We moved into a new property in the middle of last year and it is a semi detached terraced property. The gardens are attached with our neighbours on both sides.
On the detached side, now we've hit spring and early summer, their garden has become wildly overgrown. It seem to be full of overgrown ivy, weeds, bramble, and god knows what else. They also have a brick/block built shed that looks derelict as well as some waste in their garden, such as old rusty washing machine, ironing boards, and so on. The House itself also appears to be unsafe (and potentially not safe for habiting due to damp, mould, holes in roof eaves where even crows are nesting in the loft and so on).
Our primary concern is the garden, as it would appear to be a haven for contagious weeds and vermin. As the weeds, and particularly the ivy, is so well established. They have thick, almost tree-like roots in places and are growing through and under the boundary stone wall. I am not sure who's wall it is as it's not on the deeds for our property and it is on the right of our garden, the left of the neighbour's garden.
The overgrowth, and particularly the thick ivy roots, is growing through the wall from the neighbour's side to the extent where the wall is bulging out into our side in parts and holes and cracks have appeared in the stone and mortar due to being deformed over time. With ourselves and our pet dog and cat wanting to use our garden, it feels a little unsafe as the large stone look like they could fall at any time with some smaller rocks having already fallen out of place into our garden.
We have tried a friendly chat with the neighbour and showed him the wall issues from our side, but he is not particular receiving or the issues and in denial. His response was that he has a petrol strimmer that he uses once or twice a year on the entire garden to control it (though we've been here 8 or 9 months and not seen him use it once) and he claimed the damaged wall was as a result of some bird cage previous owners of our property had (from about 15+ years ago!) despite being able to clearly see open crack and the ivy and bramble growing through then from their side.
Is there anything that can be done about this? We do not want to have a hostile relationship with a fairly new neighbour, but having also recently spent £4+k on a new fence surrounding our garden (and having notified neighbours on both sides and got agreement to build it - we didn't ask for any contribution from either side), we are obviously a little concerned thy it won't take long for the overgrowth to start potentially damaging the new fence, fence posts, or the concrete foundations for the fence posts, as the problem neighbour's side boundary is about 75% stone wall (with the above detailed issues) and 25% our new fence.
Any input on this situation or help would be hugely appreciated!
On the detached side, now we've hit spring and early summer, their garden has become wildly overgrown. It seem to be full of overgrown ivy, weeds, bramble, and god knows what else. They also have a brick/block built shed that looks derelict as well as some waste in their garden, such as old rusty washing machine, ironing boards, and so on. The House itself also appears to be unsafe (and potentially not safe for habiting due to damp, mould, holes in roof eaves where even crows are nesting in the loft and so on).
Our primary concern is the garden, as it would appear to be a haven for contagious weeds and vermin. As the weeds, and particularly the ivy, is so well established. They have thick, almost tree-like roots in places and are growing through and under the boundary stone wall. I am not sure who's wall it is as it's not on the deeds for our property and it is on the right of our garden, the left of the neighbour's garden.
The overgrowth, and particularly the thick ivy roots, is growing through the wall from the neighbour's side to the extent where the wall is bulging out into our side in parts and holes and cracks have appeared in the stone and mortar due to being deformed over time. With ourselves and our pet dog and cat wanting to use our garden, it feels a little unsafe as the large stone look like they could fall at any time with some smaller rocks having already fallen out of place into our garden.
We have tried a friendly chat with the neighbour and showed him the wall issues from our side, but he is not particular receiving or the issues and in denial. His response was that he has a petrol strimmer that he uses once or twice a year on the entire garden to control it (though we've been here 8 or 9 months and not seen him use it once) and he claimed the damaged wall was as a result of some bird cage previous owners of our property had (from about 15+ years ago!) despite being able to clearly see open crack and the ivy and bramble growing through then from their side.
Is there anything that can be done about this? We do not want to have a hostile relationship with a fairly new neighbour, but having also recently spent £4+k on a new fence surrounding our garden (and having notified neighbours on both sides and got agreement to build it - we didn't ask for any contribution from either side), we are obviously a little concerned thy it won't take long for the overgrowth to start potentially damaging the new fence, fence posts, or the concrete foundations for the fence posts, as the problem neighbour's side boundary is about 75% stone wall (with the above detailed issues) and 25% our new fence.
Any input on this situation or help would be hugely appreciated!
Last edited:
