Difficult neighbour WWYD

[IceandIndigo]

We are having a loft conversion done on our Victorian terrace house. We are end terrace and the last house on the street. Three of the houses on the neighbouring street have gardens that run right up to our gable wall - so our wall forms the boundary between the properties. It's a hip to gable conversion so the works will involve building up the gable wall, and there will need to be scaffolding to enable the builders to access that wall. As two of the three neighbours have sheds at the back of their gardens that extend right up to our house wall, the only real option is to put scaffolding footings in the garden of the third neighbour.

We don't know that neighbour well, although we've never had any issues with them - we've been living in this house for 8 years. As far as we know there is a young man (mid 20s) who lives there with his mother, and they've recently acquired a large dog - crossbreed, looks part mastiff. We can see into their garden from our side window and they basically never use it, other than the dog is sometimes out there by itself. The garden is not maintained and is just overgrown grass and pavers, no plants or flowerbeds or garden furniture. For this reason we didn't really anticipate that there would be problems with the scaffolding.

To cut a very long story short, the neighbour initially gave permission for the scaffolding, but today the scaffolders have arrived and it appears he has had second thoughts, because he's concerned that our building works will stress his dog out. Apparently the dog is home alone during the day and if it sees or hears anything unusual it gets anxious and wrecks the house. The neighbour suggested we could postpone our building works until the summer when he is off work and can better manage the dog. This isn't an option for us. We offered to screen the scaffolding so at least the dog won't be able to see people moving around but he felt the noise would still be an issue.

To add an additional complication the neighbour has just this morning informed us that the property is rented. Apparently his mother has been in touch with the landlord who is ok with the scaffolding but said he would need to do an inspection first - this doesn't really make much sense as it's not a Party Wall and there's nothing in the garden that could be damaged. We asked for the landlord's contacts details so we can clarify with them directly but the neighbour now isn't responding to our messages and won't answer the door. We've had to send the scaffolders away for the day with the job half finished.

Anyone have any advice on how to deal with this, we are at our wits end. If our builders can't start next week we are going to get bumped from their schedule.

You only have the 'right' re. scaffolding in neighbours garden/land of the work is essential. An extension isn't considered essential work or maintenance so that caveat doesn't apply here.

The right of access may be exercised where:-

1. Notice has been served of intention to undertake works permitted by the Act
2. A neighbour consents to the notice or the works are authorised by a Party Wall Award
3. 14 Days prior notice is given

The extent and duration of the access and any conditions must either be agreed with the neighbour or must be determined by a Party Wall Award.

It is an offence for a neighbour to obstruct permitted access and there is provision in the Party Wall Act for access to be forced in the presence of a Policeman.

Where a right of access exists under the Party Wall Act no
“Scaffolding Licence” is necessary, however the
Act provides that a neighbour must be compensated for any loss. This can include, for example, loss of use of all or part of a garden or inconvenience.

If we had asked and he had simply said no immediately, I wouldn't think he was being difficult. The issue was we asked and he said yes, then waited until the scaffolders turned up and changed his mind at the last minute. I didn't go into all the detail in my OP, but we also spoke to his mother, who also agreed to the scaffolding. We thought she was the owner of the house and only today discovered there's a landlord.

I don't blame your neighbour at all and I think you are expecting other people to be inconvenienced to suit you.

I would never want any one else's scaffolding in my garden for a number of reasons-messy, noisy, intrusive and inconvenient. And is always!!! for longer than you plan.
Add a dog to the mix and I would never agree.
If it is a big dog and that is the scaffolders access that is even more challenging.
And the liability-what if the dog bites someone?

It is not your neighbours problem to solve.
I would not pursue this and look for other options-what would you do if they also had a shed up?

Our dogs go batshit when the neighbours have builders using their side garden entrance which is right next to ours.

And we work from home, so even though we keep them in, we still have to deal with the noise because they're aware of it.

But you know what we do? We suck it up because it's our problem.

Yes that's right. I think we're basically at an impasse because the neighbour thinks he can use a refusal to 1) to achieve 2).

Your neighbour is being an obnoxious twat by changing his mind at the last minute.

Sorry this is happening to you and hope you can work something out either with the landlord or an alternative with the builder.

I once said yes to neighbour's scaffolding and i regretted it so badly. At least the neighbour withdrew before it actually went up, even if it was on the day. It's incredibly frustrating to have works stalled. I hope you find a way forward for your project.

@MrsMitford3 the builders will not need access to the neighbours' garden at all - the only access will be by the scaffolders to erect the scaffolding and take it down at the end. So I don't think there is any risk of the dog biting someone.

Can't they build the wall from inside the attic like they would if they were working on a terrace or a house next to one of those over-extended detached ones where the walls have centimetres between them? There must be another way to do this for those sort of situations.

Thought so. That's not on at all.

What has your builder said?

Also, I know not everywhere has them but do you have a parish council? Ours are brilliant at knowing who owns which property even of it's been let out for decades.

Mmm I think you might need a party wall agreement to proceed

I would anticipate that the tenant, and his mother, didn't realise how long it would be for, didn't think through the consequences of agreeing to it, the issues with the dog, potentially read their lease and realised its not for them to give permission. They don't want to be liable for any costs that may be incurred if damage is done to the garden etc / the house by the dog.

They've backtracked now, rightly got the landlord involved, and its him you should liaise with (its obviously the landlord's property).

Its frustrating with your timescales but I think you probably should have tried to get something in writing at the outset - that probably would have flushed out that it was a tenanted property and you could have got the LL's permission before the scaffolders turned up.

Well we’re making progress, neighbour has started communicating again, claims to have been asleep all day… He repeated his request that we delay the works until the summer but said in the next message that he could be there on Friday to let the scaffolders in, so I think he’s reconciled himself to the fact it’s going to go ahead.

The tenants can't agree to anything anyway so your anger is misplaced. It's the landlord whose approval you need.

He doesn’t seem to want to give us the landlord’s contact details despite us asking, not sure if we should push for that as we don’t want any further delays.

Interestingly where we live all rental properties are supposed to be licensed and on a register with the landlord’s name and address. I checked the register and this one isn’t on it.

You need a Party Wall agreement for this to apply.

I'm sorry OP but I don't really blame them. It sounds as though they will have a lot of disruption for no benefit. I think you will have to ask your builders if there is another option.

The quoted text sounds like it comes from the Party Wall Act.

Not an expert by any means but I would have thought you would need to serve the owner notice in the prescribed manner set out in the act. He would then have the right to get an independent party wall surveyor to be involved in any agreement for access that is drawn up - at your expense of course. Could all take several weeks, more if the owner wanted to deliberately delay things.

Yes we had to go through the party wall process with our adjoining neighbour, but I wasn’t aware it could also apply in this situation as our wall with dog-owning neighbour is a boundary wall but not a party wall.

Get it up quick when he's out and you have the mother permission 🤷‍♀️ or do you have a community page post on there asking for the landlord who owns X.

Also does the landlord know about the dog, could be a good bargaining chip 😉

So they thought it would be ok and said yes. The scaffolders turned up, the dog went crazy. They changed their mind. They've also offered a solution of doing the work in the summer when the dogs owner can be there to look after it. That's still an inconvenience to him, to use his annual leave keeping his dog under control instead of getting in with his life. The proposed solution doesn't suit you, ok fair enough, but that isn't their problem. They're not being unreasonable, you are.

I bet the landlord doesn’t know about the dog, hence the refusal to give the LL details to you.