Neighbour has access through basement?!

[Bitofeverything]

I’ve seen a house I like, but has a very weird thing in that the neighbour has a right of access to his basement through the house’s basement. It’s basically impossible to explain - but it is the only to his basement (they haven’t put in a staircase from the main house - god knows why). There isn’t a staircase from the house I’ve looked at to it’s basement either (though think we’d put one in). Basements are only used for storage. I should run for the hills, right?

It’s an old mill that has been converted slightly chaotically to housing, to slightly explain

Do you have a like so we can see?

If there's no access from the house then it's really just underground storage to which he has a way of right through yours to his. Currently safe as he wouldn't have access to your house.

If you put in stairs and wanted to change the use it would be more problematic. But if I just wanted it as storage I don't think it would put me off at all.

*right of way, even.

Would you be able to get insurance to cover your insurance if someone who is effectively a stranger has access and could potentially give a key to anyone?

If you planned to keep the basement empty, it would only concern me in the sense that it could put off potential buyers in the future. However, that seems a waste of space and there could be other issues that crop up which you become responsible for.

It would be nice to put stairs down to the basement, because it’s the only access to outdoor space out the back. It’s not been touched for years so no one has used that outdoor space, which the house I am looking at owns freehold. At the moment the owners have put in a second wall with more locked doors, so the neighbours only have access to a narrow corridor

In your position I think I would be offering the neighbour £5000 as an inducement, plus the cost of fitting a trapdoor and steps so he can access from his own house, to give up this right. You'd have to pay the solicitors fees as well. Your solicitor might have a better idea.

Or the right might become extinguished if it is not used for a long time. Legal advice required.

I don't know how that works. One of my ancestors loaned some land to a local bowling club many years ago. They still occupy it. I don't know who owns it.

I think I'd run.

And if you need a mortgage then you might find one difficult to get.

is there a way of putting a mini corridor having 2 doors down there one to your part of the cellar one to his part?

Isn't it more likely access is required to services such as underfloor pipework, electric cabling, waste pipes, etc? Rather than him wanting access just for storage.

I have my office in what is effectively someone else's basement (it's on a steep slope, so "basement" when looking from the main road, but at the back, I look out on open ground. The person living above who is the freeholder has legal right of access into my property, but that's solely because their water supply, waste water piping and mains electric cable feeds, come through the basement to their property. In reality, I've been here 20 years and they've never needed access. Although they have "right of access", they don't have a key so if they require access, they have to go through me. Of course, in an emergency, they could break in, just like any house can be broken into if it was on fire, being flooded, etc.

if you put in a staircase without first removing the neighbor's ability to access your property (even just a corridor strip) you will invalidate your insurance. don't do it.

while the idea to pay for your neighbour to relinquish their rights is nice, if it was feasible it would have been done before.

I would be looking elsewhere tbh. this sounds like a nightmare.

if you go ahead, then stop thinking of this as a basement. it is shared use with neighbor to an external storage area. make sure the area isn't being counted as livable space in the value if the property. this house is worth less than an equivalently sized property where there was a normal basement.

Converted mill sounds amazing though!

Would annoy me that neighbours would need to go through 'my' home to get their junk out. No - tell them to block the neighbours side off and they can make their own access point . What if they let it out to lord knows who, and they keep weird stuff down there - no just no !!!

If it's a right of way written into the property deeds you could ask to buy out the neighbour but they don't have to say yes. Nothing can force them to give up a right of way.

You download the title details of both properties from the Land Registry for about £6 each and this will tell you the extent of the right of way, whether there are any covenants etc. on the property.