unreasonable neighbour - boundary lines

[Anonuser21]

Hi all not sure if this is right the topic but could use the advice

Some background
I brought a semi-detached house which belonged to my neighbour's mother who passed. Once everything was finalised I decided to rent out the property. Neighbour became very disappointed. We got along great up until that point, Not spoken to them since then. Without them, I never would have been able to purchase the property.

Issue
I have had to install a new boiler on the property which I moved from the airing cupboard to the garage to make the bathroom slightly bigger. The piping work comes out to my external wall, there is an alleyway separating both our houses - I have attached a photo to make it easier to understand.

Once the new boiler was installed neighbour sent me an email and was furious stating I exceeded boundary limits, have piping work removed as they encroach his property, and threatened legal action. I did consider this and looking at the map I had from my solicitor and as the alleyway is shared access I did not think it would cause any issues

I have yet to receive title deeds but solicitors confirmed the right of passage but no mention of any right to overhang onto the passage which I find ridiculous but did say the neighbour was being very unreasonable!!!

Anyone else had similar experiences with awkward neighbours?

in hindsight, I probably should have consulted with them before doing this work. I'm hoping to speak with him this week before this blows out of proportion.

thanks

What do you mean that without them you wouldn't have been able to purchase the property?

Shared access is for access. Not for pipes.

Good grief. If that's all he has to worry about in life, he's a very lucky man.

Providing there is no legal issue, ie boundary encroachment, I really can't see what his problem is?!

If you do not own the land beneath you may well be exceeding your limit with the pipework jutting out. Hard to tell from the picture but it may be low enough to restrict their access.

So he will move his pipes too?

Yes you shouldn't really have put the pipe work there without permission as discharging into a shared space is completed different to having a right just to walk down it

His pipe work on the photo you can see has a 90 degree bend on it so it then discharges closer to his property

The OP pipe is straight out the wall so in effect whatever is discharged is closer to the neighbours property than her own?

It does look like it’s his land so your pipes are on his property. His side/back door leads out onto the access and from the picture it looks like it goes straight to his back garden?

So they did you a favour by selling you their late mother's house cheaply/on more than favourable terms, thinking they were helping to provide a home for someone and doing a good deed? And then you decided to let it out for profit? I may be reading too much into it, apologies if so.

If that's the case, you did them a really bad turn OP.
And you shouldn't have put pipes there.

Is it shared or do you just have access over land he owns?

Looks like quite a big overhang and may be an issue - but you'll need a legal opinion for that. Neighbour also has overhanging pipes though not quite so much as yours. Can you take yours back to an equal measurement to neighbour's?

That will be a right pain if anyone tries carrying anything tall down that shared bit. E.g fence panels

I think you need to seek legal advice regarding what is allowed as permanent fixtures on shared access.
Did they sell you the house cheaper/ give you a heads up it was coming on the market and then you have gone and rented it to someone else?
I can see why they are annoyed if that’s the case.

Did you lead him to believe you wanted to buy the property to move into yourself? Or were you clear you were going to rent it out as an income stream?

You should have asked him about the pipes - that looks like you’re encroaching onto his side, and potentially making it difficult for him to move things on and out of the garden. Why did you not speak to him before you did this?

I can see why your neighbour is pissed off, that looks pretty shit. A shared passage like that should be clear, not have ugly pipes jutting out into it. You didn't 'have' to move the boiler to the garage (quite an unusual move there), you wanted to for your bigger bathroom, and if there wasn't a way of doing it that didn't involve doing this, you shouldn't have done it. Quite apart from the practicalities of keeping the passage clear for access (not just of people, but carrying bigger things through to the back), it looks like a crap job and not something a decent tradesmen would have done. Talk to a good one and see how it can go elsewhere.

No I paid over asking price.

I really like the property but I got screwed by estate agents despite my higher offer. (Long story) Neighbour and his siblings sold it to someone else but they couldn't get mortgage. In the end neighbour came back to me and asked it I still wanted it

Looking at the photo.. does he have a doorway into that tiny alley? Is that legal too? It looks a bit dodgy to me

If your neighbour owns the land and you just have a right of access, they are correct. Can you not move the pipe so it goes through the roof of your garage?

Is the garage wall exactly on the boundary? If so, I suspect your garage guttering is also encroaching on their land.

Who owns the alley? It looks like it's his and you have right of access. In which case, no, you can't put up pipe work that overhangs it.

Thanks for clarifying, sorry I jumped to conclusions! Did you lead them to believe you wanted to live in the house?
I once sold a house to a lovely elderly man who kept going on about how he'd love to put his reading chair there, how he'd enjoy going to the shop over there etc. As soon as he bought it, it became a holiday let (in an area completely decimated by airbnb/holiday lets.) I would never have sold it had I known.

The alleyway is his.

Then why on earth did you put your pipes out into his alleyway without checking with him?

Did you lead him to believe you were going to live in the property yourself?

Tell him to stop being ridiculous as he has pipes too.

solicitors confirmed the right of passage but no mention of any right to overhang onto the passage which I find ridiculous

It doesn't really matter if you find it ridiculous, it's whether you have a right or not.

I understand why your neighbour is annoyed. One house near us was constantly rented out with different people coming and going who didn't have a lot of respect for the other neighbours. Maybe he's worried about noise etc.

Oh not shared alley,yabu then.

Why is it a bad turn for her to let it out?