I have recently inherited my parents’ property, which includes some land bordering the west and south sides of a neighbour’s property.
The land has grown wild over time and a lot of it, particularly the boundary area with this neighbour, is obscured from vision. In the past couple of months, I have worked my way through the overgrowth to inspect the boundary and found a number of issues relating to the neighbour. They have been actively dumping over the boundary wall for some time. This includes loose ashes, loose organic waste and plastic bags of same, as well as old gutter pipes, other building and gardening scrap items.
Additionally, I noticed that a Ring camera with a very wide viewing angle is installed on the neighbour’s gable end. The camera is obviously directed over the boundary wall into my property. I have evidence that this camera is actively detecting motion on my property from quite a distance away.
At some point, the neighbour also employed someone to go onto my property and cut away a large swathe of the overgrowth. Presumably they felt they had a right because a hedge may have been growing over to their side, but the cleared area is approximately seven metres back from the boundary and is easily more than 10 metres in length. The neighbour also has a long-standing shed built up against the boundary which has, more recently, had a waste pipe extended out the back wall across the boundary. It is hanging in mid-air within my property, excreting what I presume is water vapour from an oil burner in the shed.
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I have approached the neighbour directly, but she doesn’t really seem to care. The waste pipe has been cut and is now downturned on to the boundary. There are now a large number of waste bags piled on the corner of her site, ready to tip over into mine. I will not be surprised if local wildlife tear these bags to bits.
I have approached the council, which has “suggested” to her that she use the local waste collection service, which she shares with a sibling a few houses over. She has not shown any inclination to do this. I’m worried that the only way I can force her hand into rectifying these issues is to contact a solicitor to take a civil case against her. If at all possible, I do not want to go down this road.
Are there any other actions I can take that might motivate this neighbour to get herself back into a legally correct position regarding these issues? Thank you.
The dumping of domestic waste on adjoining properties is, unfortunately, quite a widespread practice, but one which is generally confined to locations that are overgrown or out of sight of the property owner concerned. The perpetrators can dump conveniently and undetected for some time. This is what has happened in your case.
You are fortunate that the boundary is clearly defined by a wall, otherwise a contentious dumping issue could develop into a boundary location dispute.
You are right to be concerned about taking a civil case. However, it is prudent to deal with it as if you were preparing the groundwork for a civil case. This means you should document all relevant data, including the nature of the dumping, trespassing, damage and dates of events including details of conversations etc. Check to see if the dumped material contains any item that directly links your neighbour to it. Your evidence should include photographs. You should also monitor the situation as frequently as possible.
Your best course of action would be to approach your neighbour again, restate your concerns and, without accusing her directly, put the situation in context by explaining to her that the dumping is in breach of the 1996 Waste Management Act and that you will be obliged to make a formal report to the local council. You should also point out that the cutting of overgrowth on your land is an issue of trespass and damage that you will have to report to the gardai.
You should explain that the Ring camera position is in breach of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and is a matter for the Data Protection Commissioner. Despite the seriousness of the situation, your approach should be conciliatory and expressed in a tone that seeks an amicable resolution. In effect, you would be asking her to consider the situation and giving her an opportunity to see what she can do to resolve the issue.
As your land borders the west and south sides of her property, your overgrown hedge is likely to be preventing direct sunshine to her property from late morning to late evening. This may be an issue and if so, you could consider offering to cut back or reduce the height of some of the hedge, as part of building a cooperative relationship with her.
You may feel that this approach is too conciliatory, but this issue can go one of two ways. Either your neighbour is persuaded to cooperate and remove the dumped material, or she ignores you and leaves you with little option but to get legal advice, which risks escalating the situation into litigation. This is the route you said you want to avoid. Another reason for avoiding litigation is that your evidence is largely circumstantial. You do not have direct evidence of her dumping, trespassing or damaging your hedge.
An option you could consider, if your neighbour refuses to cooperate, is to clear the overgrowth. This action is undesirable from an environmental perspective and subject to seasonal restrictions. However, as people are unlikely to dump waste across their boundary on property that is open to view and well maintained, it may transpire to be your only option.
Patrick Shine is a chartered geomatics surveyor, a chartered civil engineer and a member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland
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