wurlycorner wrote:I might just rip it down and hope the neighbours on that side are privacy freaks and respond by putting up a new one on their side
I was going to suggest that
I've got a potential issue that I'm waiting for an inspector to come and assess...
As you may know, I've been granted planning permission for a rear extension recently. The plans are for a full width extension, so the external right hand wall will go right up to the boundary (which is also my boundary). However, a previous owner of either one of our homes has erected a fence inside my boundary line (about a foot inside). I've never had an issue with it, as for one it's a tidy fence with concrete posts, and two I have more than enough land. But, if I don't claim back "my land" it will cause an issue with building the cavity wall on that side, as at the moment if we build directly up against the current fence line the soil pipe exit from my bathroom will be in the way.
If I'm able to build right up against where I should be entitled too, I can enclose the entire soil pipe within the roof space of the extension and then run the pipe across the length of the extension roof and out the other side, which has always been the plan.
Now my neighbour is absolutely fine with me claiming back the land, and I would do, but their soil pipe comes out of their bathroom and then drops down literally just the other side of the fence. (The downpipe is just about on my side of the "what should be" dividing line). So their downpipe would need to be relocated. (You can see in their brickwork that the exit from the house has been shifted closer to my side, and then where the downpipe enters the ground it actually dog-legs back again. Again, my neighbour would be fine with me fronting the cost of relocating their soilpipe (It'd require the exit from the house being switched to the opposite direction), but unfortunately it's actually a council property, so they have no say in the matter.
I've looked up the rules of encrouchment, and it's supposedly 12 years before anyone can claim someone elses land as their own (They have to have either been using the land or in this case put up a boundary around it), but what I don't know firstly is whether they have to then actually put in an official claim for it, before it is officially deemed rightfully theirs, and also I don't actually know when that fence was put up. I'm sure the housing agency will however as the downpipe on their side was obviously put in since the fence was put up, and I'm sure they're bound to have a record of when this work was carried out.
All I have on my side is a 1958 plan of where the boundary should be and it is a literal continuation of the divide of the two houses. The houses being semi-detached are symmetrically identical, so it's quite literally a case of the boundary should be exactly halfway between, but my worry is that the housing agency will come back to me with "Well you bought the property like that... That's how it's staying"
And that's my efforts at boring you to death
chucked the branch with the cords back over the fence, cup of tea, now we wait. I did have a goosey gander and it seems that the ivy growing up from their side has facked it. Some roots and jobby are going into the ground right by the post where the problem is so I think the ground has just gone to jobby.
then again it is getting on a bit and only moves for food and post.
)
myself for making a more 
post than Donald managed in his original one - however, it adds to the interesting facts uncovered during the debate...
