Reasonable access

[didireallysaythat]

The boundary with our neighbour is essentially their house wall, maybe a foot or so onto our property. We used to have outbuildings backing onto this so there was a metre or so gap which was completely overgrown. We've now taken that down so we have a view of their house wall (bungalow no windows). We told them 12 months ago that their drainpipe is blocked so their bricks get wet. Six months ago I dragged the guy around to take a look. He said it would explain the damp in their house (!), said he'd look into it and render the unattractive wall (imagine bricks, breeze blocks and cavity wall insulation poking out).

But of course they haven't done anything. We've moved soil away from their house, exposed their damp proof membrane, unblocked the gutter, etc but the bricks are still sodden.

We want to put a fence up. There will be a foot or so gap but if there were going to do anything it would be harder.

So my question: do we need to allow them access or shall we just crack on ?

This aspect of law isn't my speciality but I think the answer is yes, if it is your land you can put up your fence. If they need to do work further down the line then they would have to use the Party Wall Act to gain access which would be very expensive for them as you can engage your own surveyor at their expense if required.

They must be stupid not to sort it whilst they have appease access and you are cooperating

We put an extension up which would make it impossible to access our neighbours external wall. We had to do a party wall agreement as within a metre of the boundary. Turns out their extension didn’t meet building control so we had to fix their foundations. We gave them notice when building would start so they could access whatever they needed to but they couldn’t stop us building (not that they tried) once we got planning. If it’s just a fence that’s not a permanent structure anyway so think you should be fine.

Thanks for the reassurance. We bought the wood for the fence so we'll start tomorrow. I think they were putting a cover over the fish pond this afternoon so they really aren't bothered....