My family live in an "bush living environment" up a steep driveway shared by three properties, fortunately we have a positive easement across our neighbours properties - last house of three on the drive.
The neighbour whose property is directly next to us (in the middle of three) has built a shed approximately 1 metre from our property boundary, on the edge of the drive in between the drive and a steep drop to the road. Recently the neighbour also extended an existing boundary fence to the edge of his property boundary and the easement / driveway making it difficult for cars to access our house safely, and difficult if not impossible for any large vehicles to access our house - the difficulty being that there is not a large enough turning circle for vehicles, especially anything larger than a station wagon.
There are a few issues we're currently researching:
1. the PIM report for our property doesn't clearly define what activities are "allowed" on the ROW
2. the neighbour has built a fence on the property boundary without consulting us - he thinks that because it's a few centimetres from his property boundary he doesn't need to
3. access to our property is severely restricted because of how close to the boundary and our driveway the neighbour has built the new fence
4. from what we understand of the district plan for our area the neighbours shed should be 3 metres from our property boundary
We have attempted to talk with our neighbour but he is quite unreasonable and seems oblivious to any legal obligations and reasonable behaviour where neighbours are concerned - ie. he verbally abuses, threatens and bullies
We are continuing to research options and have noted mediation, arbitration and the district court are possible options in resolving some of these issues. But we'd really appreciate any advice or shared experiences from others in terms of legal rights, similar cases and how they were resolved?
The neighbour whose property is directly next to us (in the middle of three) has built a shed approximately 1 metre from our property boundary, on the edge of the drive in between the drive and a steep drop to the road. Recently the neighbour also extended an existing boundary fence to the edge of his property boundary and the easement / driveway making it difficult for cars to access our house safely, and difficult if not impossible for any large vehicles to access our house - the difficulty being that there is not a large enough turning circle for vehicles, especially anything larger than a station wagon.
There are a few issues we're currently researching:
1. the PIM report for our property doesn't clearly define what activities are "allowed" on the ROW
2. the neighbour has built a fence on the property boundary without consulting us - he thinks that because it's a few centimetres from his property boundary he doesn't need to
3. access to our property is severely restricted because of how close to the boundary and our driveway the neighbour has built the new fence
4. from what we understand of the district plan for our area the neighbours shed should be 3 metres from our property boundary
We have attempted to talk with our neighbour but he is quite unreasonable and seems oblivious to any legal obligations and reasonable behaviour where neighbours are concerned - ie. he verbally abuses, threatens and bullies
We are continuing to research options and have noted mediation, arbitration and the district court are possible options in resolving some of these issues. But we'd really appreciate any advice or shared experiences from others in terms of legal rights, similar cases and how they were resolved?
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