To ask neighbours if digger can come through

[hobbeschild]

We'd like to build a swimming pool in our garden. Our side access is not wide enough for a mini-digger. Manually digging and shipping the dirt out will add thousands to the cost.

Our neighbours have a wide side-access right next to us, and if we took the adjoining fence down it would mean coming over a few metres of their land, gravel and a bit of grass (not the perfect lawn type) and removing a woodstore (not the precious type).

We would commit to put all their land and the fence back exactly how it was before and build a new woodstore (this would still be much cheaper). The digging will take about a week.

We will tell them they can use the pool whenever they wish, as long as we don't have visitors. They are lovely people in their 50s with grown-up kids. We have a good relationship but are not friends. In the past we used a friend's pool on this basis so we know what it's like to be on the other end of this arrangement.

If they say no we will probably not go ahead, so it's not like if they say no we'll build it anyway and not let them use it! We would say there's absolutely no obligation and it's just at the ideas stage, just getting a feel for cost.

Personally, if I could have the luxury of easy access to a pool with none of the responsibility I would jump at the chance!

I realise this is a relatively first-world and trivial problem compared to what a lot of people are going through at the moment, but if we're going to do it then we should now, before another restrictive year in terms of holidays and exercise opportunities.

How would you feel if you were the neighbour? AIBU to ask them?

Do the digging by your selves by hand to half the cost if you can?

I'd drop the access to the pool, it could problems later on. I'd get an agreement drawn up, and pay for their solicitor to go through it with them. I'd also offer payment of, say, £100 per day. I'd also get the contractor bound by the agreement so they can see exactly what to expect and duration of works.
I'd speak to them first, then if they were OK, proceed with the document.

My neighbour has building work ongoing and I have offered, we aren't best buddies, but we get along so why not?

Oh, I'd hate to be asked that. I really wouldn't want to agree, but I'd find it very awkward to say no. I certainly don't want to be benevolently granted the use of someone else's pool.

TBH, I'd probably be concerned about the disruption of building the thing on your land and then the noise it's likely to bring and the way it would affect my enjoyment of my own garden. I realise it's probably unreasonable to object but it would be a concern to me. I think I'd find it quite an inconvenience to have my own garden turned into a building site to facilitate a project I was already concerned about. It would make me grumpy, it would depend when/how you caught me whether I let that show!

I'd ask but I wouldn't offer the pool. I'd offer financial compensation for the inconvenience.

I would refuse outright. It will wreck their garden and if you really think it will take "about a week" then you are deluded.

I'd allow my neighbours access provided they put it right.
Ask.

I would not be giving them free reign of your pool , that sounds like a future CF thread in the making!
I’d ask but omit the pool use part .

I think I'd find it quite an inconvenience to have my own garden turned into a building site to facilitate a project I was already concerned about.

Yes, I think that's the key issue -- you are asking them to ensure a lot of noise, mess, inconvenience, the wreck (even if reinstated) of part of their garden and the demolition and rebuilding of a wood store, for something which they may be horrified about anyway, even if not granting access to your builders. I would anticipate the risks for them being exactly what @Myrrfect has experienced.

It's not up to you to judge if the state of their lawn/wood store etc is crap enough to make your plans ok. A digger cases a lot of damage.

I wouldn't offer use of the pool initially. My DF's neighbours had work done, similar situation. The house was on DF's left side, and the access was via the right of DF's house, across the garden. Dad was quite happy to lift a fence and have them drive the digger around the side of the house, then lift another fence to get it through to them.

I'd want the commitment to make good in writing, though.

Is there absolutely no other way of getting the digger to the garden? If not I assume you are in a terrace or semi in which case I’m not sure I would want my neighbours having a pool because of the noise.

Worth asking. As a neighbour I'd be tempted but use of pool should be by arrangement and just for them/their visiting children. they can only say no. You might need to build in new turf/new gravel to your offer given the mess diggers cause. My reservations as your neighbour, restitution and access to pool notwithstanding, is the noise people using a pool can cause. If they do agree get all arrangements in writing.

It's not just one trip iwth the digger is it? It's back and forth with the dug out earth.
Even with metal boarding, you're going to destroy their garden / driveway and cause an unholy amoutn of noise and mess for them. An offer to use your pool in return is paltry. And where are they meant to store their wood (which presumably they'll be needing to burn as it's winter) while you've destroyed their woodstore?
You're asking a lot of them to save yourself money. ANd consider whether anyone wants someone else's swimming pool built up against their boundary (I may have mistaken that part - where is the pool being built?).

The thing is that its not just the excavator going in once and then out again . Its many loads of a dumper laden with tons of spoil up and down their property to do the excavation and then assumedly many more trips up and down with other plant, machinery and materials for weeks.
This is a major upheaval and inconvenience for them to save you thousands of £££s. I wouldn't be keen at all if I were your neighbours.

Do you need planning permission for a pool? I've always thought they are rather vulgar but that's just me.

YANBU to ask but if I were your neighbour I wouldn’t say yes , I’ve no interest in using someone else’s pool , you having a pool will inevitably mean more garden noise and I wouldn’t want the disruption in my garden , despite your consideration that it’s not a well kept lawn / woodshed .

I'd def allow it, but then I'm 'up north' and we're friendlier !

I wouldn't offer them use of the pool on top of the rebuilding the land. What would the agreement be if you or they move house? What if they do bring their friends round or start using it when you are not aware that they would be?.

No i also wouldn’t offer use of the pool. That could end up a nightmare.

I mean, you can ask. I'd probably say yes with the agreement of a written contract.

Not sure i'd be too keen on compensation being the use of your pool though. Don't think many people who aren't on good friend terms with their neighbours would be comfortable with that.

Before you ask them, have you checked for underground pipes etc.? Otherwise you run the risk of destroying the sewage and drainage for a lot of people.

If there was a pool going in next door no way would I facilitate it and at the expense of all the disruption and mess at my expense.

Ask. Politely. And with time for them to think about it. Offer cash.
Tell them where you're planning to put it and where the pump and heater will go - and which one you are planning to buy and how noisy it will be.
Will you be heating it all year round or just April to Sept.
How big will it be. Are you having a slide that will let kids peer into their garden.
Will there be drunken skinny dipping?
How many late night drunken bbq/swimming parties are you planning to hold?
Just thinking of all the behaviours etc that we do or avoid that might annoy our neighbours with our pool

if you give an inch, most people will take a mile.

This is exactly why I put YABU OP. DH and I have had too many instances of this over the years. As your neighbour I would not want to allow you to do this but I would also be leery of saying 'no' because I wouldn't want to upset the relationship. I'd also be thinking about all the extra noise a pool would produce in the summer time. Are you able to have the pool cleaned and serviced without accessing the neighbour's?