# Neighbour blocking us plastering our wall



## Maria rh (7 Nov 2016)

We have almost completed a small extension at the back of our house. The side wall of our extension is right beside our boundary wall with our neighbour's. The wall was due to be plastered today and a gutter put on it but yesterday our neighbour spent the day drilling timber boards onto his side of the wall that are roughly about 1.5 feet over the boundary wall, bringing the height of the boundary to about 2 metre 40cm. At the side of our extension, the timber boards are up as far as the start of the roof. The roof is an a line roof, so I am worried that over time water from the roof flowing down onto the side of my unplastered wall without a gutter will cause damp on the inside of the wall. 
 This neighbor is very difficult to deal with. He has been abusive and threatening to the builders and has on several occasions in the past verbally abused both my children and me, as well as other neighbors. He has assaulted another neighbor and was convicted of that so there's no point trying to reason with him. Where do I stand regards any right of mine to finish the plastering and guttering at the side of my extension? thanks


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## Gerard123 (8 Nov 2016)

Hi. Not a pleasant sounding situation.

Did you speak to neighbour before extending and talk about the plastering?
Do you need to physically access the neighbours garden to plaster?


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## Maria rh (8 Nov 2016)

No we didn't speak to him before starting the building. He's very cross and unstable so the likelihood is he would have been very abusive if we had said anything. Ideally, if the builder could have plastered while accessing his garden but he said to them last week if anyone came into his garden , he was going to set his dog on them . The plastering was going to be done from the roof, it's a three metre wall but this is not possible now, not is it possible to put a gutter on.


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## Kimmagegirl (8 Nov 2016)

It sounds as if your gutters would have been overhanging your neighbours property?


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## Maria rh (8 Nov 2016)

We were planning on narrow gutters flush with the wall so that wouldn't happen.


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## elcato (8 Nov 2016)

What does the builder say ? Has he come up with any solution ?


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## Seagull (8 Nov 2016)

I thought the maximum height of boundary walls was 2 metres, and that anything over this required planning permission. Does the material have any impact on this?


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## Tintagel (8 Nov 2016)

There was a house in Mount Merrion that had an unplastered wall on one side. It was the ugliest thing ever. Eventually one of the houses was sold and after years the job was eventually finished.


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## Leo (8 Nov 2016)

Seagull said:


> I thought the maximum height of boundary walls was 2 metres, and that anything over this required planning permission. Does the material have any impact on this?



Yes, 2m limit applies to the back or side without planning, and this applies to brick/ block, metal or timber fences. Timber fixed inside his wall might be OK though, you are allowed put up trellising etc. to any height within your boundary. A call to the LA would confirm.


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## Leo (8 Nov 2016)

Maria rh said:


> Ideally, if the builder could have plastered while accessing his garden but he said to them last week if anyone came into his garden , he was going to set his dog on them



That really should have been worked out in advance, if your builders needed to cross the boundary to complete any of the work required, doing so without his explicit permission is trespassing. Given that there's already a history, you should have sought his agreement in advance by offering some form of sweetener, or made the builders aware of the situation and asked them to come up with a suitable solution that didn't require access. 



Maria rh said:


> Where do I stand regards any right of mine to finish the plastering and guttering at the side of my extension?



You have no such right if doing so requires access to your neighbour's property.


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