To buy this house (picture included)

[OverdueMover]

Name changed for this...

We are in the process of buying a house. The survey, back yesterday, highlighted a problem, but how much of a problem is it - would it put you off altogether?

The current owner built a car port, the roof of which is overhanging his neighbours boundary. It's been there for 9 years and, according to him they are fine with it and let him keep his bins on what is technically their property.

In the attached picture I have added red lines to show the boundary - the posts of the car port are within the boundary of the house we are buying, the yellow shows the overhanging roof, the pink shows the next door neighbour's property.

Planning permission shows (in both the diagram and the description) that the car port will have a 1.4m gap between the neighbour's boundary and the edge of the car port. If it matched the planning permission you could not fit a car into it. The seller says the car port was 'signed off' after being built.

I personally doubt this, yet the neighbours don't seem to have complained about the arrangement in over 9 years.

We love the house but I fear opening this can of worms (e.g. by visiting the neighbours or speaking directly to planning) because I am worried it will lead to the sale falling through...

I'm no lawyer, but did have to look into indemnity policies over a possible purchase and it's true this is entirely up to the seller to arrange if you decide to go for it

Personally I walked away as I didn't trust the policy to help if it came down to it and didn't want that hanging over me anyway. But if I had still wanted the place I'd have expected a major discount - after all the seller had got himself into a bind and would have known he'd massively reduced the chances of the place selling at all

Erm it’s like a few inches you don’t have to keep your bins there. Just shorten the roof? Or knock it down altogether.

"so the next door neighbours cannot access this bit of land without coming onto the land of the house we are buying"

What??

I think we would take the house without the car port, although it is in good condition and well made so just seems wasteful to rip it down unnecessarily.

I've attached a very rough sketch so you can see that the neighbours are not able to access the little strip of land to the side of their house from their own property. Apologies for the missed apostrophe!

Thanks again for all your views - a builders opinion on costs would be sensible too.

Planning permission shows (in both the diagram and the description) that the car port will have a 1.4m gap between the neighbour's boundary and the edge of the car port

Hold on, so it's not just about the roof overhang. Is there 1.4 metres between the two, becuse it certainly doesn't look that way on your picture?

Just to add it's made of oak with clay tiles on a pitched roof, so presumably cost quite a lot (as far as carports go) to build.

Why don't the neighbours remove the hedge?

Is it somehow all agreed that they use neighbours land for access, he uses theirs for bins?

Sounds very confusing.

1.4M between the neighbour's boundary or wall of their house? It wouldn't be much of a shelter if it had to have a clear 1.4M from the boundary line, judging from your picture.

Puzzled: No, rather than a 1.4m gap there is a roof overhang with the posts coming right up to the boundary edge. If it followed the plan that was submitted I don't think you couldn't fit a car into the much narrower carport anymore.

Once upon a time, at the side of the house was a driveway that led to a garage in the garden. Now the carport covers the whole area at the side of the house. Hopefully this makes sense when you look at the sketch?

I was happy to say it's not an issue till I read your update. Your neighbour needs to walk across your property to access his bit of land, so if you box it in they would be unable to access without removing their bush. They would not be happy. Also as the pillars aren't on your land it can't be blocked in anyway.
Building control wouldn't say anything. It would be them who signed it off and they don't sign to say it is within the previous planning permission they focus on the structural integrity and if it's safe. Consider if you want the house even though you're going to need to demolish the port.

oh gosh. is there a right of way or something? How long have they been doing it? Don't know anything about this. Someone knowledgeable may come along.

Does the roof overhang onto next door? That can be fixed at a cost.

Look at this on roof gutter.

Why not ask if you can purchase the strip of land where the carport overhangs and the bins live from the neighbour at the same time as the house?
Or perhaps the vendor should purchase it seeing as he took it over anyway, then sell it with the house?
Problem sorted!?

So, a 1.4M gap between your house wall and the outer edge of your carport supports which fall up to the boundary line.

Cailleach1: 1.4m is shown on the plan as running from the boundary, not the side of the neighbours house. It looks fine in the planning permission plans because it's not drawn to scale.

... the neighbours are not able to access the little strip of land to the side of their house from their own property

Presumably the hedge could be taken down, but future neighbours might easily say "why should we when it's you who are encroaching^, and that doesn't remove the point about the 1.4 metre separation if it's less

Frankly, the discount I'd expect on this would be growing by the day ...

If you fix the roof and guttering then you can enclose the carport. I would do this sooner rather than later as the neighbour will soon be able to claim right of way to access their bins. If they have to remove their hedge, so be it. What a stupid set up all round.

Mummy: it's not just the gutter that overhangs, the roof does too. Including the guttering and roof I'd say by at least a foot.

The 1.4m gap was described as from the neighbours boundary to the left edge of the car port - so that the person we are buying from should have had 1.4m on his own land to walk down the left hand side of his car port.

It's been like this for 9 years, which does make the think the neighbours have not been concerned as they only had to contact planning as soon as it had been built to complain about it. But other people buying the neighbours house in the future might quite rightly not be happy.

What is the distance from the side of your house to the boundary line? It doesn't sound much of an issue that can't be fixed if you can live with incorporating the gutter back on the roof and within your boundary. If nine years have passed, you be able to keep it, even if it was not approved. You'd need to check this. It is only a shelter, not the house itself. You don't lose any land.

I'd find out about the neighbours going across the land of the house you're buying for access.

Sorry, I cross posted with you on the 1.4m thing, but now it seems there was a proper gap on the planning permission but they ignord it to get a bigger carport - and are now claiming it's somehow "no problem"

I'd ask if you've had a full structural survey to discover what else they may have ignored the regs on, but since they're also full of get out clauses I'd just walk away from the whole mess

Mummy: It's not the neighbours keeping their bins on their land. Our seller is keeping his bins on their land - they can't access this strip of land whereas he can. He says they don't mind him keeping his bins on their land - presumably because they can't access it. It is all a bit odd but I guess it was the same before the car port, it must have been like that since the wall and hedge were in place - by setting it up like that they effectively sectioned off this little strip of land so they could no longer get access to it.

You could move the edge of the roof back. Would the vendor make this right or allow for an amount to do so? You still pay the accepted price, but it gets put aside for the work.

I assume the neighbours access the rear from the other side of their house?
Whether to go ahead depends on your mindset.
It probably won't be an issue now or in the future.
As you say it's been there 10 years or so. It's a tiny strip of land the neighbours don't use.
If you are of the mindset that you can buy and only worry about it if it becomes an issue crack on. If you are going to mither over it, don't!

Just to reiterate, the neighbours built the wall and grew the hedge, both are on their own land. Therefore they cut off access to this strip of land that runs alongside their house themselves.

So, the neighbours don't access it all. They would have to theoretically if they needed to go there. What a very odd situation to wall, hedge off your own access completely. Maybe the hedge was much smaller and they could nip around.
So your vendor is the only person accessing the neighbours' land along the side of the neighbours' house.