Boundary on one side is the actual house wall

[WeeJimmycranky]

Looking at a house to move to and it looks a good prospect - but on viewing I looked out of one bedroom (it's a bungalow) and saw a yard with next door's bins etc. It transpires there is no strip of garden between the house and next door so the boundary is effectively the house itself. This makes me uncomfortable - what does anyone else think?

Isn’t that normal?

So a semi detached bungalow then?

That's normal, even semi detached or terrace houses the wall is across the boundary and you only have half each.
Just look out for overhanging gutters and whether you do really have a thin strip of even a few centimetres.
Also look for maintenance issues, can everything be done from your side if necessary, and any over hanging windows etc.
In the end it's a personal decision based on budget and availability, good luck with it.

Sorry - didn't explain that very well - no the house is detached.

I haven't seen it for a detached house before - to be clear I am not concerned about the garden, just that the whole of one side of "our" house would only be be accessible from land (next door) we don't own.

I think we need a picture, I'm not understanding.

Also look for maintenance issues, can everything be done from your side if necessary, and any over hanging windows etc.

This is part of my worry - it cannot be done without using next door's garden as none of the ground beyond the wall belongs to the house.

I understand - normally with a detached property you own all the land surrounding it, even if it's only 2 or 3 feet wide. With this one next doors garden butts straight up against the bungalow.

How much of the boundary is this way? One side out of four probably wouldn't bother me as long as there's a right of access, more than that I'd be concerned.

I know what you mean OP, several houses like that in my previous village.

Personally , I would not recommend this, if you get someone’s child practising goal scoring on your wall for hours a day it is very annoying ( yes, it did happen). In another case, the neighbours wanted to put up an extension which would be flashed onto the house, they managed to stop this but the neighbour built right up to the wall and only left a 20cm gap which caused some damp problems
There can also be access problems if you need to do any work on the flank wall.

I’ve seen that plenty of times.

It’s possible that there’s something in their deeds which gives you limited access. Or there’s not and any access for maintenance would need to be negotiated. Obviously that could be a pain if they are, or could be fine.

We had this on a new build we owned. NDN drilled a gatepost into the house when we were on holiday, then refused to remove it when we got home and saw the gate. It was never resolved and we moved two years later.

Yes that's exactly the issue - it is only one wall, but the wall has two windows in it, one is a bedroom and one is one of two in the living room. Apart from anything else it will be a pain going round to ask them to open their gate so I (or a window cleaner) can wash the windows.

Exactly the kind of thing that bothers me.

This doesn't need to be a big deal.

My garden ends at the rear of 2 neighbouring cottages, if they need access to do stuff they knock on the door and let me know they need to clean their gutter/windows, fix something, whatever, and I say 'ok, just give me 5 minutes to clear the way and please keep the gate shut behind you'. That's it, no fuss.

I appreciate that, and you sound like a lovely neighbour - my worry is that someone less accommodating may move in and make things difficult (if we buy the place)

Normally you will have some sort of maintenance rights to go onto the adjoining land to look after your wall.

But really it mostly depends on how much your neighbour chooses to respect your wall and although technically anything they do to your wall may be classed as criminal damage, in reality enforcing this in practice may be really difficult.

As other people have said, kick balls against it, grow ivy, be difficult about access, drill stuff into it, build right up to it etc.

Would they be amendable to selling you three feet or so?

If this is something that bothers you, then don't buy it. It might well be fine, but even if you have rights of access for maintenance, it could still be problematic if the current neighbour is a pain, or a future neighbour is a pain.

Personally I will always look for a house where the potential impact of nuisance, annoying or problematic neighbours is limited as far as is possible.

Only you can decide if this particular issue is a deal breaker for you.

We'd have to ask I guess but I somehow doubt it - they seem to be making full use of the area.

All the houses around where my parents live are like that, including theirs. It's never caused a problem, but they've always had good relations with their neighbours. I could see there being potential for small issues if the neighbours aren't nice people, but it's also a perfectly normal situation.

We have one side that is just an alleyway between the two houses, on the deeds it is a shared access by both houses, check the deeds, they may have 'appropriated' a shared access deliberately or otherwise.

This is very normal with v detached victorian tow houses, the house will often have one side passage for each house, on one side of the house - but the outer wall of the neighbours house makes the boundary of the side passage.

i would look for another property. Like a shared drive - it’s a definite nope from me.

I think the windows in that wall might be a deal breaker for me in this case.

There would be nothing to stop your neighbour putting a fence or screening right up against the window.