On Sat, 19 Mar 2011 14:40:22 +0000, Paul C
wrote:


Hi, I wonder if any one can offer guidance on a problem that I have with
a neighbour. A number of years ago we bought our house of a lady who
moved into the cottage next door. What we hadn't appreciated was that
she would (in our opinion) struggle to watch someone else do things
differently in her former property. We have a shared boundary and in the
past few years have experienced any number of issues with her apparent
disregard for that boundary.
On one part of the boundary fence we have a very well established
ceanothus which does not extend over fence into her garden but has grown
to about 18ins above the height of the fence. It also extends about 3 or
4 feet back into our garden. A couple of days ago I discovered that our
neighbour had used a power tool with a long handled extension to lean
over into our garden and cut away the shrub so that no part of it is
above the line of the fence. When I challenged her about it she said it
had been annoying her, when I pointed out that she had no right to do
that and would she please stop interfering with us and our garden she
simply said " what are you going to do about it" and "get a life".
Bearing in mind that this lady has a laurel hedge on the same boundary
fence that is at least 3 feet above the fence line and we have
absolutely no issue with it, we are struggling to understand why she
feels the need to do these things, but more importantly we just want her
to stop. It is only a hedge, and we don't want to " lose the plot" but
this is just one of a series of incidents and is beginning to get us
down. We have no interest in " tit for tat" activities but we do need to
do something to make this stop.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Paul

On the face of it, what she did was illegal, full stop. But given the
property history it may be that she was doing what she thought was
best and when you reacted she reacted against your reaction, if you
get the drift. It may be that her age is a factor, a combination of
the sort of mental deterioration we all hope we don't have to suffer
personally (but won't realise fully if we do!) and the mental attitude
of her generation that hates to see something not being just as she
thinks it should be. Maybe she hasn't fully accepted that she doesn't
own the property any more.

You mention that this is one in a series of incidents but don't go
into detaill so I'm only responding to the one you've now mentioned.

How well do you know her? If only as since buying the property it
would be worth "casually" chatting to neighbours to find out what
she's been like over time. Depending on the outcome, a friendly rather
than a confrontational approach might be the way forward. Or maybe (if
there are any) contact her son/daughter to chat about the situation
and seek their help.

Be very careful about taking things forward in a more formal way
(through solicitor etc.). Property disputes can be very troublesome
and, these days, can impact adversely should you come to sell the
house (particularly if she is still next door). Any recourse to
solicitors etc., should be an absolute last resort. Potentially you
could be talking about an injunction that you won't be able to hide
from a future purchaser of your home. And formal action could make
matters far worse than they are now.

That said, I would be worried about someone who might be "getting old
mentally" but who is physically fit enough to use (and owns) some
unspecified power tool!

Whatever you do, don't react on a "like for like" basis (e.g. by
cutting down the laurel) - you say you're not interested in this now
but if the frustration continues, it could become difficult to remain
not interested! But you must.

Jake