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Cannot Access Neighbour's Land for House Repairs

4 replies

Gail06 · 15/10/2014 17:29

Can anyone offer any advice please? Our very old kitchen extension (not built by us) is built up to the boundary line of our neighbours' property. The left hand wall of our kitchen forms the right hand wall of his garden. It has a sloping roof, which slopes down towards his garden. The roof leaks, and apparently the old felt and tiles need to be replaced. The problem is that no roofer will replace it for us because he would need access to our neighbour's garden to do the work, and our neighbour says he'll sue us if we go onto his land. We have been advised that potentially we have rights under the Access to Neighbouring Land Act to go onto his land to carry out necessary maintenance to our property. But apparently under the Act the court can restrict access to the specific dates required for the work, and also require us to give a month's notice to our neighbour before work is due to begin. Also our neighbour could change the dates booked if he chose to. We appreciate that these terms are very reasonable and fine with us, but builders generally are in short supply in our area, and we find that they won't give that much notice, and often shift their dates at the last minute. And the prospect of needing an access order to go onto land to do the work seems to be putting them off. Any ideas please? This has been going on for over a year, we're feeling sandwiched between everyone's demands and we just want to get our roof fixed. Water gushes into the kitchen every time it rains, there's no plaster on some of the walls (because we can't sort the damp walls out until after we've done the roof), and brick dust falls onto our worktops every day. I just feel miserable every time I look at it.

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grendel · 15/10/2014 17:45

So sorry that you have this problem. We were in exactly the same situation in our old house. Our neighbours also threatened to sue us if we went on their land despite us needing to effect urgent repairs on our ancient cottage as a condition of our mortgage. It was a nightmare.

We thought that we would need to make use of the Act that you mentioned, but in the end after much angst and aggravation, a solicitor's letter plus us going round and utterly grovelling to them meant that they gave us reluctant permission.

There was always aggravation whenever we tried to repair anything - the house was long and narrow with its entire length running down one side of their (huge) garden so it was impossible for us to do any external work from our side. In the end we moved house, and we will NEVER again buy a property which relies on another party's goodwill to maintain.

Not that that's much help to you though, but I do sympathise.

Gail06 · 15/10/2014 17:56

Hi Grendel,

Thanks for your reply, and for your understanding. You're right, it's a total nightmare. I know what you mean about grovelling, we've had to do a fair bit of that too. We had to beg them to allow us to unblock our guttering, and they're complaining to us that the window in the wall is rotten. They're right it is, but we can't replace it without access to their garden. I think they're hoping we'll find a window fitter who'll hang over the edge of the roof and do it:-;

You have my sympathy too, sounds like you really went through it, especially if the whole length of your house ran down the side of their garden. Maybe a solicitor's letter will be enough to do the trick for us too, we'll try that first. Thanks again.

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PeppermintPasty · 16/10/2014 13:52

Hi. Please check with the solicitors that acted for you on your purchase with regard to access. On your deeds (these days if your property is registered, deeds are now called Official Copies of Register of Title), there may well be mention of an existing right to access your neighbour's property to enable you to carry out maintenance and repairs to your property. This is exceedingly common. If so, a solicitor should be able to send a strongly worded letter to them pointing this out and you should get access quite simply, before trying the other route you suggest.

Further, if your solicitor says there is no such right, then ask them why they did not ensure it was there when you bought the house, as potentially they may have overlooked it.

Gail06 · 16/10/2014 14:49

Hi Peppermint,

It's a good point, because access on the title deeds would have made things much simpler. I've checked ours, and sadly there's no mention of it. I agree with you about the house purchase, we're thinking of going back to our original solicitor and questioning why they didn't raise it in the purchase queries. We probably should have thought about it as well:-; Thanks for your suggestions.

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