Feedback from a neighbour dispute

One of our mediators has received the following complimentary comments following a successful mediation regarding a neighbour dispute:

Thank you and especially Peter Kirby for the really hard work done. Your patience has been incredible. I have never gone through this process and I am truly impressed! It was very stressful for me but Peter you helped a lot to make it feel that a solution was possible where I saw no possible hope for it.

11. How do you rate the performance of the mediator? Absolutely amazing. I think Peter understood that communication was going to be very difficult and that if there was any chance of reaching an agreement, he would have to mediate quite ‘physically’ as in bringing the messages backwards and forwards to the parties. Because of this, the negotiation was not adversarial (at least not as much as it could have been). Peter remained ‘neutral’ through the process and adopted a very pragmatic approach: this was not going to be a discussion about who was right or wrong but about finding a solution. He managed to keep us focused on that objective throughout. Despite this, when asked he would help me to understand the legal issues better or gave me his views on particular points, which was very important as I also felt that I could ask questions, consider other viewpoints – in other words, the process was neutral and non judgemental but neither impersonal. In addition Peter was always prompt in answering emails; this has been very helpful

We always recommend mediation for neighbour disputes. Apart from anything else neighbours have to live with each other and also neighbour disputes can be very expensive.