Charging for access to rebuild.

[Ladyof2025]

How much should I charge for access to my patio-garden?

I own a townhouse with a small patio garden (about 4 metres by 5 metres) which abuts the two-storey blank side-wall of another building which is about to be converted from offices into several small dwellings which the developer will sell at (obviously) a profit.

It will be impossble for them to carry out the work without access to my patio-garden and so I am expecting them any minute to approach me for permission.

Back-story (which you can skip.) About 15 yrs ago the previous owners asked my permission to access my patio to remove and replace the mortar on the side-wall. They said it would take 3 days, and I would benefit visually from the freshly white-painted wall that looms very large in my patio and is visible from all my rear facing rooms. Plus they gave me £100 as compensation for three days loss of privacy. My patio is enclosed on all four sides so it is very private and usually silent.

The work took three weeks not three days. It was summer and we lost all use of the entire patio, our only outside space, as the workmen brought all their tools and stuff. I was working from home, and from 7am till 4pm six days a week I was forced to put up with a horrendous amount of noise, not only from power hammers but from the workmen shouting, laughing loudly, bantering (with profuse, obscene swear-words) stubbing out their cigarettes on my (then-new) patio slabs. They also had a radio on loudly all day, blasting out pop music which I hate, punctuated with the inane chatter of presenters. On top of this because we are not overlooked we have no net curtains and everytime I went into the lounge or kitchen a workman could see me from just a few metres away. It freaked me out, like I was being watched.

I complained to the site manager but although he promised to tell the lads to "keep it down", nothing changed. By noon every day my nerves were totally frazzled. On top of this, no effort was made to keep my patio clean. It was covered in rubble and dust, which flew about and covered all the back windows with a film of grime. When they left they made a half-hearted attempt at sweeping up the mess, but all of the £100 "compensation" they paid me went on hiring someone to pressure-wash the patio and clean all the windows!

(End of back story.)

This time there are four of us in the house, all working from home. Ours is a very quiet house as everyone is of mature age and all day we are either concentrating on writing, or conducting Zoom or client calls.

I just told a friend what is about to happen and he said that this time I should ask for a large sum in compensation. I asked how much and he said £1,000 a day would not be unreasonable, given the lack of privacy, the noise, the mess, the loss of use of the patio garden and the disruption to our daily lives and professions. A high sum should also encourage them to get the work done more quickly. He said I can pretty much ask whatever I want, as they cannot do the work without access to my patio, and as the developers are set to make at least £100,000 (friend guesses) it's a drop in the ocean for them.

What do you think? Is £1,000 a day too much, too little, or about right?

Is 'don't allow access at all' an option?

I would be very surprised if a developer bought the property without thinking about access. Surely if they are demolishing the office block and building several properties, those properties will need direct access from the road for the future occupants.

I would ask for £1000 a day with a cast iron very detailed contract drawn up by a solicitor, probably with a large chunk of it upfront.
If they refused I wouldn't care

Yeah would be good to clarify what would happen if you refused before pitching your price, but I would absolutely roast them.

It's probably going to be loud whether they use your patio or not, so perhaps enough payment that you can all rent an office space nearby, maybe put in cameras to be sure they're not damaging anything while you're not there. Also, a rising rate might concentrate their minds, so £x per day for the first week then £x+50% for the second, then £double x for the third.

I agree with @Hoppinggreen to get the agreement documented with clauses for what will happen if things go wrong (eg if they damage your property or behave in an anti-social way).

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar

"a rising rate might concentrate their minds, so £x per day for the first week then £x+50% for the second, then £double x for the third."

Oooh, I had not thought of that!

This. A developer will have had to put in very detailed plans about build access and associated permissions: had their application been “we’re going to ask the person next door to use their patio and hope they say yes” they’d have never been granted permission. I think it’s unlikely they’ll be relying on leave across your property to build a development.

My post isn't about access from the road.

It's about them getting temporary access to my locked, enclosed patio to be able to work on the property.

It's not being demolished but converted.

They have access from the road. They ALSO need access to my patio to work on the SIDE of their building. And I'm not the person next door exactly. Their building was built at the end of my tiny back garden, their frontage faces east and the side that abuts my garden faces north.

But to get their planning permission they’d have needed to detail how they were going to obtain that side access - developers and planning departments are absolutely fastidious about stuff like this because it’s no good ending up in a situation where an entire development is put on hold because a neighbour won’t allow access to their patio. They aren’t going to be winging it and just keeping their fingers crossed that you’ll be reasonable.

According to my friend it is. My land is my private property. But would it not be unreasonable for me to stop them developing the property completely?

I doubt they bought this property being dependent on using your patio for access. I would imagine they plan to knock walls in order to gain access.

If they do I would insist on a iron tight contract with a start date, an end date and that confirmation that they will make right any damage done. A start time and an end time. Restrictions on things like music etc.

Have you looked at the planning permission? I would actually ask them to rent you an office space if there are four of you working from home.

I've spent half the morning on the council planning department's website, perusing all the drawings and documents and there is no mention of how they plan to access the north wall that is at the end of my tiny patio.

As others have said the developer will already have sorted the access, presumably they can access via the space left by the building they will demolish? However I’d suggest that if they do ask for access I’d deny it, in my opinion no amount of money would justify the hassle and potential damage to your home and that’s if you actually ended up receiving any money. Additionally I’m not clear how attached your property is to the one being demolished but please do make sure that any party wall or relevant permissions and surveys have been put in place by the developer before they start work.

Yes, have looked at the plans online today. I don't think any of us would want to pack up our computers and commute every day to an office in town. We'd need desks, broadband, toilets, kitchen, etc. None of us has a car and I am disabled. What is more I could not focus for worrying about what they were doing. I want to be here to keep an eye on them.

I'd suggest charge them a reasonable nominal fee PLUS a clause to reinstate any damage within (time frame) PLUS the cost of a contractor cleaning patio and windows (get a quote now) PLUS a default clause for £x (large sum ) every day over the x days they say it will be.
This will then focus the minds of the building firm on getting on with your side and minimising the time on your patio. If indeed they do need to come your side.

May be worth posting in legal, we had an access request from a new build developer wanting to remedy a badly constructed retaining boundary wall - also a backstory which meant we were reluctant. We sought early legal advice (free through my trade union) and they said ultimately the developer can apply to court to require you to give access for remedial works and no compensation is necessary so long as they make good.

May be different circumstances as there isn't a safety issue like with our situation and even with us the developer was open to negotiation on a small disruption fee but might be worth checking your position. In the end they found a more expensive way to carry out the work from their side so we didn't take it any further so not sure how far they could have pushed things down the legal route.

Ask for £1000 per day plus the costs of hiring an offsite office and a full clean up / renovation of your patio. Also check your house insurance in case anything is broken or they go bust leaving up the scaffolding

This will not be a 3 week operation - could be much much longer.

Planning isn’t concerned with 3rd party access to get works done, thats the developers issue to work out. From the plans, what works will need to be soley done via access from your property?

They are not demolishing it. As I said in my OP it is being CONVERTED. It was a Victorian house, was converted into offices, and is now being converted again, into three houses. The outside walls of the building will remain intact. There is no way they can do the work without coming into my patio-garden.

As I explained in my OP the building being converted is at the end of my garden. It is not therefore attached to my building but about 3 metres from the nearest part of my building.

If nothing needs to be done to the wall that abuts your garden then they might not need access, for instance if they don't need to put windows in where there is currently wall. Can you tell from the planning application what might be needed?

Even with a conversion it is easy enough to knock a hole in a wall and rebuild it or stick a door in. They are very unlikely to be risking all on being able to access your back.

Converted into a 'terrace' of three houses?

TBF, your opener says 'converted from offices to several small dwellings' so it's not unreasonable to think it's a largish plot that's going to have some small new houses put on it after demolishing the current building.

No, but I cannot see how they can possibly make the planned roof terraces and skylights other than via my garden. You will just have to take my word for it as posting the planning details here will "out" me.

The question is, is £1,000 a day fair?

As I said in my OP, "converted" into a terrace of three houses, not demolished and replaced by.

None of this is relevant to my question about how much it's reasonable to charge them for the loss of my patio (and my sanity) for X weeks.