Neighbour's Son living in 'shed' at end of garden
Discussion
Hello all,
After a bit of advice on where we stand regarding a slightly strange situation.
We've recently bought a house and during the viewings we could see there was a corrugated iron outbuilding at the end of next doors garden that was well hidden by hugely overgrown hedging and trees (growing on our side of the boundary).
We've just removed the out of control hedging and trees and replaced them with standard 6ft fencing and it's now very obvious the neighbours son (a mid 30's Rab C. Nesbitt is the easiest way to describe him) is living in the corrugated iron outbuilding.
What first alerted us was the stench of urine when you get anywhere near the building. It appears he fills up numerous bottles during the day / night and then pours them out of the back window onto a paved area once full. What's worse is our children's play area is adjacent to his shed.
It would appear he has all the mod cons in there including sky/freeview tv (the dish is attached to a tree just outside).
Apart from the obvious 'go round and have a word' it would be good to know where we stand in such a situation. As he was already in situ before we moved in and exposed his little hovel with our landscaping efforts I expect it's going to be difficult to resolve the problem amicably. I imagine someone who lives in a shed also has a limited grasp on what's fair and reasonable.
His parents are elderly and it *may* be that they're claiming some form of benefit based on it being only them living at the address, or maybe not. That could be our ace card should it be true and all other options have been exhausted.
We're not looking to cause any trouble (yet...) but it just seems having to have a conversation along the lines of "please can you tell your mid 30 year old son to stop pouring bottles of piss out of his shed onto a patio" really shouldn't be something anyone needs to do.
Does the PH collective have any advice on how best to approach the situation? I'm assuming if there's someone living full time in an outbuilding it needs to comply with some kind of building regs? It's a pretty old and rusty looking thing so it's clearly been there a number of years.
A discreet call the council is the obvious answer but I'd ideally like to go in armed with knowledge on what rules (if any) are being broken.
The best outcome would be a demolition order without them knowing it was us who started it all but it's highly unlikely that'll happen!
Any advice gratefully received...
After a bit of advice on where we stand regarding a slightly strange situation.
We've recently bought a house and during the viewings we could see there was a corrugated iron outbuilding at the end of next doors garden that was well hidden by hugely overgrown hedging and trees (growing on our side of the boundary).
We've just removed the out of control hedging and trees and replaced them with standard 6ft fencing and it's now very obvious the neighbours son (a mid 30's Rab C. Nesbitt is the easiest way to describe him) is living in the corrugated iron outbuilding.
What first alerted us was the stench of urine when you get anywhere near the building. It appears he fills up numerous bottles during the day / night and then pours them out of the back window onto a paved area once full. What's worse is our children's play area is adjacent to his shed.
It would appear he has all the mod cons in there including sky/freeview tv (the dish is attached to a tree just outside).
Apart from the obvious 'go round and have a word' it would be good to know where we stand in such a situation. As he was already in situ before we moved in and exposed his little hovel with our landscaping efforts I expect it's going to be difficult to resolve the problem amicably. I imagine someone who lives in a shed also has a limited grasp on what's fair and reasonable.
His parents are elderly and it *may* be that they're claiming some form of benefit based on it being only them living at the address, or maybe not. That could be our ace card should it be true and all other options have been exhausted.
We're not looking to cause any trouble (yet...) but it just seems having to have a conversation along the lines of "please can you tell your mid 30 year old son to stop pouring bottles of piss out of his shed onto a patio" really shouldn't be something anyone needs to do.
Does the PH collective have any advice on how best to approach the situation? I'm assuming if there's someone living full time in an outbuilding it needs to comply with some kind of building regs? It's a pretty old and rusty looking thing so it's clearly been there a number of years.
A discreet call the council is the obvious answer but I'd ideally like to go in armed with knowledge on what rules (if any) are being broken.
The best outcome would be a demolition order without them knowing it was us who started it all but it's highly unlikely that'll happen!
Any advice gratefully received...
Edited by eeeeeeeeee on Friday 4th July 11:59
I would just politely go and say that there is a bad smell in the garden, skirt round it, look a bit embarassed and say it smells like urine and that you think perhaps there may have a cracked drain on one of our properties. Say you are going to get someone in to check it but thought you would mention it first.
Give no indication of knowing that there is a hermitage in the garden, hopefully they will get him to stop his disgusting toilet habits.
Then, leave it a bit, couple of months and tip off the council .
Give no indication of knowing that there is a hermitage in the garden, hopefully they will get him to stop his disgusting toilet habits.
Then, leave it a bit, couple of months and tip off the council .
Sorry for the wail link but it seems it's frowned upon.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040486/Ha...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040486/Ha...
russ_a said:
Sorry for the wail link but it seems it's frowned upon.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040486/Ha...
Apparently there is an epidemic of this down south, all the Poles end up renting one off landlords after a quick buck.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040486/Ha...
I can see if it was well shielded in terms of privacy and it didnt smell, I personally wouldn't be all that bothered but having a stinking slob sprinkling his piss everywhere is just not on.
The price that 'shed' would have cost would have gone a very good way to a house deposit.
As for the OP. A chat to the neighbour is obviously the first thing to do but I get the feeling it won't get you far. I wouldn't shy around the fact that it stinks. Be open and honest about what you think with them.
As for the OP. A chat to the neighbour is obviously the first thing to do but I get the feeling it won't get you far. I wouldn't shy around the fact that it stinks. Be open and honest about what you think with them.
send an anonymous letter from a neighbour a few doors away stating that you're aware of the problem as are others and that this letter is a friendly representing the collective interests of a few concerned folks and that the next one will go to the council, police etc if they dont cease to cause a nuisance
if it doesnt stop then step it up with the relevant bodies
if it doesnt stop then step it up with the relevant bodies
Sounds like he's been there a while, he's clearly bonkers.
A polite conversation is going to achieve one of two things, you'll get told to sod off & mind your own business or, they'll nod & agree ever so politely & say they'll deal with it. Do you really believe they will?
Get onto Environmental Health immediately & let them deal with it, if the neighbours are elderly you may not have to worry about bad relations with them long term!
A polite conversation is going to achieve one of two things, you'll get told to sod off & mind your own business or, they'll nod & agree ever so politely & say they'll deal with it. Do you really believe they will?
Get onto Environmental Health immediately & let them deal with it, if the neighbours are elderly you may not have to worry about bad relations with them long term!
mike-r said:
If it's on your land burn it down when he's out and plead ignorance.
Thread noticeably short of PH answers. Obligation now fulfilled.
Edit: realised it's on your neighbour's land. Answer remains the same.
Funny you should say that - now that the huge hedge has been replaced with fencing it's very obvious the shed is on what used to be 'our' land. It appears what they did was line the side of the shed up with our facing side of the hedging. As the hedging was planted in our garden and had spread to be so wide they were well over the boundary, but clearly that shows the level of intelligence we're going to have to deal with. (We're obviously aware that as the shed was there when we bought the house and there are no definitive OS maps showing the exact dimensions of the garden it's not worth fussing about. The garden is big enough so we've simply fenced around it.)Thread noticeably short of PH answers. Obligation now fulfilled.
Edit: realised it's on your neighbour's land. Answer remains the same.
Edited by mike-r on Friday 4th July 12:50
If it looked as good as the shed in that DM article it wouldn't be quite as bad. The shed in question has a certain shanty vibe going on.
Environmental Health could be a good option. I assume they would feed back any interesting findings to the council for them to follow up?
eeeeeeeeee said:
Funny you should say that - now that the huge hedge has been replaced with fencing it's very obvious the shed is on what used to be 'our' land. It appears what they did was line the side of the shed up with our facing side of the hedging. As the hedging was planted in our garden and had spread to be so wide they were well over the boundary, but clearly that shows the level of intelligence we're going to have to deal with. (We're obviously aware that as the shed was there when we bought the house and there are no definitive OS maps showing the exact dimensions of the garden it's not worth fussing about. The garden is big enough so we've simply fenced around it.)
If it looked as good as the shed in that DM article it wouldn't be quite as bad. The shed in question has a certain shanty vibe going on.
Environmental Health could be a good option. I assume they would feed back any interesting findings to the council for them to follow up?
Your deeds don't show your boundaries on an overhead plan? Are you sure?If it looked as good as the shed in that DM article it wouldn't be quite as bad. The shed in question has a certain shanty vibe going on.
Environmental Health could be a good option. I assume they would feed back any interesting findings to the council for them to follow up?
No way that is "fit for human habitation"
http://www.havering.gov.uk/Pages/Services/Housing-... (most councils seem to have a similar link)
http://www.havering.gov.uk/Pages/Services/Housing-... (most councils seem to have a similar link)
The house was built in 1902 and from what I remember seeing during the purchase process the only OS maps showed the boundaries but not in sufficient detail to work out the exact width of the plot.
Both our gardens appear to be the same width up to where the shed is, then ours gets mysteriously thinner. It's just one of the joys of old plots originally all separated by hedging I guess.
Both our gardens appear to be the same width up to where the shed is, then ours gets mysteriously thinner. It's just one of the joys of old plots originally all separated by hedging I guess.
Isn't this a planning issue as much as anything else? You could try contacting the Planning Enforcement Team at your local authority. It is frowned upon generally.
The urine dumping would definitely be an Environmental Health issue.
Not sure what you can do about the boundary if you have no definitive records.
You could contact planning, they are quite hot on this kind of thing and will send someone out pretty quickly. I had an issue with my neighbours carport at the bottom of their garden, which apparently is a temporary structure despite being there for 12 years and someone was round within a week.
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff