Extension plans to block our utility meters in

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Our neighbour has put plans in to build right up to the boundary where are gas and electricity meters are on our garage wall. There will be a 5cm gap which means we can’t read the meters or access them in emergencies etc. Planning are going to approve the plans but building regulations say there should be a 1 metre gap from the closed box. We have to step on to the neighbours drive to read the meters. We have about a foot of land. The house was built like this over 30 years ago so I believe that we have established rights? I wonder if anyone can advice me at all?

Well OP can take legal action against the neighbours stopping her from accessing her meters.
As in this case where the appellants Mrs & Mrs D lost their case against Mrs C ( the D's would not let C access her meters) & the D's ended up paying court costs of £200,000.
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5b2897a62c94e06b9e197ec7/amp

guildfordchambers.com/dickinson-v-casillas-2017/

Easier explanation to read here:
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4782966/amp/Spiteful-pensioner-faces-200-000-bill.html

[quote TracyBeakerSoYeah]Well OP can take legal action against the neighbours stopping her from accessing her meters.
As in this case where the appellants Mrs & Mrs D lost their case against Mrs C ( the D's would not let C access her meters) & the D's ended up paying court costs of £200,000.
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5b2897a62c94e06b9e197ec7/amp

guildfordchambers.com/dickinson-v-casillas-2017/

Easier explanation to read here:
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4782966/amp/Spiteful-pensioner-faces-200-000-bill.html[/quote]
Yes and that was a travesty.

A neighbour should not have to have someone access their land to their benefit or gain only without legal rights already in evidence at purchase.

I accept theres a cost impact, but why should the owner have to forever forfeit an expensive piece of land they own?

Come on it’s just common sense, you just don’t build a wall 5 cm away from someone’s gas/ electric meters. I would say you just need to leave about 500/600 mil and that should be ok to access them or change them.
I think when most neighbours get into disputes common sense goes straight out the window. 😳

I don't see why the OP thinks she has the right to walk about on her neighbour's land, just because her own house was thoughtlessly built.

Absolutely Chumley as all OP wants to do is to have the legal right to access her meter.

Well reading that article it looks like it is a legal right to be able to read your own meters wherever they are. The op didn’t put the meters there it’s just where they have always been .

That old couple looked like they had just lost the plot 😀 not sure why the son didn’t put a stop to it all before they ended up with a 200 grand bill 😮.

One of my neighbours has to drive on to one of our drives about 6 foot so they can reverse into there’s, It’s a narrow lane .. I don’t care if he does as it makes no odds to me.

@Chumleymouse

Well reading that article it looks like it is a legal right to be able to read your own meters wherever they are. The op didn’t put the meters there it’s just where they have always been . That old couple looked like they had just lost the plot 😀 not sure why the son didn’t put a stop to it all before they ended up with a 200 grand bill 😮. One of my neighbours has to drive on to one of our drives about 6 foot so they can reverse into there’s, It’s a narrow lane .. I don’t care if he does as it makes no odds to me.

That's different though. If you decided you wanted to build an extension, that 6ft is a huge amount less if you just have to be courteous to your neighbours.

@PigletJohn

I don't see why the OP thinks she has the right to walk about on her neighbour's land, just because her own house was thoughtlessly built.

EXACTLY,

@PigletJohn

I don't see why the OP thinks she has the right to walk about on her neighbour's land, just because her own house was thoughtlessly built.

The neighbours bought the house with the knowledge of where the metres were. It’s the same as people buying houses opposite schools and then complaining that there are children outside their house in the morning and afternoon. When you view houses don’t you look at potential causes for neighbour access? We won’t even look at shared drives for this reason especially as where we are I’ve noticed a lot of people putting fences up on the shared drive.

If the neighbours want to build the extension they should have to pay for the move of the metres and OP would be ridiculous then to block it. I’m sure there are other suitable places for the metres to go other than in the garage.

SoloMummy, you sound as deranged as the pensioners with the £200,000 legal bill. It's in no way a travesty. As has been said, it's a legal right to access meters due to safety. Maybe you should have a chat with a firefighter who has taken dying people out of a gas exploded building before banging on about "rights".

Looking at the plan of the houses, if you have to walk on the neighbour’s land to access your meters, then surely the neighbour has no room to build an extension. The gap from each house to the fence looks to be about the same.
How big is this proposed extension?

It might be interesting to get a copy of your neighbours deeds - many deeds do show that neighbours have to allow access for things like water & gas pipes - ours do over our neighbours front garden
I would contact building regs
A interesting thing I was told re planning - you can get a plan for a garage even though you might not have legal access over a common driveway for other houses but it doesn't mean that you will be allowed access because you have planning - some of the planning laws are weird.
Op has had access for 20 years -the gas meters have always been there from when houses were built -
I would contact the building regs at council & your gas provider

Our neighbours received planning permission on condition that they had a 4m wide gateway, despite the fact that to do so they would have to encroach on our land.

Planning don't work with building control or check land registry for ownership/easements etc, they literally just check whether what is proposed falls within planning guidelines or not

I thought meters belonged to the infrastructure? I.e. they are not yours legally just housed on your property (in effect) meaning the company that own the infrastructure are the ones who can demand access. Might be worth a bit of homework and a couple of phonecalls to see if there may be any issues caused by blocking access. Either way you need to move fast, once a structure is up it is rare that they are forced to alter it, even if planning was awarded incorrectly.

I think you need to speak to the utility company for advice but also seek a meeting with your local councillor before they are approved (surprisingly councillors do have a lot of sway).

What it appears if that the original deeds were defective in so much that they didn't either give you a 1 m strip of land around this side of the house or grant an easement. Having said that, you are probably likely to have acquired an easement by use which is easy to probe given that the meters have been there for 32 years. However, you will probably need a solicitor for advice and act quickly to start the easement process.

Read this www.gov.uk/government/publications/easements-claimed-by-prescription/practice-guide-52-easements-claimed-by-prescription

If he's planning on building that close to your wall he's going to have a problem with the foundations anyway . He would need to have 600mm wide for a 300mm structure ? ( unless he's building a raft ) He would probably hit your foundations and the gas pipe anyway.

I would estimate the closest he would be able to build would be about 500-600mm away from your house anyway . So that would be enough maybe to get access ?
Unless he knows exactly where the pipe is underground he might find that it's in his way .

It's true you don't own the meters they belong to the utility company.and so does the pipe/ cable.

It sounds like the builders/original utility company that put the meters in were stupid when they built your house. Would there be any comeback at them? And surely your homebuyers survey should have picked up that there was no legal access route to your meters and that someone else could quite legally extend their house onto the full Width of their plot (just like your house is!). It’s a mess, but it’s not exactly your neighbour’s fault, is it!

You could just ask your utility company to install smart meters FOC inside, then you'll never need to submit meter reads again. This is possibly why planning are giving permission for it, on the assumption that everyone will have these in the future

@sunsalutations

You could just ask your utility company to install smart meters FOC inside, then you'll never need to submit meter reads again. This is possibly why planning are giving permission for it, on the assumption that everyone will have these in the future

.....unless you have insufficient mobile signal inside your house.

It is nothing to do with planning. That is why PP can be given. It doesn't mean that the proposal meets all other requirements covered by other forms of legislation. It would take forever for anything to happen if all regulatory authorities had to cover all other areas.

@sunsalutations

You could just ask your utility company to install smart meters FOC inside, then you'll never need to submit meter reads again. This is possibly why planning are giving permission for it, on the assumption that everyone will have these in the future

But you still need access to the original meters. It is a safety feature not just to read the numbers.

It is not uncommon to have to go onto a neighbour's land to find the meters, I rented a house once where the gas meter was completely in a neighbour's front garden. No idea why, must have made sense once.

Its not just the utility provider that you would need to contact. They will not move a meter to an inside wall for free by themselves. The OP would need to contact the network operators too. It is a big job and not a simple thing to do and would be expensive

If they are old 'dumb meters', they will be upgraded to smart meters, and a utility provider will do that FOC. A smart meter engineer has the right to re-position to the most appropriate location without involving the District Network Operator. In this case, moving in away from current location would be sensible especially if the extension is definitely going ahead. Unfortunately, your neighbour has forced this upon you.
I was just thinking about this differently - might be a good opportunity to sort it out now. But it's just an option.

Everything I've read says that if you are moving more than about 1m or moving to a different side of a wall then you need to involve the gas transporter or electricity distributor and that your gas/electricity provider will not do it for you