On Sunday morning our neighbour pulled down our shared fence which covers half our rear boundary without notice.
The history:
- About a month or so ago the neighbour approached us and asked if he would allow us to do a survey of his property. We agreed that he could dismantle a small portion of fence to allow access to his surveyors as long as the fence was rectified to it's current condition asap following the survey as we have a dog and a child to contain and value our privacy.
- We have owned our house for just over three years, and as a side note several neighbours have alerted us to the fact this guy is very peculiar and previously harassed the elderly owners of our house prior to us. We have not had any contact with him prior to this.
- The survey was completed weeks ago but the fence never was repaired.
- We are aware from our own independent survey that the fence in question lies approximately 30cm on his property which he was aware of too and it was our understanding he was completing the survey as his intention is to sell (thank god!). The fence was in this position when we bought the property.
- About two weeks ago we asked what his intentions with the fence/survey was via email because we had heard nothing following the survey.
- On Friday we asked what his intentions are with the fence (again) and we still heard nothing back.
- We are currently doing landscaping so need to know what is happening so we can complete our landscaping work.
- On Sunday morning he has started ripping down the fence without our permission. We asked him to stop verbally, he did not and has now dismantled the fence with the exception of the posts.
- Initially, he totally ignored us trying to talk to him on as he had earmuffs on and continued to use the hammer to pull the fence apart while we were trying to get him to stop.
- I pulled the hammer from his hands as he wasn't stopping and was totally ignoring us. He subsequently went inside and called the cops on me for assault...
- The cops turned up and while I don't think anything will come of the assault charge as it's clearly ridiculous the cops did play mediator and we agreed that we had no issue in moving the fence to the correct boundary position and never did but as no notice was served we wouldn't be contributing to the cost and we need it re-established as soon as possible for privacy and security and to complete our landscaping works.
- If he served us notice that he wanted to move the fence to the correct boundary, we understand the fencing act law and would have complied with his notice and contributed to a new fence. However he never served us notice.
- Since ripping the fence down, there has been no sign of him attempting to rectify the fence.
- We have no idea of his intentions with the re-construction of the fence. It is likely that he will leave it like it is for a long time. We would like to get it re-established asap as we are currently doing landscaping and have dog/child to contain plus now our bedroom + kitchen looks straight into the back of his house. We will establish a temp fence but we want our privacy back.
Questions:
- As we were never served notice, am I correct in assuming we have no obligation to contribute to a new fence?
- What are our options going forward? Do we have any grounds or means to force him to re-establish the fence?
- Could we take him to the disputes tribunal to force him to re-establish the fence at his cost by a certain time?
The history:
- About a month or so ago the neighbour approached us and asked if he would allow us to do a survey of his property. We agreed that he could dismantle a small portion of fence to allow access to his surveyors as long as the fence was rectified to it's current condition asap following the survey as we have a dog and a child to contain and value our privacy.
- We have owned our house for just over three years, and as a side note several neighbours have alerted us to the fact this guy is very peculiar and previously harassed the elderly owners of our house prior to us. We have not had any contact with him prior to this.
- The survey was completed weeks ago but the fence never was repaired.
- We are aware from our own independent survey that the fence in question lies approximately 30cm on his property which he was aware of too and it was our understanding he was completing the survey as his intention is to sell (thank god!). The fence was in this position when we bought the property.
- About two weeks ago we asked what his intentions with the fence/survey was via email because we had heard nothing following the survey.
- On Friday we asked what his intentions are with the fence (again) and we still heard nothing back.
- We are currently doing landscaping so need to know what is happening so we can complete our landscaping work.
- On Sunday morning he has started ripping down the fence without our permission. We asked him to stop verbally, he did not and has now dismantled the fence with the exception of the posts.
- Initially, he totally ignored us trying to talk to him on as he had earmuffs on and continued to use the hammer to pull the fence apart while we were trying to get him to stop.
- I pulled the hammer from his hands as he wasn't stopping and was totally ignoring us. He subsequently went inside and called the cops on me for assault...
- The cops turned up and while I don't think anything will come of the assault charge as it's clearly ridiculous the cops did play mediator and we agreed that we had no issue in moving the fence to the correct boundary position and never did but as no notice was served we wouldn't be contributing to the cost and we need it re-established as soon as possible for privacy and security and to complete our landscaping works.
- If he served us notice that he wanted to move the fence to the correct boundary, we understand the fencing act law and would have complied with his notice and contributed to a new fence. However he never served us notice.
- Since ripping the fence down, there has been no sign of him attempting to rectify the fence.
- We have no idea of his intentions with the re-construction of the fence. It is likely that he will leave it like it is for a long time. We would like to get it re-established asap as we are currently doing landscaping and have dog/child to contain plus now our bedroom + kitchen looks straight into the back of his house. We will establish a temp fence but we want our privacy back.
Questions:
- As we were never served notice, am I correct in assuming we have no obligation to contribute to a new fence?
- What are our options going forward? Do we have any grounds or means to force him to re-establish the fence?
- Could we take him to the disputes tribunal to force him to re-establish the fence at his cost by a certain time?
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