Boundaries

Hi .I have a holiday property on the waterfront in Catalunia .My French neighbour has a crane right on the fenceline just on his side that he uses to launch his inflatible dingy .To swing his boat into the water, the back part of the crane needs to swing over my property .He does this rarely , so has never been a big issue to me .I was over in may, and things had changed .He obviously wants to swing his new larger dingy in the opposite direction , with now the boat over my land and mooring to access his mooring .To accomodate this he has had made a fence sliding panel which would need to be pushed back parrellel with the party fence .The main issue is that he has put this on my side of the party fence , on what I regard as my land .I cordially confronted him about this in may , and he gave me a galic shrug , and grumbled that he would get it moved .I returned in june , and nothing had been done , and I feel sure he wont , hoping I give up .He was not there , so could not ask .I now want to give him an ultimatum to get it moved , as he never asked to come onto my land ever , or if I agreed to him swinging his boat over my land or about the modified fence which is tresspassing .

What should I say in a letter ?

in which language (spanish , catalan , french or english ) ?

how long to give him ?

do I inform the adjuntament ?

Advice Please .

Before you do anything, check the escritura for your property to see what it says about boundaries.  There's a good chance it will say who your neighbours are but will not give boundaries as would be normal in English property deeds.  If the escritura does not contain a map delineating the boundary then the best advice is to forget it. 

And if you're not worried about him swinging the boat over your land and mooring and only worried about him putting a panel on your side of the boundary fence then the advice has got to be for you to lighten up.  This is Spain. Tranquilo.  It doesn't matter.

I would love to see pictures of this crane in operation.

How about a cannon pointed out to sea and if his boat crosses your land shoot off the cannon.

The cheek of some people!    

Hmmm .. how about a couple of screws through the sliding panel ... that should give him a hint that you are still on the case.

Good Luck and remember The Battle of Trafalgar ... 

Thank for the replies ....I think.......

Looking foward to parking my car or your drive , then telling you to relaxxxx maaan !

I was hoping for a more technical answer if anyone wishes to assist !

If it was only an issue of him putting up a fence on my land , then surely I would have given him a hard time before . It has implications to my mooring .

The technical answer is check your escritura before you do anything.  That was meant to be helpful.  You can't expect much help if you snarl at those who do try to help you.  In your original post you said that the main issue was that he had put the sliding panel on your side of the boundary fence.  So presumably you're talking a few inches.  Hardly compares wirth parking on your drive.

You are, of course, free to ignore the advice to chill.  But it is a very British thing to stress out over trivia where boundary fences are concerned.  The Spanish can't be arsed.  It's too hot.  But if you want to pack your British high stress levels when you visit tranquiloland, then no skin off my nose.  But, just out of curiosity, why do you think Pierre is going to take any more notice of something in writing than he has done so far of your clearly limited powers of oral persuasion?

Boundaries do seem to be a bit loose.......we thought the builder had made our plot smaller and tried to find out where the boundaries were. The offical reply via a lawyer was, to the front where the road is, to each side where  your neighbours are and to the back where the limit of phase one is, although we couldn't establish where the limit of phase one was. The deeds do give a sq m size though and after a rather casual measure up we decided it seemed close and accepted what we had.

Boomer,

As a last resort, if he is as arrogant and ignorant as you say, you could try intimidation, I mean he is a Frenchman and they tell us they are lovers not fighters. It was a favorite pastime of ours for over 100 years not so long ago and as the saying goes ' Going to war without the French is like going lion hunting without your mouth organ' .

Dakey

The king and his castle.... very British but rather outdated me thinks. If you don't live there and nor does he your paths must cross very infrequently so why get uptight.

Live and let live, life is very short and Spanish weather and culture is not conducive either.

Before I bought my 3 ha finca I insisted on the seller surveying and fencing the property, because I was damned if I was going to get into inevitable arguments with neighbours. Nevertheless, my neighbours have been far from tranquilo and have ever since told me that the seller stole parts of their land, etc. They themselves have no plan of their property and should have taken up their issues with the seller when he started fencing. Nowhere in the world are people tranquilo about others taking their land. This lack of tranquility is not a trait confined to the British. I would erect a flagpole or some suitable high wrought iron sculpture on my side of the fence so that he couldn't swing his crane. Better yet, erect one on his side of the fence and find out just how tranquilo he is. People with a casual attitude to other people's property as a rule of thumb don't have much property themselves.

All valid points, albiet being quite diverse ! either ignoring it all , or firing a large calibre missile . 

But mr (or ms ) jek , you miss my point , it is infact the wish to approach this avoiding falling out with my neighbour if at all possible -  was my reason to ask for advice on this forum .Tranquilo is a good answer , but  not always the best answer               ( as maybe the spanish minister for economics may now realise )                                                                                                                  It also , may not be the implied lack of my communication skills , but possibly the other party with little regard for others ?

I have now had legal advice from elsewhere which involves sending him a note rather than the spanish cultural way - the official letter.

If and when he ignores this - then remove his fence , and if he is not happy -  let him take the legal route .The bolt through the fence or flagpole positioning have also been considered .

Thank you all for your thoughts . Can I assume I am the only person on this forum with links to Catalunia ?

And this is how you propose to avoid falling out with your neighbour?????

You assume that his response to you removing "his" fence will be for him to take the legal route.  But you are often there at different times.  So I can see that fence being transferred every visit.  It's hilarious really.

Hey ...fence tennis !! what a great idea !!!

France to serve , Britain  returns ..........etc .....goes to to a tie breaker !!

Would knock the euro song contest into a cocked hat .

Screw the sliding panel shut and erect a Union Jack close by .... that should show him you mean business ... Hopefully he will similarily raise his national flag .. The White one.     Tee Hee.

TP1,

That is slightly misleading, the flag is actually a white cross on a white background!

Dakey