To not want to allow neighbours access to put up solar panels?

[TheHorneSection]

The back of our neighbour’s house is the rear wall of our small courtyard garden. We’ve just received a letter from the council saying planning permission has been requested to put solar panels on their rear roof. This rear roof is a) about 10 foot at most from our floor to ceiling kitchen window, and level with our first floor so we can see the entire roof from our kitchen table, and b) seemingly inaccessible without them putting up scaffolding or gaining access through our garden.

They haven’t spoken to us about it, or tried to put letters through the houses they might guess back onto theirs, we’ve only heard through the planning department.

On the one hand, it’s solar panels, and these are good things. But on the other hand, they’ll completely fill our eyeline from the kitchen, and they haven’t asked about access yet.

Would I be a complete arse to tell them I’m really not happy and don’t want to provide access, or do I need to suck this one up for the greater good?

Loads of panels round here - no glare

I don't understand how looking at solar panels is worse than looking at a tiled roof

The neighbours won’t be able to influence how long the scaffolders leave the scaffolding up so suggestions that you require them to remove it within 48 hours or any other time scale are meaningless. As others have said the scaffolding could be there for weeks preventing you from using your garden and potentially causing a lot of damage to it.

it wouldn’t be unreasonable to refuse or to require a payment for access and for the garden to be made good at their expense after the event. You would need to draw up a written agreement which you both sign with a daily or weekly rate for the scaffolding and take before and after photos of your garden and get quotes to put it right.

Our neighbours have a legal right of way over our back garden to access water pipes and exercised it without any prior warning just a few weeks after we’d had our garden professionally landscaped! Their contractor dug up part of the garden and some York Stone paving in the patio area and then cut the stones into a weird shape when he relaid them! We were furious but fortunately the neighbours were very apologetic and paid for it all to be made good very quickly after we told them about it. Might be a different story though if your neighbours can’t afford to do that easily Ian’s leave you out of pocket or having to make a small claim against them.

I didn't need to have planning permission for solar panels as we are not overlooked, neither do they get in the way of the neighbours either side. I had a quick look and I would want to know more about how this impacts your property. Not a simple as I first thought

We have solar panels and there is no glare. The newer ones just absorb all the light without reflecting any light back.

I would not object to the planning permission. The neighbours might have thought no sense bothering you until they got permission first. Many people don’t realise who is told when a planning application goes in.

If you have a bit of savings, you could ask neighbour if they have a company in mind and join in on getting solar panels too. If a company does two houses right next door they can often cut a discount to you both.

That’s awful!

Solar panels aren't always the bolt on type, they can be installed in lounge with the tile profile so the surface would be different but the profile wouldn't be.
It might be they intend to talk to you and didn't realise planning would contact you first.
Sometimes people all for planning well ahead of engaging contractors.
I'd give them the chance to discuss it with you and if they are respectful be inclined to support the work.

Have you checked the deeds of your house? We're in a terrace and we all have a covenant saying we have to allow access to each other for scaffolding for the roof for any repairs/upgrades so we couldn't refuse

There are loads of trees that grow to that height. I was in the garden centre last week and they had some for under £50 that were 15 feet plus. Have a look on marketplace. Alternatively look for bamboo in pots X

They not asked so don't need it. If you want access just refuse.

Would absolutely not allow for scaffolding anywhere on your property, as other mention it can take weeks and weeks of chasing to have scaffolders return to remove it.

To update, they called after I left a friendly note and said they don’t need access but will be sliding the scaffolding down the gap between their roof/wall and our fence. I said there’s about 2” gap there at most between the edge of their gutter and our trellis fence which has honeysuckle and clematis all over it, and asked (nicely!) if they wanted to pop round and see what I meant about the gap being smaller than they imagine. They said no.

The difficulty is our deeds don’t make it clear who owns that few inches - I don’t know whether our boundary is up to our fence, or up to their wall.

Uh oh. How could they expect a 2-inch gap to accommodate anything??

Solar panels are quite unobrusive.

I have 2 of them facing outwards on 2 windowsills in both rooms where I just see the backs of them and the front panels look better than the backs with red and black wires sticking out of them.

People got to do what they can to save on energy these days.

The only thing that would concern me would be potential glare from the sun hitting the panels.
I can’t even cope with my opposite neighbour’s windscreen reflecting the sun into my living room, I would HATE solar panels on their bungalow roof facing me.

They won’t get scaffolding in that small a gap.
Funnily enough I have scaffolders here right now dismantling after roof work.
We have a 4 inch gap between our conservatory and fence, they insisted on putting one side of the poles up on my neighbour’s patio to bridge my conservatory rather than in the gap.

They seem to attract pigeons. House opposite has loads of pigeon shit on theirs!

i think you are being really really petty here. They have said they don't need access and are using 2 foot of land that nobody bothers about the rest of the time....and you are worrying about who owns it??? Have you got a job or kids??? jesus

solar panels don't reflect they absorb. i've got panels and they don't glare at all

I'd be jumping on the bandwagon and seeing if I could get solar on my roof (obv roof needs to be facing the same way so perhaps not adjacent to theirs) at the same time at a reduced cost from their installer.
Won't be any glare, I really can't see why you'd object.

Maybe they will take the guttering down. That will give them an extra 3".

From the poles I have seen they are a standard (small diameter). A pole and foot would easily fit in 5".

The question is whether or not they need access to bolt it down - I don't know whether bolting them down is standard practice.

If there’s one rule to live by in this life it’s “Don’t be a dick” so please, take heed.

Solar panels aren't reflective. That would defeat the point of them.

I think you're being really really illiterate. You might want to go back and reread the post before trying to humiliate OP.

@TheHorneSection I was going to say "at least they're not installing windows in their roof" but seeing your update, can see they've already done this. I have panels and I don't think they cause a glare, but couldn't say for certain as they are so far up...

Our solar panels don't glare (which is good, as they're on the side of our house rather than the roof so glare would be rather annoying to our neighbours and people driving down the road!)