UKC

Builders putting up new housing in field adjacent to my garden, on other side of the road - however today they decided that they needed to dig up existing services which thhye traced to under my hedge - not on the verge but actually under my hedge.
Between us is my hedge, a road verge (ownership unknown between me and the Council), then a public road, then the boundary line of the building site.
I only noticed when we came back and they had finished for the morning but I now have a huge hole undermining my hedge with part of the verge also dug out.
What are my options for stopping these works (legally) as I'm sure they should not be digging outwith their site boundary, and especially digging up my hedge.
We have had numerous problems with the builders, they do not return call, respond to email, so we have previously had to get the council to enforce their site conditions on them (weekend working hours)
Any ideas?

In reply to Pids:

Not a lawyer, but a retired surveyor.

They've cunningly chosen the weekend to do this knowing that the council and solicitors are closed. Nasty situation for you.

My suggestion would be to take loads of photos from every conceivable angle first thing tomorrow, then find a solicitor with whom you can make an appointment for first thing Monday morning.

You might also consider phoning the council's emergency number now alleging that the hole is unsafe and a potential danger to man and beast - that might temporary hold things up on Monday to give you time to get legal advice.

Hopefully it can be sorted without you having to apply for a temporary injunction which will cost you initially, although if you are in the right your lawyer could attempt to get reimbursement.

In reply to Pids:

I'd be wondering how the person who planted the hedge managed to site it over a water main.

Surely it was only going to be a mattee of time before someone need to access it.

In reply to timjones:


Its not the water main but the power to the street lights, it doesn't run under the hedge but along the road verge, its just that the builders took it upon themselves to dig under the hedge to try and find it

The large open hole they have left is now full of water due to the current weather, no doubt this will mean more soil collapse into the hole further undermining my hedge, grrrr

In reply to Pids:

If they've left an open hole there full of water and not properly fenced off that's a major safety issue and should be enough to get a council warden out on a Sunday? If it looks unsafe any you want to get maximum fallout on them you could also submit detailed photographic and written evidence to the HSE and their insurers.

If the hole is definitively on your land you could also report it today to the police as criminal damage. No idea how your local plod would react but I can guess would would happen if I went and dug a hole under our local chief super's hedge.

Small consolation but at least they're not digging out the soil next to your foundations along the length of your property. I know someone who came home to find a hole next to their house...

In reply to wintertree:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6966294.stm

Building work on an adjacent empty plot didn't just create a hole, it caused a tenement to collapse.

Particularly shocking for locals because it says Wilton St is Maryhill rather than North Kelvinside.

In reply to wintertree:


The OP has made no comments about the presence/absence of fencing.

In reply to Chris Harris:


I know. That's why I said "if".

In reply to Chris Harris:


The hole has been barriered off by use of those half height orange pedestrian barrier - totally unsuitable as they protrude over the access road so a car could knock them over. The barriers are not tied off either.

Have emailed the builders (again), the Local Authority and will see what happens today.

In reply to Pids:

I'd be wary of assuming that the builders chose to dig a hole in the wrong place.

IME the maps that tell you where utilities are buried are usually woefully inaccurate.

We all need heat, light and water and I work on the theory that for every inconvenience that we suffer ourselves there will be others that suffer similar issues further up the supply lines.

We have a new neighbour who will be putting in a new water pipe to their property across one of our fields this spring and as far as I'm concerned the biggest inconvenience are the solicitors that insist that they need to be involved. If I'm happy to let them put the.pipe in FoC why the hell should the legal professional be allowed to profit from it?

In reply to timjones:


Because the correct paperwork has to be filed to add a wayleave to the deeds of your property so that you, or a future owner of your property, can't interfere with their water supply.

One of the reasons we didn't buy a particular house was that the water supply came from a private land and there was no wayleave. It was a more extreme example mind you as it was a capped spring on private land.

In reply to wintertree:


It really wouldn't be hard to have simple forms freely available that any fool could complete and have witnessed.

We all wind up having to pay far too much to solicitors for really simple work.

In reply to timjones:


Whilst I agree I guess I am more peeved about the fact I was not consulted by the builders - if there had been some contact from them to advise that they were going to be digging up the verge to locate a service pipe I would have been ok, we could then have had discussions that they were potentially encroaching under my hedge and how we could mitigate with this scenario - instead I come home to find a huge ruddy hole under my hedge, undermining a some of the main parts of the hedge.

The fact that are not supposed to work after 1pm on a Sat, or all day on Sunday yet continued to work 9-5 both days is only adding to my consternation. Ooh, I could write a strongly worded letter to the Guardian I'm that peeved with them.

I do however need to get clarification of where mu boundary line stops - is it the middle of the hedge or the outward boundary of the leaves of my hedge (which is where they are digging) or is it the verge outside the hedge line up to the road side (the road is an adopted local authority road) - that is what I need to find out - anyone got any views on this?

In reply to Pids:


When did you buy the property?

I'm surprised that you didn't recieve some form of map detailing the boundaries.

In reply to Pids:

No expert, but my view would be a quick call to the land registery to get their view.

https://www.gov.uk/your-property-boundaries

If you dont get anywhere with them then a property lawyer would probably help expedite an outcome.

In the meantime, any chance you could get your hands on a rather large vehicle to park next to the offending hole to prevent them from doing any further damage?

Whatever you decide, best of luck for a positive outcome.

In reply to timjones:


Red line boundaries are notoriously obscure, when you scale in to them on a simple line showing your boundary can equate to a 5m strip of land - and that is what it has come down to.

Oh the joys of caring about hedgerows and roadside verges.

I agree about solicitors / property lawyers but going to have to get one this morning.

In reply to Pids:

the 2nd one is a bit variable - you can't claim ownership by training plants to grow horizontally

on the bdy - I was under the impression that deeds have a text description of the land: dimensions, measurements off other bdys and landmarks etc. such that that extent of the property can be figured out on site by a man with a tapemeasure.
b.t.w the verge is usually considered part of the road; it would be unusual (though it's not unheardof) if you owned the verge of a public road.

In reply to Pids:


The sad thing is that the only relevant skill that a solicitor has is the alleged ability to interpret the position of that line on a map better than the rest of us.

IME they have a tardy attitude to getting it in the right place at the outset

In reply to daWalt:


It wouldn't be unheard of to own both the verge and the land that the road is built upon.

In reply to Pids:

throw yourself in the hole and claim compo