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?

You can ask, but there's no way I'd agree to this in a million years. I'd be worried enough about the noise impact of people in the pool, let alone the hassle and potential damage of the digger.

I agree that there’s no harm in asking but it would be a firm no from me I’m afraid. The risk of inconvenience and property damage would be too high. Plus I wouldn’t want to use your pool and would worry about the noise and other impacts (including safety) of the pool.

I would say no but then I wouldn't want the use of your pool.

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask, as long as you make it clear that you know it's a big 'favour' and are willing to put it in writing about repairing any damage caused and quickly. I think there are plently of people out there who would be ok with putting up with this for a week, though if I were your neighbour and we got on well, it would still depend a lot on the size and layout of my land and my assessment of just how disruptive it might be.

I would avoid the offer of access to your pool for now, though, especially in writing. It could well be something you'd come to regret.

I would offer them cash so they could go away for the week when it's being done. They could decide whether to just keep the money or actually go away with it. Maybe £500 or £1000? Depending on how much it's saving you. I don't know how much it costs to build a pool overall.

I wouldn't offer use of your pool as that is awkward and storing up problems for the future.

I wouldn't think you were being at all unreasonable to ask but I would very probably say no.

Diggers make an enormous amount of damage. No way would I agree and I'd be pissed off to be put in the situation of having to say no.

And if they don't realise how much mess it will cause and they say yes it will ruin your relationship. Not to mention how much noise kids make when they play in a pool.

If you're still going to ask, you should offer to pay window cleaning / jetwashing and full cleaning of their drive / patio / house adjacent to the digger route, temporary store for their wood or supply of dry wood for the duration, any additional insurance premium that's added to their policy cost as a result of your building work going through their land as a bare minimum. And specify the type of temporary fencing you will be using, as well as the hours and days of work for the builders. That's going to be more on point than possible future use of a pool they may not want.
There is a monumental amount of hassle for these people to save you money; you really need to take that into account.

We need more info - and a diagram.

How big are your gardens? How big will the pool be? How well do you get on with the neighbours at the moment?

If I was your neighbour I would consider it (assuming you hadn't already pissed me off about something else). But that is because I'm a swimmer and I would like to use the pool, assuming it was a size/type for proper swimming.

But I very much doubt it would take only a week, and the mess made by a digger making hundreds of journeys back and forth would be horrific, particularly given the ground is already absolutely saturated. So even though I'd consider it, it is a very big ask, I would need a lot more information, and if there was 'nothing in it for me' I would almost certainly say no.

It's a wide detached property, but we have only a footpath on that neighbour's side. On the other side we have a new wooden garage, bikestore and shed taking up the side access (wish we'd thought of the pool before building those) and across that side fence is only the end of someone's garden, not a house. This is the side of the garden the pool will be, NOT the disrupted neighbour's side.

I forgot to say that we considered offering them half of the £££ we will save. I'd still consider this.

If we got a pool by any means, I would say they could use it by prior arrangement occasionally, whether they'd helped us or not. I trust them not to vomit etc. I feel this would make up for occasional shrieking. We're not yobs - I hate the thought of upsetting neighbours with noise.

The whole project will take a few weeks but the digger in-and-out will be for only about a week. Our side path is sufficient for the rest of the project. I admit it will be incessant for that week or so.

My neighbours and I work together and this would never be an issue between us. It really depends on the type of people you and they are.

How big is your garden and where are you sitting the pool? Personally I can think of nothing worse than a pool in a tiny garden hugger mugger against my boundary with all the noise and disruption associated not only with building it but in years to come.

I am assuming that since you don’t even have side access that you are not living in a property with grounds but have a suburban garden .

I would say no. Even if you offered me unlimited solo access to the pool every Tuesday and Thursday for eternity I would say no.

And it’s not just a digger coming through, it will be the machines removing all the soil, the skips, the lorries. Then the cement mixers, the landscapers, you will want all of them to come through via their access.

Ok, seen your update. It’s still a no.

Absolutely yes from me. Wouldn't be a problem in the slightest.

I don’t think allowing use of your pool is the inducement you hope it will be.

There is no way I’d agree to this and I’d be resentful that you expected me to incur cost and disruption to save yourself the same.

Are you sure the making good and paying the neighbours won't negate the saving? As others have said, the damage and disruption is going to be far bigger than you indicate in OP and yes, as PP said, their house will likely need jet washing and windows cleaned.

I'd say no, and I wouldn't want to use a neighbour's pool anyway.

@ScottishStottie

You can ask, but they will probably say no.

If i were your neighbour i wouldnt agree to anything like this. There was a thread recently were a neighbour had asked the op for similar access, and it was pretty much unanimous in advising not to, due to the fact that if you give an inch, most people will take a mile.

How ridiculous, our neighbour in the last house suggested that the mini-digger could go through his garden when we were having garden work done, we both had narrow paths, wide enough for the digger but our external chimney meant we couldn't use our path. We removed the fence, no problems at all. The irony though was that the builder who'd hired the digger realised half way through the job that the roof came off the digger and he could use our path after all to get it out!

It wouldn’t bother me at all, as long as everything was put back as it should be. I wouldn’t other use of the pool. And one other thing to consider OP, I have had friends that have real difficulty in selling their houses due to having a swimming pool, one had to agree to fill it in before completion.

Maybe if it were JUST the digger going over their land once to get into your garden and then a second time to leave your garden. However, I expect your builders will want that easy access for other things too, such as removal of the soil, delivery of materials, etc. I'd say yes to the first for a specified/limited time, on the proviso that my property wasn't used at all for any removal/delivery of materials.

@hobbeschild

It's a wide detached property, but we have only a footpath on that neighbour's side. On the other side we have a new wooden garage, bikestore and shed taking up the side access (wish we'd thought of the pool before building those) and across that side fence is only the end of someone's garden, not a house. This is the side of the garden the pool will be, NOT the disrupted neighbour's side.

I forgot to say that we considered offering them half of the £££ we will save. I'd still consider this.

If we got a pool by any means, I would say they could use it by prior arrangement occasionally, whether they'd helped us or not. I trust them not to vomit etc. I feel this would make up for occasional shrieking. We're not yobs - I hate the thought of upsetting neighbours with noise.

The whole project will take a few weeks but the digger in-and-out will be for only about a week. Our side path is sufficient for the rest of the project. I admit it will be incessant for that week or so.

Can’t you just take down your shed or bike store then rebuild it?

It’s rather cheeky to ask to destroy your neighbours crap woodstore, and wreck their garden, just so you don’t have to damage or rebuild your nice shed/bike store

Can you not get the digger lifted in by crane?

YANBU to ask but very few people would say yes. I wouldn’t be interested in sharing the pool either.

You could ask but I'd say no - I wouldn't hold your breath.

No from me. I have dogs who need access to the garden regularly and for late at night wees. Do they have dogs ? I couldn’t have fences removed it would be too inconvenient- & that’s without the mess to the garden