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Replacing boundary wall with side of house - neighbour issue


Adam2

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We have planning and building regs approval for our build. The design includes replacing a 2m part of a boundary wall with a single storey part of our new build. My understanding is that the boundary wall is ours and is on our land - deeds do not mention this at all but the wall in question extends along our plot whihc has boundaries with 4 houses' gardens which back onto the side of our plot and the wall is the same all the way down which I believe was built by the previous owner of our plot.

 

I just received a text from a neighbour whose garden backs on the boundary wall in the area where the house will be located saying that the wall can't be part of the house as it will not comply with building regs - I don't think this is correct as we have sign-off on the design and many properties of course are built up to the boundary line. There is no structure on the other side of the boundary within say 30m so I did not follow a party wall agreement approach. We have had good relations up to this point and I notified the neighbour of the plans to remove the wall, they would of course had the plans from the council also.

 

I wanted to check on anything I may have missed before going back to the neighbour with a response - I'm of course keen to keep things friendly but do wonder why she would have sent the text if it was not to frustrate the build process.

 

The wall in question is just below the "G" on the site plan. This section of an existing wall has been taken down and trench now poured. The wall continues then down the black dashed line.

 

 

 

image.png.d8821f1ad01db6b5ae67873b9a619f91.png

 

 

This is a pic of the wall and original house. New house is moved down the garden a couple of meters so now the side of the basement floor (semi basement really) forms the boundary wall

 

 

image.png.71fbcde9ee6909e76570e9855699d8e9.png

 

 

This is a pic of the wall as it continues down the garden, same construction as it passes by the other neighbour's back gardens.  

 

image.png.6fa50e1c73701f6eee68f327f795ac00.png

 

I did have another look at the party wall act booklet and my understanding is that building up to the boundary line (subject to no buildings on other side etc) is fine and I should notify my neighbour and advise when I will start but I do not need their permission/response to do so. I've kept them informed as we've progressed etc so think I've done what is necessary. The issue of course could be if in fact we do not own the wall or if it straddles the boundary line but I do not think this is the case though it is hard to prove either way I think if not mentioned on deeds. When the new wall is there it will be pretty much like before aside from it will be a bit higher though this is behind bushes/trees.

 

 

 

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Is the new wall in any way a retaining wall - this makes a difference. If the neighbour has only a building regs question then I would offer to get the BCO to set out the reason all is well so as to reassure them, if the BR things is a smoke screen for something else then you need to find out what the something else is before working out your strategy. Boundary disputes can go on and on so you might find a few searches of the Land Registry DB helps as your deeds may not show it but theirs, or someone else in the row, does.

 

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2 hours ago, Adam2 said:

 

I just received a text from a neighbour whose garden backs on the boundary wall in the area where the house will be located saying that the wall can't be part of the house as it will not comply with building regs


as per my post above, Yes you do have building regs approval, ask her which building regulation it falls foul of?

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3 hours ago, Adam2 said:

 

I just received a text from a neighbour whose garden backs on the boundary wall in the area where the house will be located saying that the wall can't be part of the house as it will not comply with building regs - I don't think this is correct as we have sign-off on the design and many properties of course are built up to the boundary line.

 

Sorry if you know this but...

 

You can build upto the boundary but nothing must overhang without the neighbours permission, so no gutters or roof verge tiles projecting over the boundary. Getting planning permission or building control approval does not change that.

 

 

 

Edited by Temp
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Wow thanks to you all for such speedy and helpful responses.

 

The wall in question will not have gutter etc as there is no roof over, above this is a terrace for the floor above (as per image). Possibly this is the real issue but this is not significantly different to what was there before & the neighbour did receive plans and raised a couple of points which we did address at that time. On that side we'll have obscure glazing 1.8m tall to avoid over-looking 

 

3 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Is the new wall in any way a retaining wall - this makes a difference.

The ground levels on either side are within about 30cm or so

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3 hours ago, Adam2 said:

saying that the wall can't be part of the house as it will not comply with building regs

 

Sounds like she hasn't realised you plan to replace that section of wall?

 

 

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Heights are a little difficult to tell as the ground on the neighbour's side is a bit built up with tree debris etc. Though the land does slope down from the wall to the neighbour's house so naturally I'd expect land on our side of the wall to be a little higher.

 

The neighbour's house is at the other end of their garden - our plots are at 90 degrees to each other so the wall is actually the rear boundary of their back garden - unlikely that they would intend to build in that location but building a single storey there wouldn't bother us I think.   

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16 minutes ago, LSL said:

Will you need access to her land to build that side?

 

Hi yes, we will - though we're building with ICF so the "build" part will be done from our side but we'll install cement board or similar that will be painted white to match with the rest of the boundary wall. I think we should be able to paint that before fixing in place. 

 

I've just heard back from the neighbour after explaining that we do have building regs approval and she just gave a thumbs up image so this may all have been just a neighbour hearing something from someone and passing it on to me in a helpful way   :-)

 

 

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