ᐅ Semi-detached house – Troubles with the neighbor

I suspected this too when I read your reports, Sandrasix – that he’s so gruff because he’s afraid he’ll have to tear something down, that his fence might have to go, and so on.

We also have examples like that on our side. They never expected a house to be built in that gap and therefore placed their house as close to the property line as possible (exactly 3m (10 feet)). At some point, this neighbor said, “You didn’t have to build so close to us.” I replied, “Yes, we did; our building envelope didn't leave much choice. We were even granted an overlap of the boundary line (notably on the other side, away from these neighbors) – but you still have more than 13 meters (43 feet) on your other side.” She said, “Yeah, we never expected anyone to build there.” Exactly, they accepted that risk, and now that it has happened, of course it’s not their fault, but ours. Of course! And they feel mistreated. If I dig even deeper, they could have partly bought the plot where our house now stands but turned it down (then my brother bought it). So I can imagine they’re probably kicking themselves multiple times a day over that.

On top of that, they have an unauthorized window in the boundary structure, and this boundary structure on their side towards us exceeds the allowed 9m (30 feet). Personally, I’d hold back on complaining about that. But no, there’s shouting and whining.

Next week, we’re starting to install a privacy fence between us and them (which they want too, so it’s agreed on!). I hope this will ease the situation considerably, and that’s what I’d advise you as well: make sure you get a good privacy screen over there. Either relatively tall bushes or a fence. I believe the grumpy neighbor will regain his privacy this way, and you’ll benefit because he won’t be able to yell directly into your garden anymore.

Solveigh schrieb:

I can really relate to you, having problems with neighbors is such a terrible feeling!

Our situation is similar. We are also building in an infill lot, but it’s 2500m2 (27,000 sq ft). The neighbors take liberties with pretty much everything. They knowingly build over OUR property with part of their parking area, drive their construction vehicles and bicycles over our land, use our property as storage for their building materials, and so on. We don’t really care, they can do as they please; we have plenty of space around our house and haven’t even come close to their boundary. But at the same time, every single, and I mean every single, move we make on our property is being watched very closely. Recently, our gardener sprayed weeds with an organic product, and someone reported it 40m (130 ft) onto OUR property, questioning what he was doing.

Probably our mistake was not clearly showing our neighbors “their” boundaries much earlier. The mistake of our neighbors is that if they didn’t want any neighbors or their construction site next door, they should have bought our land. It’s actually quite simple!

Unbelievable, I hate things like that—you give an inch and they take a mile... people around here really need to learn their lesson!

Honestly, you pay for everything, every little thing—so why can’t the building authority step in here? They are a neutral third party; they can conduct inspection visits and check whether people are following regulations, and if not, impose fines (don’t come at me with “they’re too busy,” fines mean additional revenue). And if the neighbor asks: “Oh, was that the building authority? They’re just doing their inspections.”

1) Warning
2) Fine

After that, you’re left on your own and told “you’ll have to resolve this through civil law.”

- Conversation?
- Fine?
- Serbian mafia?

Anyone can be worn down by one of those methods.

Fingers crossed for you!

Solveigh schrieb:

And it’s similar for us. We are also building in an infill plot, but ours is 2500 m² (0.62 acres). The neighbors take everything they want. They knowingly build over OUR property with part of their parking space, drive over our land with their construction vehicles and bicycles, use our property as storage for their building work, and so on. We don’t care at all; let them do it, we have plenty of space around the house and haven’t even come close to their boundary. But at the same time, every single move on our land is watched like a hawk. Recently, our gardener sprayed weeds with an organic treatment, and 40 meters (130 feet) over OUR property there were complaints about what he was doing.

Oh dear, that’s unfortunate. But unfortunately, you have let it go too far. Your boundary is your boundary, whether you have 250 or 2500 m² (0.06 or 0.62 acres). Storing things and driving over it—sure, no problem, just ASK beforehand. Building over it (intentionally?), however, is unacceptable in any case without compensation. Anyone who wants their boundaries respected needs to mark them clearly. Unfortunately, people (or neighbors) don’t always behave this way. Then you just have to be armed with the correct facts. Simply go knock on your neighbor’s door and say you would actually like their parking space where they have built over. It would be very kind of them to have already given you a part, but what is the idea behind it?

Sandrasix schrieb:

The conversation didn’t go very well.
My construction manager told me he simply doesn’t want to understand.
He didn’t entertain any arguments.
“A very stubborn guy.”

What exactly is his demand? What alternative to your approach would he like to see implemented? This information is missing here (and maybe from your side as well?).

So the more I read all this, the more I can understand @Steven.

It would have been great to have some of you as neighbors!!!!!!!!!!!

But apparently, I’m not the only one with this problem.

tumaa schrieb:

Honestly, you pay for everything, every little thing. Why can’t the building authority intervene here? They are a neutral third party, they can conduct inspections to check if people are complying with regulations, and if not, a fine can be imposed.

chand1986 schrieb:

That’s frustrating. But unfortunately, the boundary has been allowed to shift too much. Your boundary is your boundary, whether you have 250 or 2500 m² (2690 or 26,900 sq ft). Storing and driving over it — sure, no problem, just ASK beforehand. But building over it (intentionally?) is completely unacceptable in any scenario without compensation.

Please don’t misunderstand me—I really don’t care what the neighbors do, as long as they don’t point fingers at us. Live and let live.

The neighbor came to me right at the start, after our surveyor had been here and clearly marked the boundaries with markers, and said she couldn’t understand what her gardener was thinking. Right! I responded that if she wanted, she could buy that part of the property from us. She didn’t want to.

You can call me naive, but I really don’t care what they do, and I’ve never even glanced at what they’re doing on their property; it simply doesn’t interest me. But in return, they should leave us alone.

By the way, the marker point from our surveyor is no longer there, but an official boundary stone has appeared next to the gardener’s paved area. Whether it has always been there, I have no idea—there used to be centimeters-high (inches-high) gravel. Whether it has been worn away over the years, I don’t know.