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.
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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