Council tenant neighbour claiming ownership of fence and boundary

ShotInTheAss86 · 17 Sep 2019 at 14:24

Annoying council tenant at the rear of our property has this morning decided to climb on to something to perch over the fence and cut all our bird feeders off the fence and throw them into our garden, breaking most of them and spreading all the seed etc all over the place. The feeders were attached with string and a single staple on our side of the fence panel.

This isn't the first time she has claimed to own the fence and told us that we cant grow anything next to it or up it. Last year she lifted the panels up and climbed underneath and then started spraying paint on the panels and all our fruit and veg we had growing in the bed below. Went outside and told her to get off my property only to get load of lip.

I've checked the deeds from when I purchased the house back in 2016 and it shows a T on both sides on this boundary. Does that mean this boundary and subsequent fence is 100% my responsibility and nothing to do with her? the neighbours boundary to our left only has a T on our side of the boundary and the neighbours boundary to our right has no T at all. Whats the exact meaning on this and how best to proceed with this annoying always at home council tenant. I dont want to start a war as i'll probably take it too far been able to actually finance one unlike her.

Called the police at lunch time when my partner told me what she was doing and have logged it this time. Do I also need to report her to the council?

I'm just grateful my partner was home today to catch her in the act so have at least got her on video and photos of the damage

Scort · 17 Sep 2019 at 14:52

SHOTinTHEface86 said:
Annoying council tenant at the rear of our property has this morning decided to climb on to something to perch over the fence and cut all our bird feeders off the fence and throw them into our garden, breaking most of them and spreading all the seed etc all over the place. The feeders were attached with string and a single staple on our side of the fence panel.

This isn't the first time she has claimed to own the fence and told us that we cant grow anything next to it or up it. Last year she lifted the panels up and climbed underneath and then started spraying paint on the panels and all our fruit and veg we had growing in the bed below. Went outside and told her to get off my property only to get load of lip.

I've checked the deeds from when I purchased the house back in 2016 and it shows a T on both sides on this boundary. Does that mean this boundary and subsequent fence is 100% my responsibility and nothing to do with her? the neighbours boundary to our left only has a T on our side of the boundary and the neighbours boundary to our right has no T at all. Whats the exact meaning on this and how best to proceed with this annoying always at home council tenant. I dont want to start a war as i'll probably take it too far been able to actually finance one unlike her.

Called the police at lunch time when my partner told me what she was doing and have logged it this time. Do I also need to report her to the council?

I'm just grateful my partner was home today to catch her in the act so have at least got her on video and photos of the damage

Sounds like a lovely woman!

Quick Google:

Maintenance of a fence
The Title Plan’s may reveal a ‘T’ mark on all or some of the boundaries, indicating who is responsible for maintaining that boundary. If there is a ‘T’ mark on either side of the boundary, it is a party boundary and both you and your neighbour are jointly responsible. If, however, there is no ‘T’ mark, it may be unclear who is responsible for the maintenance of that boundary.

The question then is: has anyone assumed responsibility for that boundary, such as placing the fence there or maintaining it? If you or your neighbour has assumed responsibility for the fence, they remain legally responsible for it. If it has been jointly maintained by you and your neighbour (or not as the case may be) it may be regarded as a party fence and you will both be responsible for it.

If you are considering buying a property, it is important to establish as early as possible which boundary fences and walls you will be responsible for. The Land Registry documentation and the information contained in the Seller’s Property Information Form will assist.

Best of luck getting it sorted, as scumbags like that, ought to be put into Council pens with similar ****s.

Terminal_Boy · 17 Sep 2019 at 14:55

She’s a council tenant and thus, owns three tenths of sweet FA when it comes to that property.

Report to the council quoting the incident number the police should have given you.

jellybeard999 · 17 Sep 2019 at 15:00

Report to the council or housing association if she won't listen to reason

With joined fences on boundaries, if it comes to it, not that it's something you should have to do, or something I've resorted to, but the easiest answer is for you to put a fence up just within your boundary, so you 100% own it.

ShotInTheAss86 · 17 Sep 2019 at 15:05

i'll report to the council tomorrow with incident number from the police. Bought some fence clips online to secure the panels to the posts so she cant lift them up again. but not got an answer to her sticking her ugly mug over the top of the fence. Might look to attach some short board at 45 degree angle pointing up so she cant get leverage over the top to anything we attach.

rebel rebel · 17 Sep 2019 at 15:10

Nail the fence down so she can't lift it, barbed wire along the top, and point a camera towards it in case she tries to smash through it.

ShotInTheAss86 · 17 Sep 2019 at 15:14

rebel rebel said:
Nail the fence down so she can't lift it, barbed wire along the top, and point a camera towards it in case she tries to smash through it.

I do have a bucket of barb wire in the loft from years ago not doing anything and did consider running it but i dont want my garden to look like a prison

rebel rebel · 17 Sep 2019 at 15:31

SHOTinTHEface86 said:
I do have a bucket of barb wire in the loft from years ago not doing anything and did consider running it but i dont want my garden to look like a prison

Breaking your stuff and vandalising your property is clearly an offence. So you're probably best also logging a complaint with the council, and trying to get them to explain to her that she is in the wrong. Chances are she is having disputes with others, these types of people rarely get on with anyone.

ShotInTheAss86 · 17 Sep 2019 at 15:55

Yes I know she has had disputes with our other neighbour before we moved in, but they just built a massive workshop at end of garden to block her off.

Police have been round now and left incident number etc. Have now gone to her house to hopefully explain the law to her and what she has done is criminal damage.

I'll raise it with the council later. Hopefully she'll see sense and leave us alone after this and it doesn't go the other way where she decides to escalate it with more petty actions

Terminal_Boy · 17 Sep 2019 at 16:19

SHOTinTHEface86 said:
I do have a bucket of barb wire in the loft from years ago not doing anything and did consider running it but i dont want my garden to look like a prison

Legally, you have to put up warning signs if a fence is topped with barbed or razor wire.

ShotInTheAss86 · 17 Sep 2019 at 16:51

is that the only legal requirement? can i nail the warning sign to her head when she next sticks it over the fence?

LOAM · 17 Sep 2019 at 18:52

jellybeard999 said:
Report to the council or housing association if she won't listen to reason

With joined fences on boundaries, if it comes to it, not that it's something you should have to do, or something I've resorted to, but the easiest answer is for you to put a fence up just within your boundary, so you 100% own it.

This is by far the cheapest and less stressful thing to do. Whack up a 2m fence and be done with it.

psd99 · 18 Sep 2019 at 10:38

rebel rebel said:
Nail the fence down so she can't lift it, barbed wire along the top, and point a camera towards it in case she tries to smash through it.

lol

if she is a council tenant owns shes owns sweet FA! tell her to get a job that will wind her right up.

ShotInTheAss86 · 18 Sep 2019 at 11:21

she's got council house due to kid having disabilities. So I've always given them benefit of doubt even when they play the same 5 tracks on repeat all day in summer as they must be songs that help to calm the lad (including a christmas song...sigh)

As for put up a 2m fence, the current fence is already 6ft panels with gravel board below, unfortunately due to the way the land slopes this is 6ft for her and about 8ft for me. Wish it was the other way round but it isnt.

Neighbour next to us said she is probably just jealous as we've done more work in garden this summer. If that's the case she aint going to like the IR camera's I've just bought to hook up to my NAS for recording day and night. If she is going to start been destructive to our garden I want every bit of it on camera. Just spent a small fortune on work this year including a Shed and Greehouse.

samcat · 18 Sep 2019 at 14:45

SHOTinTHEface86 said:
As for put up a 2m fence, the current fence is already 6ft panels with gravel board below, unfortunately due to the way the land slopes this is 6ft for her and about 8ft for me. Wish it was the other way round but it isnt.

Couple of good posts and some chain link fence tight against the boundry, grow something nice looking but sharp (bramble/blackthorn etc).. No warning signs needed for brambles

NoobCannon · 18 Sep 2019 at 18:27

Put up your own fence inside your boundary and paint some choice words facing her side in glow in the dark paint.

Alternatively i can get a mac 10 in 5 mins

ShotInTheAss86 · 19 Sep 2019 at 13:41

samcat said:
Couple of good posts and some chain link fence tight against the boundry, grow something nice looking but sharp (bramble/blackthorn etc).. No warning signs needed for brambles

Funny you should mention brambles. the furthest part of the back garden was covered in them when we moved in. She may have been the reason why. Spent the Aug bh clearing them out and then all the old concrete and slab mix bases from the past 40 or so years got smashed with old faithful sledgehammer and removed as well.

cheesyboy · 19 Sep 2019 at 13:51

SHOTinTHEface86 said:
Funny you should mention brambles. the furthest part of the back garden was covered in them when we moved in. She may have been the reason why. Spent the Aug bh clearing them out and then all the old concrete and slab mix bases from the past 40 or so years got smashed with old faithful sledgehammer and removed as well.

It's like those films where people dig just that bit too deep and uncover some sort of monster. Should have left it be....

ShotInTheAss86 · 19 Sep 2019 at 15:11

Found part of what i assumed to be a dog skeleton under some of that concrete i removed...

ANDARIAL · 19 Sep 2019 at 16:08

You sure it was a dog?
Did Fred West work on that garden? :eek: