Peacocks

[Guest]

I seem to remember something about commercial vehicles on ours as well...

 

(That is about half of the people on our development)

 

I might look into getting it removed from my deeds. If it's only £50 - it's £50 well spent in my opinion.

 

Sorry about the kr00zin_uk name - I couldn't think of anything else at the time and I also have an e-mail address and am a member on a car forum - to fix my car (hence where the name started). So it was easier to keep all the usernames and passwords the same otherwise it gets confusing... (Not that it takes much)

 

Just in case anyone is interested (and doesn't know) I live in mid Cornwall (around the Truro, St Austell, Newquay area) - sorry that I'm not being very specific but you just don't know who's around...

[Gallina]

If the council have come to look, it means that one of your neighbours has complained.

 

The clause about chickens in your deeds is specifically there to protect your neighbours. If this neighbour chooses to take the matter further, you will have to back down. I am sorry to be so negative, but you have to be realistic.

 

The neighbour won't be risking much by going to court, as they will almost certainly win their case and you will have to pay the costs.

 

Everyone should check their deeds before getting chickens.

[Guest]

If the council have come to look, it means that one of your neighbours has complained.

 

The clause about chickens in your deeds is specifically there to protect your neighbours. If this neighbour chooses to take the matter further, you will have to back down. I am sorry to be so negative, but you have to be realistic.

 

The neighbour won't be risking much by going to court, as they will almost certainly win their case and you will have to pay the costs.

 

Everyone should check their deeds before getting chickens.

 

 

 

You obviously haven't read all the posts...

 

I am being realistic I have already said that if they have to go, then they will have to go.

 

I have also said that it is fair enough that they are investing a complaint.

 

And I know that the deeds are their to protect all the residents. Now I will challenge everyone on my development that they are spoiling my view with their commercial vans and they will have to park them in a field down the lane and walk to their house! Not everthing in the deeds is common sense and we haven't always had access to the deeds.

 

I don't think people are supposed to have satelite dishes and camper vans either... (that pretty much includes the other half of the development that doesn't have vans) lol

[The Dogmother]

I'd be tempted to keep quiet and wait to see if anything develops; the council may have been round, they may not. They could've been investigating something else entirely.

 

You have nothing to gain by taking any further steps at this time, in fact you could start something off. Sit tight.

[Guest]

I'd be tempted to keep quiet and wait to see if anything develops; the council may have been round, they may not. They could've been investigating something else entirely.

 

You have nothing to gain by taking any further steps at this time, in fact you could start something off. Sit tight.

 

I don't agree, the council won't start investigating you if you just phone to ask, believe me they don't want to add to their workload unless they have to (i.e. if they have to respond to a complaint.) If "Ooops, word censored!"ody has complained then you'll have nothing to worry about and wouldn't you rather know if there's a complaint about you?

 

I'd rather know if it were me, than sit there and wait for a letter, I'd have no hair or nails left!

 

good luck and I hope it turns out to be nothing. Please let us know what happens, we're all concerned for you.

[The Dogmother]

You need a memory like mine then Poet - I'd forget about it in the blink of an eye!

[Egluntyne]

I agree with Claret. Wait and see. No point stirring things up....it might backfire, although I do think they should have had the good manners to arrange to visit your property whilst you were there. Do they have a statutory right of entry? If not, you might have grounds to complain at a later date.

 

Keep your powder dry.

[The Dogmother]

Egluntine is right - they do need permission to enter your property.

[chelsea]

I don't understand why keeping a few hens is considered to be any different to keeping a few rabbits. guinea pigs or birds in an aviary.

 

I completely agree !!! there is no difference. and thats exactly what I would say if someone challenged us.

 

It states in our deeds "no poultry or pigeons" it also states no caravans, boats or commercial vans and there are all here in our cul-de-sac.

 

It also doesnt state we cant keep pigs. So if a neighbour did challenge us we would ask if they would prefer we got rid of the chooks and got some piggies!

[Ziggy]

That might be ok by the deeds of the house, but do you think the council would say 'oh yes as long as you have 6 pigs at the most it will be fine'?

 

My daughters are wanting pot-bellied pigs and pigmy goats ... we live in a city suburb... maybe I could open a zoo...

 

On a serious side, although if the deeds say no chickens the neighbours could take legal action, would they really bother? Surely those chickens can't bother them, my neighbours never knew I had chooks until they came to a party in my garden!! Would anyone be mad or mean or bored enough to take legal action against something that doesn't bother them? I hope it all gets sorted without all that fuss, maybe the council officers were not at all looking for chickens, maybe there is another reason they were around, something more trivial and less alarming?

[chelsea]

We're the same here.....only 1 neighbour knows we have chooks.

 

Obviously because of our deeds our neighbours here are well within their rights to challenge us if they wanted to. However, there are lots of things we could say about other things that go on here before worrying about 4 well behaved chickens!

 

we would never get rid of our girls though, hubby is so attached he said if the "worst came to the worst" he would move house (and chooks) if we had to !!

[kissinuk]

If the council have come to look, it means that one of your neighbours has complained.

 

The clause about chickens in your deeds is specifically there to protect your neighbours. If this neighbour chooses to take the matter further, you will have to back down. I am sorry to be so negative, but you have to be realistic.

 

The neighbour won't be risking much by going to court, as they will almost certainly win their case and you will have to pay the costs.

 

Everyone should check their deeds before getting chickens.

 

I disagree. Personally I think the chance of someone taking legal action against a couple of chickens to too remote to even worry about (note I said a couple not a flock). Imagine the local press, they'd have a field day....

 

Plus you say they wont be risking much by going to court - they will have to pay their solicitors costs up front, that would be enough to put most people off.

 

Like kr00zin_uk said, if my neighbour complained then I'd be asking them to remove their shiny new digital TV aerial. Do you think they worried about me suing when they put that up? Life is too short to worry about such low risk issues.

[Guest]

you said your neighbour said the council had been to his door "asking questions about your chickens"- did you ask him exactly what the questions were and what answers did he give them?

 

I think that's what I would have wanted to know first off.

[ChookieCaz]

It looks like you could have a lot of conflicting advice!

 

My reaction, would be to alert the council, letting them know that your neighbour had seen people snooping around, who claim to be from them and you were made suspicious as there had been no previous contact from them.

 

From our own experience, (though different circumstances), we were contacted by letter and we visited the council offices before anyone came to see us, at our request. As for further details, it would be off topic.

 

Like you, we contacted the council and were told that we could keep hens. However, it didn't occur to me to check our deeds. We did let our neighbours know of our intentions, showing the Omlet brochure and there were no objections.

 

Contacting the police, as was previously suggested might also be a good idea.

 

Hope things soon settle down.

[Guest]

 

My reaction, would be to alert the council, letting them know that your neighbour had seen people snooping around, who claim to be from them and you were made suspicious as there had been no previous contact from them.

 

 

I think that's a great idea!

[chocchick]

It's not on, just arriving on your property when you were not there and not warning you. How did they get access?

It's probably reasonable although horrid to investigate your chickens, but hopefully won't come to anything. Is there any way you could keep your chickens on the other side of the hedge at the farm, if they get evicted?

[ChookieCaz]

Every-so-often, we can read in the newspapers about bogus callers, posing as officials, taking advantage of the elderly, or anyone else they can con.

 

I still think there should have been some warning, such as a letter from the Council to let you know if there has been a complaint made against you and if so, what the problem is, so that you have an opportunity to contact them and sort it out. If it is a cockerel from the nearby farm causing annoyance, then the Council need to know that it isn't actually any of your business!

[Jules.]

It's not on, just arriving on your property when you were not there and not warning you. How did they get access?

It's probably reasonable although horrid to investigate your chickens, but hopefully won't come to anything. Is there any way you could keep your chickens on the other side of the hedge at the farm, if they get evicted?

my side gate is locked & bolted, so the only way access could be made is over it or over the fence!

[The Dogmother]

Hmmm, I think that careful questioning of your neighbour is needed. Perhaps say that you were concerned as to how they'd accessed your property and wanted to check your facts before calling the council, give him a get-out though in case he was telling porkies.

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

 

Thank you all very much for your kind words!

 

I have a quick update for you...

 

I have put two and two together and realised that it must have been my immediate next door neighbour.

 

And they contacted the environmental health department to investigate the smell coming from the chooks.

 

OK there is a very slight smell, but I very much doubt that they can smell it from their property. You can barely smell it in ours!

 

About a week after our neighbour told us council officials were snooping around (obviously investigating their complaint), we got a business card from the environmental health department asking us to contact them.

 

We immediately wrote to the address and explained the situation.

 

As of yet, we haven't had a reply. But we are feeling confident about a positive response as we have explained the situation clearly enough for them to see that there is actually nothing to worry about and our neighbours are just being silly.

 

I just hope my silly nosey neighbours get fined for wasting public money on an unnecessary investigation!

[The Dogmother]

Ahhh, nice to know what's going on. I hope it works out for you.

[Egluntyne]

Good luck.

 

Surely your neighbours must have realised that this could potentially backfire on them.

[Guest]

I don't think it will backfire on them as such. Environmental health will just decide that they were time wasters and that will be the end of it.

 

It's just annoying that they didn't come to speak to us first!

 

We spoke to both our immediate neighbours prior to getting our chickens out of respect and common coutesy (even though we wasn't getting a cockerel and they were being kept on our own property).

[The Dogmother]

Perhaps you could have a little chat with them on the pretext of asking if they'd seen anyone snooping around... then politely mention that whoever is complaining could get stung by the council...

[Guest]

Perhaps you could have a little chat with them on the pretext of asking if they'd seen anyone snooping around... then politely mention that whoever is complaining could get stung by the council...

 

I like your style!