neighbour land grab!!

[george]

this is not strictly a diy question but il go on anyway somebody might know,i have noticed around my area people have constructed garden sheds with one side using the dividing wall (removed of course) between gardens as footings .This i thought was a bit of a land grab as the sheds obscure the light and the eaves project over the garden. however this has not personally bothered me until now but my mothers neighbour is planning the construction of a large shed using the dividing wall (which hes just knocked down) as footings.when i tackled him about it he said the wall is his responcibility and can do whatever he likes on it.is he within his rights to use this wall and isnt planning permission required for the construction of a large brick outbuilding ?

[Martin]

Try a quick phone call to the local planning office, it may also be worth checking the deeds as to who's wall it is (or was).

[Bob Eager]

If it comes under the Party Wall Act, it doesn't actually matter.

[IMM]

If he does not project his roof or gutters over your land then water will just drop over the wall onto your garden, which may waterlog it at certain times. Check this out with Building Control.

[Brian]

party walls.

If the wall is in sole ownership then no permission or notice is required to demolish it or even rebuild or maintain it.

If the wall is to be rebuilt or a building is to be constructed instead, then there are certain regulations under building control that will apply unless "Deemed to Satisfy" and a quick 'phone call to the building control department of the local authority will give an answer.

FWIW I have four boundary fences surrounding my property and according to my deeds three of them are solely mine.

Brian

[IMM]

[Bob Eager]

Yes...but it goes on to lay out appeal procedures, etc.

[<nightjar>]

That can be avoided by either sloping the roof away from the boundary or by using a parapet with a trough gutter behind it. Either way is, however, likely to take the boundary wall above the permitted 2 metres.

Colin Bignell

[IMM]

Permitted development says you can't build more than I think 3.5-4 meters to the apex. So if the boundary wall is the wall of the permitted development building, then not a boundary wall, then you can go higher than 2 metres. Or is that the case.

[<nightjar>]

development

It is still a boundary wall and cannot exceed 2 metres without planning permission. The fact that another regulation would allow it to be higher if it were not on the boundary is not relevant.

Colin Bignell

[Old Fart at Play]

In the interests of peace, assuming you want your own shed, why not both save money with a semi-detached one?

Roger.

[Terry]

Reminds of a case (probably USA) where a large building was built/extended adjacent to the building of a neighbour. As construction proceeded the neighbour found that it was intruding onto his property by a few inches. So he sued and won a ruling that the new construction had to be cut back by a few inches to avoid crossing his property line. The ruling was obeyed and the construction was cut back by about a foot. Some years later the neighbour also extended his building and built right up to the previuosly extended one that had caused the dispute. The first party waited until that construction had completed and then counter sued for the balance of the few inches of the foot previously cut back, that was on his property; and won! BTW I have a neighbour on one side who clips any branches of 'my' trees that project over the fence, which he owns incidentally, to a height of about six feet! AFIK in this jurisdiction he is completely within his rights. And maybe he doesn't want to shield his grass and a small vegetable garden any more than necessary; but he seems to be a bit rear exit orifice about it. Nothing to fight about anyway!