The Never-ending Neighborhood Dispute on Nesøya: A 10-Year Battle

NESØYA (Dagbladet): Along a remote road on Nesøya in Asker, perhaps Norway’s most famous neighborly dispute arose.

In April 2014, an outbuilding was split in half, from floor to ceiling.

When Dagbladet visits the previously peaceful neighborhood nine years later, half of the outhouse is still there, towering over the steep terrain.

The documents show that those who live here have been to court more than ten times.

– It has affected the health of the whole family. We have become sick of it, says Wencke Waage in a comment to Dagbladet.

In March, a final decision came from the State Administrator in Oslo and Viken.

Nevertheless, the case has not been resolved, and the appeal possibilities may be even more, Dagbladet is informed.

This is the story of a neighborhood dispute that never lets itself be stopped. And about how the state of Norway facilitates it.

Tear down fence, greenhouse and wall

It was in April 2014 that married couple Wencke and Roger Waage returned home from holiday to the driveway full of journalists.

The neighbour, investor Arne Vigeland, had had their outbuilding cut in half. In court, he later explained that he believed parts of the outbuilding were on his plot.

Vigeland had hired craftsmen with chainsaws via a contractor for the job.

Waage’s fence and a greenhouse, as well as the wall of a third neighbor and several trees and bushes were also removed, according to the indictment.

It was the start of a many-year dispute over 898 square meters of forest land.

Dagbladet has repeatedly tried to get a comment from Vigeland and his former lawyers via phone, SMS, e-mail and letter, but has not received a reply.

Cut a dirt road

In the years that followed, round after round of complaints followed, mostly initiated by Vigeland.

Two years before he had the outhouse split in two, Vigeland had bought the gravel road nearby. The municipality had ordered him to upgrade this road when he built the house. The neighbors joined in and paid for the upgrade.

Vigeland signed up to negotiate to buy up the road site on behalf of the neighbours. They signed a contract about this collaboration, the case documents show.

Nevertheless, he bought the road plot for himself.

Bully alarm: – Explosion

He claimed that the outhouse stood on the plot of land with the gravel road that he now owned.

Vigeland thought the outbuilding was unsightly and that it could fall onto the road used by his children. He has explained that he tried to come up with constructive proposals and invited the neighbors to dialogue.

The neighbors, for their part, believed that everything was in order and in line with the right of use they had.

Case by case

The couple with the now half of the outhouse reported Vigeland.

The Waage family has testified in court a dozen times.

Waage was successful in that they had the right to use half of it, even though it was halfway inside Vigeland’s property.

Vigeland kept losing new cases he initiated. In 2017, he was sentenced to 120 days in prison for damage, of which 60 days were suspended.

According to the district court, Vigeland said that he would not have removed half the outbuilding and the other objects if he had known that the neighbor had the right of use. He nevertheless held the neighbors responsible and denied that he had committed serious damage.

– It is not cut in two parts. It has been taken down plank by plank. The building materials have been removed. They are delivered neatly stacked to the owner, said Vigeland in Asker and Bærum district court in 2017.

He was also ordered to pay restitution to Waage and another neighbor, as well as insurance costs and court costs.

Vigeland appealed to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, but both were rejected. Instead, he got a tougher sentence.

The outhouse is held up by straps because the load-bearing wall was also removed in 2014.

The half roof provides poor protection for the sawing bench and the rusty saws that are still stored there.

Mailboxes and rubbish bins

But the case did not end with a prison sentence.

Vigeland himself complained to the municipality about a number of issues, including the fact that they had set up letterbox stands and rubbish bins which he thought were illegal.

He tried to put up a fence across the broken outhouse.

It also became a long case when he refused the post truck and the waste disposal truck to drive into a neighbor’s via his road, according to case documents.

Spy chief: – Upcoming battles will be decisive

The story doesn’t stop here either.

An expropriation case has since taken place, where the neighbors want to divide the road again in order to own their own driveway and parking space. Vigeland has also opposed that.

Therefore, half the outbuilding is still intact. It must finally be removed when the survey is in port.

Still possible to complain

At the end of March, the legal department at the Statsforvalteren in Oslo and Viken came up with the decision on the latest complaint.

The area is to be distributed among the three properties, as Asker municipality has previously decided.

But the State Administrator cannot rule out that there are no further appeals for Vigeland.

– The State Trustee cannot rule out that other bodies such as the Civil Ombudsman may come into the picture, or that the State Trustee’s decision can be tested through a civil lawsuit in court, says senior advisor Marius Vamnes in the legal department of the State Administrator in Oslo and Akershus, to Dagbladet.

He has not yet received any reactions to the decision.

Races: – Offenses

Requires change

Dagbladet has asked Waage and Vigeland how they feel that the case has taken almost ten years.

– The system is strange, replies Wencke Waage, who lives on the plot with half the outbuilding.

She believes there needs to be a limit to how many rounds you can go with a case.

– You can complain over and over about the same thing to different bodies. Somewhere or other they should be able to stop the appeal possibilities, says Waage.

Got sick

– We have lost a lot of time that should have been spent on grandchildren, family, friends and pleasant things, says Waage.

She says that they have become ill from the conflict.

– It has been incredibly stressful, she says.

– Have you considered moving?

– Many have asked about it, but I have lived here since I was seven years old. This is home.