Jump to content

Problem with a new neighbour


Cirrus
 Share

Recommended Posts

I have a new neighbour who has flouted all our lotissment construction rules by putting in an oversize pool without permission from us or the other adjoining neighbours, elevating his garden and concreting it over completely, chopping down the dividing hedges and building wooden fences in their place. We sent him a registered letter when he started, explaining to him that he needed to get permission for alterations from the lotissment committee - but he ignored this advice. We now have no choice but to take legal action against him.

His response is to threaten to initiate legal action against me and the other adjoining neighbours. He points out that my pool is less than the regulation three metres from his property - which is true. However, I had written permission for my pool from the previous neighbour when I built it in 2002. Will my obnoxious new neighbour have any claim against me?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Being your neighbour in the interest of harmony I'd be strongly

inclined to explore all friendly avenues before resorting to

legal action.

What exactly is bothering you, is it what he has done or that he has apparently done it without your (committee's) permission ?

Surely your committee cannot overrule standard planning permission requirements. He would have needed that for his pool, and possibly for some of the other work he has done, so if he has flaunted that, or worse, done the work without any permission at all, then your Mairie is the place to complain and it will be their decision whether or not to take action.

Good point from Chancer. I believe the 3m rule is pretty standard so permission to ignore that I don't think can be given simply by a letter of no objection from the previous neighbour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do have written permission from my old neighbour, but as you point out maybe this is not enough.

But somebody told me that there is a time limitation (2 years?) for making a complaint about a contravention of building regulations. Can anybody clarify this?

I am indeed trying to negotiate some sort of amicable settling of this conflict, but he is not a reasonable person at all. He is well known in the town as somebody very difficult to deal with, and indeed was very unpopular at his last place of work and in his last neighbourhood. Our fear is that if we do not get some constraint on him now, then he will see this as a green light to do whatever he wants.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="AnOther"]Surely your committee cannot overrule standard planning permission requirements. He would have needed that for his pool, and possibly for some of the other work he has done, so if he has flaunted that, or worse, done the work without any permission at all, then your Mairie is the place to complain and it will be their decision whether or not to take action.[/quote]

I believe that some lotissement developments are actually coproprietés (ie ownership structure is similar to apartment buildings), and in such cases all subsequent alterations are governed by the reglements de copropriete AND normal planning regs - and you would need to meet BOTH requirements. Thus one could find oneself in the position of meeting the planning regs but failing to meet the requirements of the copropriete (and therefore can be prevented from doing an alteration/development permissible according to the planning regs but contrary to the reglements de copropriete). However, as AnOther notes, the normal planning regs cannot be circumvented by simply gaining permission from the coproprietaires.

Regards

Pickles

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cirrus, my sympathies are with you.

From what you have written he seems the sort with whom negotiation is NOT an option - he will do whatever he likes unless legally restrained - and then some carry on until they end up in prison.

Best of luck

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This unfortunately does seem to be the way it is going. We made a proposal that we would accept his illegal construction to date, as long as he signed an agreement not to undertake any further construction without clearing it with the lotissement committee. He refused.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...