Border construction and enclosure with height difference to the neighbor

Hello everyone,

This is a topic that has been discussed here quite often. The search function provides a lot of information, and I believe I have largely understood the issue. However, I would like to summarize it and discuss it again to be sure, as there are certainly differences between the federal states, and it mostly concerns plots with a slope.

We are the latecomers in a new development area; our neighbors built a year ago, and we are currently in the construction process. Our neighbor has completely leveled and raised his plot. Since there is a slight incline in the development area, there is currently about a 0.75m height difference between our plots. Together we will build a formwork wall on the boundary and share the costs.

This raises a question for me about boundary construction:
1. I want to build a carport under 3m high at a distance of 1m from the boundary. That of course falls under boundary construction. Now I have to ask, from which plot height is this measured, from mine or my neighbor's (-0.75m), which would leave us with only a 2.25m high carport without an official building encumbrance. Not ideal. I have now read that it is about the natural terrain profile, right? Since we have not made any changes, our height effectively applies, and we can proceed with the boundary construction. The development plan makes no specifications about planned heights. We are located in Lower Saxony.

The neighbor is also responsible for the enclosure, which according to the development plan must be a fence or a hedge. He plans a 1.80m fence. Would it be customary to measure this based on his plot or on ours? Probably a matter of taste. On the one hand, from our perspective, the effective fence height would be only 1.80m - 0.75m = 1.05m. Then we can look into their garden if we do not plant a hedge ourselves.
On the other hand, if the fence is placed on the formwork wall, from the neighbor’s point of view it would be a solid 1.80m + 0.75m = 2.55m wall. Neither option is great; I think we should discuss this again.

Here is my artistically valuable sketch:



I would appreciate your opinion! Especially whether I have understood the issue of boundary construction correctly.

Best regards,
Lennart

You should already show the site plan. Preferably with the current heights and the planned heights. What does your building application / the development plan say about the boundary structures and enclosures?

Now I have to ask from whose ground height this is measured, from mine or my neighbor’s (-0.75m), which would then leave us only a carport of 2.25m without recording a building encumbrance. Annoying.

Neither, the correct is, as you yourself suspect

Now I have read that it is about the natural course of the land,

. For the fence height, I would assume that a maximum mentioned in the development plan (?) (unless otherwise stated there) must be observed with regard to both the original and the finished terrain.

On the one hand, you then only have, from our point of view, an effective fence height of 1.80m - 0.75m = 1.05m. Then we could look into their garden if we don’t plant a hedge ourselves.

Oh come on. I’ve never heard of anyone standing at the fence to gawk and count neighbors’ calories while they shovel cake. As long as no nude beach borders a convent, I wouldn’t waste a thought on this consequence of the height difference.

Hello,
I can say a little about this; we are basically in the position of your neighbor. We built in a new development area in Lower Saxony three years ago. However, our garden is at the original ground level, while one of our neighbors has raised theirs. His house including the walkway around it is about 0.75-1 meter above the original ground level. Since his house is only 3 meters from the boundary, the question is also how he will compensate for the height difference.

We were responsible for the fence, which we installed last year. At that time, the neighbors were still building. For us, a fence height of 1.80m measured from our ground level would have been too low, especially because both houses at the boundary have floor-to-ceiling windows. So we spoke with the neighbors and recorded in writing that they agreed to a fence height of 2.50m. In advance, we created sketches on the computer of what it should look like visually.

As consent form, we used one from our building authority that is specifically for neighborhood agreements. However, we did not submit a building application or anything similar. We are not sure if that is legally sufficient in case of doubt, but the municipality has at least already seen the fence and did not object.

It is best to talk to the neighbor about this, after all they are more affected by the fence and need to know what they want.