Boundary issue

[PCAnimal]

Hi I have just built a new rear extension and had the roof put on. I get on well with the neighbours and included them in notification and inspection of foundations and wall building. however I just came back home from holiday and within 2 hours the door went and the neighbour said he had a problem with my roof.
He was not rude but says he wants it changing. He has said we have encroached the boundary with the overhang. He is basing this on the fact that there are 7 bricks between our windows and the boundary line must be 3.5. If this were the case then the over hang is half a brick on a pitched roof.

I can see daylight through the gap between their facia board and ours. The wall itself is built on our boundary with about 5 cm gap between the 2 walls.

I asked him what he would like me to do and he said he would leave it with me to solve. I dispute the ascertain about the boundary line. We have a brick wall to our right hand side which is our boundary. They have built a fence on their side. I have said this wall is where the boundary line lies and not counting bricks on the roof. This assumes that the windows are equally spaced between the party wall. This is a 1960 house and nothing is straight or right.

he has hinted that boundary disputes are expensive and we didn't give him a party wall notice which we should have done. However I did knock the door and run through the plans and the council sent out letters of objections.

What can anyone suggest? I'm happy to try and trim the facia and tiles back by about 1/2 inch but anymore and it would compromise the roof


The bottom line from my point of view is I would not knowingly steal 1cm 2cm or even 5cm of someones boundary!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I wouldn't worry about it, unless the boundary is dimensioned in the deeds (ie there is an absolute way of determining where it lies) then ultimately no judge in the land is going to make you move it for the sake of a few inches here or there. So let him blow some steam but that is all he will ever be able to do. The lack of PWA is a moot point now and irrelevant.

Though you should have both agreed exactly where the boundary was prior to the build. Hindsight eh?

 

[PCAnimal]

I couldn't agree more since we get one well! I should have agreed it but its so unclear I thought building inside of my wall covered me.

I am dropping some plumb lines down the gap tomorrow and to my wall to see if there is any encroachment. I think his main concern is how is he going to refelt his roof near the barge board. I personally don't think it will be a problem as the roof is pitched and theirs is flat. The gap is only close to thier barge board at the bottom of the pitch namely a 2 cm's.

My thought is that the party wall between us must be something like 30cm. this would give me 15cm from the centre line (if we used his windows argument.