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danandally · Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 2

I have a boundary dispute with my neighbour.

My house was built in 1834 and was set in 6 acres. In 1958 most of the land was sold off for development. In 1964 plans were drawn up to build my neighbours house. The plans clearly show the garages for the 2 houses being attached (lengthways) and the same size. The boundary line being the joining wall between the two garages running in a straight line to the boundary corners. Although the garages are attached (as planned) my neighbours now extends about 5 feet at both the front and rear (not as planned). The rear of his garage has a 4 inch overhang into our back garden. His front garage extension, again about 5 feet, has no overhang. The land between the 2 properties is also at different levels tapering from about 6 inches at the front of the garages to about 3 feet at the rear. About 10 years ago (before I bought my property) my neighbour erected a fence that ran from the front of his garage for about 18 feet between the 2 drives. This fence is totally on his side of the boundary. The previous owner of my house then block paved our drive up to the fence. At the same time my neighbour converted his garage into a work shop from which he runs a business. It now has no access for a car and he just stores a trailer in front of it.

Now my neighbour has written to us saying that he intends to remove the fence and dig up 2 rows of our block paving to extend the width of his drive. He says that the boundary line is the edge of the overhang at the rear of his garage, not the party wall. He says he has spoken with a boundary surveyor who agrees with him that the 4 inch overhang must be the boundary line as building regulations would not have permitted this to be built in the first place.

He is complaining that his drive is too narrow to enable him to get out of his car. However, the couple only have one car which is not garaged (as they don’t have a garage) and there is ample room at the start of their drive for them to be able to get in and out of the car.

When we bought our house 4 years ago we had a full survey carried out. There was no mention within the survey that there was any issue with the boundary line or the construction of the garage.

My neighbour is being very intimidating and threatening. What are our legal rights? Is it worth the cost of fighting this?