Neighbour extension causing rainwater on my land

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manzana

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I live at the end of a semi-quasi property. On the detached side there is about 1.5 meters to the boundary fence. Since we moved in about 5-6 years go my neighbour had built a wooden extension from the wall of his house to the fence itself, using the wooden fence panels as his wall for the extension. The roof came onto the fence and there was no guttering so rainwater used to fall down the wooden fence itself.

He has now changed the roof, this time using conservatory plastic-like roofing material and the roof now comes onto my side of the fence by about 2-3 inches so all rainwater is falling on my land. I approached him to explain the issue and ask that he: 1) cut the roof back within the boundary and 2) install a guttering so we do not get his rainfall on our land. He refused to see my point of view and made it clear that he will not be doing anything about it.

Questions:
1) Is this type of extension allowed? Approx dims of the roof is 2meters by 6 meters (6m runs along the fence boundary).
2) Can he just overlap the fence boundary with his roof?
3) Can he refuse to put up a guttering on his side? I don’t want his guttering on my side, its only 1.5 meters wide anyway, so why should his building come onto my space?
4) What can I do now to solve the situation?

Thanks for any help!
 
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Research will show you that this issue has been covered many times before.

A1. no, its not allowed
A2. whoever has the back of the fence facing their property is the owner of the fence. the front face of the fence is the property line. he cannot go beyond that without permission.
A3. see above
A4. talk, talk, talk. if calm rationality and good humour fails then send a written complaint to him by registered post. if all fails then you could take photo's and deeds and legal advice and go to small claims. a last resort with a neighbour.
 
Fit your own gutter on top of the fence and drain it back onto your neighbours side.
 
Thanks guys!

I am not sure what you mean by Answer 2.
"whoever has the back of the fence facing their property is the owner of the fence. the front face of the fence is the property line"

Also, I dont think talking will help as it never worked, we tried making him understand that if either neighbour wants to do something that we can talk to each other first and that seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Plus, everytime we are not at home he changes stuff at the boundary fence. Example, cut our tree shorter when it was no higher than 2.5m high, cut the fence panel lower and also cut the concreate pillars so we cant put up a higher one again. We spoke about it everytime but he behaves like he can do what he wants. I am not sure how to prove ownership of the fence, which I guess will help solve a lot of issues as I know this wont be the last one.

I am also approaching the council to see if they can intervene.
if not as a last resort I will get the law involved or put up a guttering of my own (but it will be on my side still).
 
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Firstly I would ask your local planning department to investigate the unauthorised building. Although if it's been there more than 4 years they won't be able to do anything about it.

Secondly you need to establish ownership of the fence. Is it the original development fence? If so is it mentioned in land registry title registers? (yours or your neighbours) You can download these documents for £4 from land registry

www.landregistry.gov.uk/wps/portal/Property_Search

Although beware that title register documents only really apply to the original fence. If the fence has been replaced it is owned by whoever built and paid for it. If it's not the original fence who built it? Can you contact the previous owner of your house to get some background?

If there are no records of ownership a court would apply the presumtion rule. In other words it would be presumed that the side which the fence posts face would be the owner of the fence. The side which has the good side facing would not be the owner. This is based on the general rule that the good side faces outwards.

If all else fails apply for an injunction to prevent your neighbour discharging water onto your land. Or do as suggested above and redirect the water onto next doors land.
 
Pretty sure this is classed as a 'legal nusiance'. You should write to the neighbour, (send by recorded delivery) outlining the issues and telling him you expect matters to be sorted out to your satisfaction within 14 days or you will be seeking legal advice. Might be able to get a clearer understanding here: www.gardenlaw.co.uk

Should matter go to court then if he has failed to rectify the issues then he could well be liable for all costs incurred as well as being made to remove to roof back to inside his boundary and providing adequate drainage for the rainwater. Do you have legal cover on your house insurance or trade union membership?
 
Thank you everyone for all your comments and support.

I had to download a copy of the plan from the land registry and it does not state who owns the fence. It just has a red line around the perimeter of the land, with no 'H' marks to show ownership.

My next step is to try and identify ownership by presumtion looking at the direction of the fence. It is larch lap fencing and the concrete posts seems to look the same on either side. What should I be looking for exactly? The wooden fence panels have the vertical strips of supporting wood to my side. The best side does face the neighbour both to my left and right. Is this what you guys are referring to?

I will need to check the home insurance part, but I feel like I have enough ground to at least make some sort of stand to get my neighbour to understand my point of view or at least realise it will go further.
 
The fence is yours - the supporting strips are the back of the fence.

From your deeds and info gathered so far, measure from your house to the fence at a number of points, and in your back garden from the fence in question to the fence on the other neighbour's boundary.Then compare these distances to the dimensions on the deeds/land registry document.

There's lots of good advice above, but once again, keep calm and good humoured and do not go in for any tit for tat retaliation. your aim is to solve a difficulty not to extract revenge.
 
By a quasi-semi, do you mean end-of terrace? Normally, the middle of the party wall is the boundary, but there are exceptions.
If there is no clear and obvious indication that the fence is on your land, then I would forget about the ownership of the fence & concentrate on the nuisance caused by his rainwater. Does the roof really discharge completely into your garden- damn cheek if it does!
 
Most people around our area seem to to put the good side of the fence facing themselves.
 
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