AUDREY Gardyne went on her holidays earlier this year and came home to find a 2.8-metre corrugated privacy screen where parts of her fence used to be.
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Her neighbours had told her they were going to put up a screen because the Gardynes’ home directly overlooked their bathroom window.
Since it wasn’t an unreasonable request, Mrs Gardyne had no issue with it. However, she wasn’t prepared for the proportions of the structure her neighbours eventually erected along the fence line.
“We had no idea it was going to be as high as what it was,” said Mrs Gardyne, who has since had lattice mounted on her side of the fence to obscure the Colorbond metal screen.
“We spoke to various builders and they said they’d never heard of anyone putting up a screen as high as that.
“Now we’re wondering if we try to sell the house if it will be an issue for whoever wants to buy it.”
The neighbours weren’t open to negotiation on the matter, so Audrey and husband Ron sought legal advice, contacted the local progress association and wrote letters to council.
Eventually the matter went into court-based mediation and Mr Gardyne asked them if they would at least modify the fence to add curves but the neighbours refused to budge.
“The council passed it because they said it wasn’t blocking our view, which is true. But it’s an eyesore, made of Colorbond and it wasn’t even the colour of the existing fence.”
The case was taken up by Kiama MP Gareth Ward, who was shocked to discover how little regulation there was governing the erection of privacy screens.
“There was very little regulation around what could be erected and whether or not that blended with the environment and to what extent neighbours were involved in consultation,” said Mr Ward.
“You’d like to think that people could work with their neighbours and have good relationships but that’s not always possible.”
As a result, Mr Ward raised the matter with council and revised regulations have now been included in Development Control Plan 91 which has been submitted to council for ratification.
The revised policy proposes that these screens go no higher than 2.5m above existing ground level, be no longer than 5m, be located at least 900mm from the boundary line and be located in the rear yard of properties.
“Hopefully these standards will make it better for people who want to erect privacy screens and those people who might be living next door to them,” said Mr Ward.
