more complicated.

[anonymous-user]

A word is needed after all I feel. I've been able to measure it today.

It's a shade over 5m deep and at least 10m in width. There are 6 x 1.7m doors on the side plus an additional 30cm worth of beams.

He's laid slabs inside for the base too.

[Alex@POD]

abitlikefiennes said:

Gafferjim said:

So, as long as it passes the required regs / permissions applicable to it,[/b] it certainly can be right next to your fence (with gutters!)

It can be right next to the fence if it's under a certain height, a certain square footage and not made of combustable materials (which this is). I feel that this fails on at least 1 of those points.

Actually, it doesn't fail on anything, not yet anyway. The rules state that if it is over a certain size, close to your boundary and made of principally combustible materials, then building regs apply. That just means he has to board the inside in fireproof materials and provide big enough doors to escape, that kind of thing. It doesn't mean it's going to be illegal.