Neighbour Issue - TV Aerial

globalds

Tell him to get it put in writing

Poppy9

Am I right in that your neighbour's house belongs to the council?

If so only the council can advise you they want the aerial removed or relocated if there are grounds to do so. The tenant has no rights.

If the tenant next door has written to you I would write a polite letter saying

"I am writing with regard to your letter advising me that you will remove my TV aerial within 14 days.

I understand that you are a tenant of the council and the freehold of the property belongs to the council. As such I have contacted the council requesting their urgent attention to address this issue.

I do not give you permission to remove my aerial and will treat any action by you as criminal damage and will inform the police if you attempt such action.

I will not correspond with you further on this matter, or any other matter pertaining to your council house. I will only deal with the freeholder, the council."

Fran

I'm interested in this, I've tried looking all over the internet but can't find any reference to actual uk law. On this forum someone refers to "Flying Rights" but a search on that only brings up Glitter flying back here and other irrelevant stuff!

akamini

I just had a read of that thread and it made me think (i think it was mentioned previously) that as just a tenant and not the freeholder it is not overhanging on their property so unless the council, request us to take it down we do not have to, unless there is something special as they are renting it from the council?

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

Hmmmmm from the angle of the pictures it looks that whilst your aerial is attached to the side of your house, it is over your neighbours property in its entirity?

If not then read no further....

If it is and you lived next door to me i would shop it down and pass it back over your boundary just like i would if it were your tree that was over my boundary!

Perhaps you can just secure his aerial properly so it doesnt bang on your roof (which will save you the headache of drawing out an argument) and hope that you can both call it quits?

tbs624

Your aerial shouldn't be where it is and the neighbours aerial shouldn't be touching your house.It doesn't matter whether someone is a tenant or an owner occupier - your aerial simply should not be in a neighbouring property's "air space"

Why not just get yours re-sited, ask them to sort theirs out and move on?

There is so much more to life than worrying about satellite TV aerials.

Colin_London

I agree - it would seem to be both parties at fault here. The OPs aerial is overhanging the neighbours property, which gives the neighbour a legitimate concern because it is in their airspace and could potentially fall off onto their roof.

The neighbours aerial, apart from being an appallingly bad install, is touching the OPs property and is causing a nusiance (as well as potential damage).

If the neighbours are on speaking terms still they should attempt to reach a compromise where they both pay to move the aerials to mutually agreeable positions. If they agree to go 50/50 on the costs they could get a discount from a reputable installer for doing both jobs together.

The alternative action is going to cost both parties a lot more in legal costs, time, mega stress and bad feeling.

I had a similar experience in my old flat. I lived in the first floor flat, and I happened to be in during the day in the middle of the week before Christmas when I heard a very loud drilling sound from behind my kitchen wall. I raced outside to find a satellite installer drilling holes to mount a dish on MY wall! My neighbour below couldn't get a signal because of a wall immediately adjacent to the properties, and the only way to get a signal was to elevate the dish, and of course it was cheaper and simpler for the installer to use my wall.

I of course ordered the guy to stop which he did immediately as he realised he was in the wrong. After filling the holes he then did what he should have done at the start - put a mount on the neighbours wall, and a long post to elevate the dish (although it was still level with my flat, it did not affect me as it was a windowless wall, and there are no issues IIRC regarding 'horizontal' air space).

Unfortunately the guy was a 'white van' installer and gave me a false address so I couldn't complain. But I got loads of grief from my neighbours who accused me of wanting to ruin their kids christmas by denying them Sky! They only way of bringing them back to earth was reminding them who they would react if I had started drilling into their walls!

Rabiddog_2

Your aerial is overhanging their property which puts you in the wrong.

silvercar

The council will on the that property from the centre of the earth to the top of the sky - or some such nonsense. (The only reason airplanes are allowed to fly is that individuals can't identify if their airspace has been crossed.)

So your arrial clearly trespassess the council airspace. Now the tenants have rights to quiet enjoment of their property. So the tenants could complain to the council that their air space has been invaded and the council could complain to you.

Poppy9

The OP though has said that the council have not raised the matter since 1997 when the aerial was first installed. The tenant has no right to threaten to chop it down when he is not the freeholder.

If the council have been happy for 11 years (I'm sure they are aware as they should inspect the house before reletting) it's upto them to now raise the matter, not the tenant.