# One of those boundary issues (pics attached)



## tenifan (4 Oct 2020)

Pics attached, comments welcome.

I moved into a house in 2016. It previously belong to my gran but had been rented out for some time when she passed away.

While my gran was in a nursing home or shortly after her funeral (2012/2013) a new neighbour -a newly retired couple who were already very disliked in the area- increased the height of the boundary garden wall and it just went under the radar of my parents. The wall is likely on my neighbour's "side" but the pier is almost definitely on my side.
The wall blew over way before this and my gran's old neighbour did not have the money to fix it, so my gran had my brother reuse the bricks and buy a few more to add piers and do a quick job to rebuild it and make it safer (and extended the height by 1 block/20cm for part of the wall). I don't know why it was built on her side but the height and the fact it was rebuilt was agreed between her and her neighbour.
The wall continue to be on the neighbours side, but the piers 50-50 between both properties (this is my assumption of where the wall stands)

The work the new neighbour did was probably done 8 years ago. The work he did was simple... a smash and grab. No work done on the foundations or structure.. He just increased the height of part of his wall and what i assume is my pier from 190cm to 240cm by slapping blocks on top. He increased the back of his flatroof shed to 330cm by adding a pitch that ran back to front and this was just to block a view of his garden from my upstairs as it added no utility to his shed. It blocks my light in the kitchen in the morning.

It will probably stand for the rest of his days, as walls usually do, but it's not a nice wall and I really resent how he went about things, and I could kick myself for not talking action when I could even 2 years ago when the 7 year rule was in effect (truth be told, i knew nothing about this law). When I moved in the place was a dump but I spent a lot of time and money doing it up and it's a shame to see such an ugly wall and shady garden, and no light in the kitchen.

The length of my back garden is 15m so it's basically... [  5m of wall at 175cm ] [ 5 m of wall at 240cm  ] [ 5m of shed wall at 330cm ] [ then my house ]

So what do I want..

Well ideally I'll have a chat with him.

He'll permit me to get my builder to lower all the walls to an even 175cm across, cap them, repair the piers and cement, plaster my side, and i'd just have to suck up the horrible 330cm shed that i can't do anything about (no point forcing him to lower it by a foot, and of course i can't really prove right-to-light that would force him to reduce it any further - my solicitor said it's probably a non-runner.)

That would be a low cost option but I know my neighbour would never agree willingly.

An option I would consider if I can't get a resolution through talking would be to get an engineer's report (€500?) that would (hopefully) say a wall in such a state of repair is not safe at that height and recommend remedial work. I could undertake the work on my side, even removing the too-high bricks in the pier on my side, and any other work to make safe the wall - on my side. The report might even recommend a max height without serious work to the foundations, and it may prevent the drilling of fencing to it that would increase its weight or cause wind to blow it over. Any addition would require both party's agreement and possibly planning permission.

So at that stage, ... Without planning he doesn't have any legal right to the lofty 240cm just because he quickly and illegally added a handful of blocks under the cover of darkness-even if it was done 8 years ago. He doesn't have grounds for retention to something that is dangerous and was never in a proper state of repair.

And just maybe... an engineer report would identify structural issues to the 330cm single pitch , kingspan and metal roof shed. (The ground may be higher on his side-it definitely is in his garden somehow- but it's on the boundary and 330cm at my side)
If I could prove that, in an engineers opinion - the weight he added meant the shed that runs right along my property was no longer structurally sound, .... If I could get a court order to compel him to take remedial works, not only would he require planning to bring it back to 330cm - it would possibly give me the opportunity to object to running the pitch the way he did when he could have went from left-to-right without taking so much light from my garden and kitchen window.

So.. I know a lot of people will say so long has passed and I have no business to object now. But this guy.. he did wrong and having already missed out on the 7 year rule, I don't want to miss out on statute of limitations too. The wall is a mess and really, the main thing I want is a 6ft, clean, safe wall running the length of my garden. I spent 60k renovating my home and i don't mind spending another 5k getting this thing sorted but I want to keep it out of court for obvious reasons. His shed at a more reasonable height would be the icing on the cake.


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## Bronte (4 Oct 2020)

How do you know he put up blocks at nighttime?


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## tenifan (4 Oct 2020)

What's the relevance of your question?


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## Leo (5 Oct 2020)

tenifan said:


> What's the relevance of your question?



There's often a lot more to a story than is laid out in a single post, people pick up on different detail in their attempts to grasp the bigger picture. You decided to add the detail about the work being done in the dark, so I presume you felt it was relevant.


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## tenifan (5 Oct 2020)

Just a funny thing to pick up on given the rest of the detail I included.
I didn't literally mean it was dark. I meant it was done when no one was watching, without agreement, without planning, all very clandestine in my view.


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## kceire (5 Oct 2020)

Shed height exemption is 3m so you most likely can’t make him lower it at all. 
wall height limit is 2m with planning so you have some grounds there.


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## NoRegretsCoyote (6 Oct 2020)

tenifan said:


> was done when no one was watching, without agreement,



People generally don't sell tickets to building sites. If the house was empty and the owner recently deceased then who would they seek agreement from?

I have no idea of the legalities here. I just know that you have to live beside these people for a long time.

I would be pretty ticked off if my neighbours came to me (legally or otherwise) complaining about a wall I had built eight years ago and before they had even moved in. 

If you feel this strongly just move house.


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## Monbretia (6 Oct 2020)

The wall does look ugly but to be honest I would like this level of privacy from my neighbour!  This is of course assuming it is structurally sound, if it is I'd get it plastered, it will look much better and you could either paint it or leave it alone or put up a few pieces of trellis etc

I actually increased the height of my shed for a similar reason, to block the upstairs window from next door looking right into my kitchen, now it's a wooden shed but against the boundary, it did actually give me more room in there as you can put tall shelving units on the high side and fit way more stuff.   It doesn't block their light as sun shines from opposite side and it was actually the building of their house blocked my light/sunshine in  that window but such is life as it's not protected!


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## Purple (6 Oct 2020)

That's one seriously ugly wall. 
tenifan, I suggest you paint his shed wall white and, more importantly, the opposite wall white. That way you'll get some reflected light into your kitchen in the morning. 

But that wall... really ugly.


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## tenifan (6 Oct 2020)

NoRegrets, i dont' feel strongly enough to move house but I feel strongly enough to see if I can protect the value of my property. Bit of context, he knows my mother as he moved from just up the street. 
Monbretia, exactly.. he did it to block the view from upstairs. But it is right outside my kitchen window. If he wanted more shelving, he could have ran the pitch the other way (left to right instead of front to back)... but that would have blocked all sunlight to his kitchen! 
Purple, good idea about painting the wall white.

Where I'm at.. my builder recommends an engineer report and take it from there. 

If the report shows everything is sound, i'll just end up squaring the piers and plastering the wall (with neighbour's permission) and calling it a day.

I'll ask him to reduce his additions to the wall and I believe I have a legal right to do that as part of it is on my side. If that doesn't work, I'll see if I can get an engineer report saying the top blocks are unstable- without planning, he cannot legally repair/rebuilt it, so they'd be coming down. 
I'll choose my battles. It may be we compromise that he allows me to lower the wall, and in return I don't pursue his shed.


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## Leo (6 Oct 2020)

tenifan said:


> If he wanted more shelving, he could have ran the pitch the other way (left to right instead of front to back)... but that would have blocked all sunlight to his kitchen!



Shelving over a door  wouldn't be as functional as that on a back wall of a shed. Then you'd have the problem with the rain falling into your property, or need guttering on your side.

Some guidance on boundary disputes here.


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