Oh, where do I start with this.
We've been away on holiday for two weeks so progress on the shed was obviously on hold for a while. That's not the problem though. I probably need to give some background for it all to make sense I think. Our house is on a private housing estate. We own our house outright but it's a leasehold property so the owners of the estate "own" the land. Now for some reason, the estate owner has decided she "doesn't like" our new shed and is insisting we pull it down. We are well within all council legal requirements so that's not the issue. She doesn't like it because it "looks liveable" ???? This is based on nothing more than the framework you can see in the last pic . . . she won't accept that it's a shed because it's "too well built". Basically, we take down 3 very shabby, rotten sheds and try to replace it with something that is well built, looks good and doesn't bring down the value of the estate and she doesn't like it because it's TOO nice . . . !!!
I don't even have words to express the rage we are currently feeling.
And on top of that, the way she's gone about it it is unbelievable. With any issues relating to residents she is supposed to send a letter explaining the issue and giving the person a chance to discuss it or time to sort it out. Not so here. She arrived unannounced on my doorstep in the middle of the day (when she knew my partner wouldn't be home) for a surprise visit, with her aggressive PA and thug of a son with her to apply a little intimidation. Only several days later did she send a letter telling us to remove the shed. On top of that she is flat out refusing to meet with my partner to discuss the situation as "there is no point" since she's made up her mind.
All that said, we are going to try to fight back for our right to keep (and finish) the shed since there are other properties on the estate with sheds of the same or similar size, some even with more than one, so she can't legally (we hope) demand that we remove ours and let the others keep theirs. That means the fact that she can only give the reasons "it's too big", "it looks liveable" and "I don't like it" might not hold up in court (and yes, we are prepared to go that far).
Our one other chance is to try and buy out the freehold on our property so we do actually own the land (quite a few other residents have done this in the past) to give us more rights. That, however, is time-consuming and expensive (although my solicitor is on stand-by for it lol).
Why is nothing ever bloody simple??