Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal

[DanaC]

Did the fence have an effect on any neighbouring property?

Over here if you build a fence above 6 Foot high, or you wish to build anything that will have an effect on neighbouring properties you need planning permission. If you seek planning permission, notices are then posted around the area so that any neighbours who feel they have a reasonable case for objecting can do so.

[monster]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Did the fence have an effect on any neighbouring property?

Over here if you build a fence above 6 Foot high, or you wish to build anything that will have an effect on neighbouring properties you need planning permission. If you seek planning permission, notices are then posted around the area so that any neighbours who feel they have a reasonable case for objecting can do so.

On new estates (neighborhoods), gardens (yards) here are generally one large continuum of lawn, with no boundary markers between properties. No hedges no fences etc not even a flower bed. Most such estates have many rules about what you can and can't do to the outside of the property, to keep a sense of uniformity about the place. They are referred to as "cookie cutter neighborhood" I live in one. We killed our residents association who enforced the rules and they came back as zombies, enforcing long-dead style rules! I need out! Oh, did I digress?

Anyway, it's pretty standard that fences, sheds, satelite dishes, anything over 10' including flagpoles require permission from the association. Unless you have a dog in which case you are required to have a fence and people put these nasty metal chainlink things in..... oops off I went again...

Some of the very expensive cookie cutter neighborhoods, filled with what are known as McMansions go even further, with regulations dictating what colours (colors) you can paint your house. Really.

And yet you still hear comments about this being "the land of the free" and how people wouldn't like to live in a socialist dictatorship country like Europe.


To avoid these neighborhoods, you generally have to choose to live in a smaller, older property with maintenance issues. When we bought here, we were told the association was disbanded and could not be revived and no-one would ever do that anyway.... we were told wrong......

Originally Posted by DanaC

Did the fence have an effect on any neighbouring property?

Over here if you build a fence above 6 Foot high, or you wish to build anything that will have an effect on neighbouring properties you need planning permission. If you seek planning permission, notices are then posted around the area so that any neighbours who feel they have a reasonable case for objecting can do so.

No, because it was on his property only.
Standard privacy fence.

[xoxoxoBruce]

What happens around here is a chunk of land will become available and developers bid huge sums for them. Then they break it up into building lots which they sell, or more likely build houses on and sell. In the process of breaking up the land into individual building lots, they include covenants (rules) in the deeds, that strictly limit the buyer... and all future buyers.

An individual can't out bid them, so you have to look for a single lot for sale, or a house that doesn't have any covenants in the deed. That makes it very hard to buy a newer house.

Even if you find a lot or house that isn't restricted by covenants, the taxing authority still has zoning restrictions unless you move pretty far out into the sticks. My brother is in the process of buying 653 acres in Massachusetts and building a race track. The hoops and hurdles with federal, state and local laws are daunting. Wetlands, environmental impact, traffic studies, noise abatement, impervious surface, storm runoff, emergency services access, etc, etc, etc.