I’m at war with my neighbour over her loft extension and disgusting new kitchen… the council won’t help
A HOMEOWNER is at war with her neighbour over their new loft and kitchen extension - as she claims it encroaches her property by four inches.
Caroline Attfield, 55, says next door’s dormer was built 111mm onto the roof of her three-bed house in Welwyn Garden City, Herts.
The mum-of-three used a laser beam to make her claim and says the dormer, along with her neighbour’s “disgusting” new kitchen extension, is not in keeping with original plans.
A report drawn up by surveyors found the dormer "straddles the centreline of the party wall (a shared property boundary) but does not overhang the extent" of it onto Caroline's side - with her neighbour insisting she and her husband built everything by the book.
But Caroline told The Sun Online: “You have to come to my garden to look and you can see it with your bare eyes.
“It’s up to 111mm over on my property. We’ve been fighting it since it’s been up."
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She added: “We noticed it just before they started taking the scaffolding down.
"My husband said ‘I'm sure that’s on our side,’ so then we got a laser beam and it was.
“She’s done the plans but she's not done what the plans were originally.
"If any tiles fall off they’ve got to get onto my property to fix it.
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“To date we have lost two sales of the property and this situation will continue while she remains encroached on our property."
The plans for next door’s loft and kitchen extension were both approved by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, with works finishing last year.
A report by surveyors said the shared boundary between the two homes is 250mm thick - 125mm on each side of the centreline.
And it reads: "The dormer straddles the centreline of the party wall but does not overhang the extent of it onto the side of (Caroline's house).
"Using a deduced party wall thickness of 250mm (125mm from centre line) the maximum overhang is 111mm (guttering) and 58mm (tiling line)."
Caroline’s neighbour insists the report means her extension does not encroach onto next door's house as she says they have shared ownership of the party wall.
Responding to Caroline's claims, the neighbour said: “We have had a dispute for many years because she gets annoyed with everything I do in the house and calls the council.
“We had professionals doing everything from the drawings to the building and everything went accordingly.
“My builders followed the drawings and the council has been here to measure everything.”
My builders followed the drawings and the council has been here to measure everything.
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She went on to insist she and her husband “did not encroach” Caroline’s property, adding “if they build a loft conversion they can have exactly the same” amount of space to put up a dormer on the other side.
The neighbour added: “We are in the middle of the wall and the legislation allows the homeowner to raise, to thicken, to demolish.
“We are on the party wall - they have a right to do exactly the same on our side.
"I don’t know what the issue is, they are causing the issue.”
Next door's dormer is not the only addition to the property Caroline is unhappy about.
The housekeeper and pub worker believes the grey breeze blocks used for her neighbour's kitchen extension are an eyesore from her garden - and claims they are not in keeping with original plans.
'DISGUSTING'
“It’s disgusting,” she said.
"The plans stated the finishing of the wall should have been brickwork but they've left me a 10ft high breeze block.
"The neighbour then told the council it would be rendered, but it is still bare breeze blocks.
“They built the inside before they built the outside. I could sit there and water that all day and eventually it will go through to her kitchen.”
Caroline's neighbour insists she and her husband wanted a brick finish on the extension - but claims Caroline and her husband did not allow it - something Caroline disputes.
The neighbour hit back: “They didn’t give us a chance to render it.
“We have the planning application to prove our intentions were to render the wall.
"That wall is like that because my builder spoke to her husband and said, ‘do you mind if I do the brick wall on your side because if I do it on my side it’s not going to look nice,’ and he agreed with that.
“So they came with bricks all delivered and he said ‘not in my garden’.
"He had to do it with the concrete blocks from my roof.”
She added: “I just wish them good luck with whatever they do. I want them to leave me alone so I can live my life.”
Caroline said: "We know she put plans in for it to be rendered but no-one’s ever knocked on the door and said can we come in and render the wall.
"They built the inside first and then left the outside thinking they were going to get in my garden.
She also insisted she does not "call the council about everything" her neighbour does.
A spokesperson for Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council said: “This is an ongoing case so there's little we can say at the moment.
“We have made it clear that the planning enforcement process is not the right one for settling boundary disputes between neighbours.
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“There are other mechanisms to address such disagreements, through civil proceedings, but these would not involve the council.
“Ms Attfield has been advised to seek independent legal advice.”
