My wall in neighbour's garden

[Pritas]

My house wall backs directly onto the garden of a house in the next road.
We have rats getting into the roof, I think from their garden. It's very rural and the buildings are 300+ years old in parts.
There is a plant growing up the wall and into my gutters, so not helping with the rat problem. Do I have the right to ask them to dig up the ivy or just to remove the ivy stuck to my house?

They are nice people and always allow us access so hopefully we can resolve this but are a bit fond of this plant.

It's difficult to say. There are two possible different situations. In one, yes, you can tell them to remove the ivy but in the other situation you cannot.

I know this doesn't really help.

It all comes down to whether the wall is a party wall or not.

If the wall is entirely on your side of the boundary then it is your wall and they do not have any rights to attach anything to it.

However, if the wall straddles the boundary then it is a party wall. What this means is that you effectively own half of the wall and they own the other half.

In this situation, they are allowed to have ivy climbing up the wall. However, they are not allowed to cause a nuisance. If it's climbing up into your gutters then you could certainly get them to cut back the ivy (or do it yourself).

So, it all depends on exactly where the wall is in relation to where the boundary between the properties is.

Thank you. That's clarified it, it's definitely our wall not a party wall.