External house wall

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Hi we have put an offer in for a detached house but I do have a query about how it is laid out externally. This house is at the end if the street but the other side of the external wall is only accessible via the neighbours gate which is attached to this wall. This seems to be the same on all the detached houses here and looks historical (houses built in the 1970s). I don't have a problem with this as such but my questions are, can we get access to our external wall if we need to and can the neighbours attch anything else to our wall such as a shed or hanging hooks etc..my friend was in a similar position and her neighbours attached a small shed to her wall and all she can hear when she is in ger living room is scraping sad banging every time they take things in and out and closing the shed door.

Sorry for the typos...should be HER living room

scraping AND banging

Attached a shed how? As in they built a shed using your friend's wall as 1 of it's walls? Almost certain this wouldn't be allowed. As far as I'm aware, you're not supposed to attach so much as a drawing pin without permission from the home owner.

Hi yes they drilled the sides of the shed to her wall and used her wall as the back of the shed..and they did not ask permission. Shes elderly and did not want any aggravation by challenging the neighbour.

Oh no, so they blatantly took advantage of her? How sad.

Nope, this wouldn't be allowed. It's up to you if you'd allow anything attached to your property, you'd be perfectly within your rights to refuse.

With regards to maintenance, obviously you'd need permission before entering your neighbour's property. They can refuse this (not likely if it's going to benefit them, repointing wall etc, will make it more aesthetically pleasing, for example) but if they do they are legally obliged to allow access for necessary maintenance of your property.

Access should be defined in the contract of sale. It’s a fairly standard Set of clauses, if your solicitor hasn’t included it, just ask her to.

Hi yes they took advantage of her 100%...betting on an elderly lady being too timid to challenge them and they were right...but thank you for the info

Thank you for the information x

We have this situation (I'm the one who owns the passageway between the houses). Legally we have to let the owners into our garden for essential maintenance of the side wall of their house, but we don't have to (and wouldn't, due to past abuse) allow them in to make any other changes to it, run pipes or guttering along it etc).

Hi thanks for this...if we get the house, we need to make sure we don't fall out with the neighbours