excavation leaving 12ft drop eroding our land

[the-little-fairy]

My neighbour has excavated along the boundary line leaving a sheer 12-15ft drop which is now eroding significantly, I have 2 toddlers so i'm worried about them falling, he nailed some stock wire to my only remaining tree (he pulled the other dozen or so out with his digger) but the one post he used has now no earth left around it. I can now only get 1 car on the car park (used to be able to park 2) it also looks a right mess, he's also blocked our access accross his land with mega boulders, again using his JCB so I can't get any deliveries in (our drive is very steeep and narrow so you can only get a car up it) we are a the end of our tether and so un-happy and desperate, we have just seen a solicitor but don't have the funds to make him put this right, I even had to be carried to an ambulane when in labour with my son as the ambulance could not get in. Some body please help me!

He's a farmer, and yes he's told us he wants to own every thing, he alredy owns all of the land around us, and baught the land next door 4 years ago when it came up for sale, we tried to sell last year and he wrote a letter to our estate agents telling them he wanted our oak trees that he built his new bungalow under cut down! He came to see us the day we moved in to tell us he wanted us to sue the previous owners of our house, as they didn;t tell us their had been disputes, he's been causioned by the police for assulting me and now he's started stopping people that visit us wanting to know what they want here, he's well known in the area!!

Copies of posts from gardenlaw.co.uk we have been told some one here may be able to help us

[bednobs]

he is not allowed to cut down your trees on your land - could you contact the police about criminal damage and tresspass?

[DTCwordfan]

bednobs - look how long the membership has been open.

This is a set-up.

[the-little-fairy]

This is not a set up, I know it's hard to believe, but it's my family who's having to live with this, so please don't list silly reponses to a serious matter

[bednobs]

do you have a right to pass over his land? in not he is under no obligation to let your deliveries/you pass over his land to get to yours

[bednobs]

and if his bungalow is on his land and your trees overhang his land he's entotled to get the overhang removed. what did the solicitor say?

[the-little-fairy]

Yes, the right of way is in our deeds, we have told him, he can cut the brances, but he wants us to pay for someone to do it.

Hi, heres the latest update
We have seen a solicitor, but she says it could cost around £10.000 to take this to court, we haven't got that kind of money.
She is in the process of writing to him to tell him to put everything right and un-block our access, but i'm still waiting on her to send me the draft. Hes now dug out even more land and placed huge fence posts where my garden used to be to place a 2m high fence on stilts at our ground level, I have just, found 3 men in my garden, so I asked them who they were, they are from the council planning department, they say they think he can put up the fence as it is from his original ground level, even though his ground level is now 12ft lower, but they are looking into it, I was being watched the entire time of course. We have had the police out again, and one more strike and he gets an ASBO, this time he managed to get his tennant to take a shovel to the drive and dig it up, now we can bearly get up our own drive either, never mind the access drive, my husband managed to get a recording of the tennat using fowl language and telling him he is going to punch my f******* face in, so he's been arreseted, and the police have requested to keep the recording for training purposes as my huband was so calm and polite!
I have also contacted building control as the wall he has built up the side ofmy drive, with no foundations, retaining the soil he excavated from the back, has huge cracks in it and is at risk of collapse and of cousre, since the bad weather, the erosion has got worse.
I also wrote to our MP about 2 weeks ago (a so many of you advised us), but still nothing yet.
We do start to fall apart at times, and my husband shouted at our 3 year old because we were trying to talk about what the heck we can do, at that point we all fell apart.

22:04 Fri 14th Jan 2011

[DTCwordfan]

exactly - I would be into see the solicitor pronto

we have a lot of these type of threads coming from newcomers and most of them are complete wind-ups......some can be amusingly put together.

[the-little-fairy]

This is not one of them, it feels as though our lives are in tatters at the moment

[bednobs]

well it's your trees, so why shouldn't you pay?

[the-little-fairy]

He built the bungaalow under the trees, and with everthjing else he's done to my family, why should we, we are in the same position, his trees are all around our boundary, but we live in a designated wood, and with wood, comes trees!

[twix123]

Do any of the trees have Preservation Orders on them?

[beso]

I don't know what your laws are but here in my local council area in Australia an excavation can only be as deep as the distance from the boundary effectively resulting in a 45 degree slope from the boundary.

Any excavation over 500 mm ( ~20 inches) would require a Development Application. A retaining wall at a boundary is limited to 500 mm. Other retaining walls above 900 mm must have a Development Application.

He would be responsible for ensuring that the safety of the excavation with reasonable security. Your description of his barrier indicates this is not what he has done. The barrier must be on his own land.

[the-little-fairy]

No, we don't have any preservation orders on the trees, and I have just contacted building control, I hope they can come out asap!

The police are coming out again today, my husbad was taking photos of the damage for the solicitor, I was standing a little distance away from him, (if we go outside, we go out together now!) he had come home from work early, the farmer didn't see my husband, and started shouting more abuse at me, then he sped down the land and got out of his truck, when he saw my husband he turned around and got back in his truck, he never does this in front of him, so this time, I have a witness. He has been warned if he even speaks to me he will be in trouble, but I can never proove it. oh and my security camera arrived yesterday, I prey we can catch him on it, before he spots it. It's not that I think the police don't believe us, it's pretty clear they do, as they can see for them selves.what he has done, but they can only deal with the abuse and not the civil side of this.

[DTCwordfan]

I would have thought from what you have said that your solicitor could go to court and get a restraining order on the work until this then gets sorted out legally.

[the-little-fairy]

She has told him we will get an injuction to get him to stop, but when we were alone, she told me they are very expensive. I suppose the more damage he does, the more he is giong to have to put right, if we can find the money, which is un-likely

[boxtops]

Go to the papers - your local paper will be interested in this. The nationals may pick it up. This is bullying on a grand scale. Where in the country do you live? Have you been onto your own planning office? I'm sure they would have plenty to say about leaving your property on a 12-foot-high drop.

[boxtops]

^ sorry, last few posts not there when I started typing - but I still think your local paper would like to know about this.

[thedaveformula]

In order to do this properly, the farmer needs to construct the following:

A Pithead Canteen
A steel gate
A weighbridge
A Demag Up Ventilation Shaft

[Mick-Talbot]

Any chance of a few photo's?

[Mick-Talbot]

So your husband shouts at your 3 year old, but he is calm and polite, to a numpty giving him abuse?


I'm finding your story very hard to follow, as well as very hard to swallow.