Shared access gate

fatboy88

Hi, i'm trying to find out some about shared access gates.

Basically there is a big gate which is falling down that covers a shared access to a number of flats at the back of the buidling. One of the landlords wants to remove the gate totally as he says as the hinges are on his wall it belongs to him but we dont want it removes as it totally exposes the back and kids always go in for a smoke.

Can he legally do this?

thanks
will

Robert_Sterling_3

If it comes to the crunch could you fix a gate to a post which is near to ( within 1 millimetre ) his wall but not touching his wall.

Doozergirl

Just because the wall belongs to him doesn't mean that the gate does.

It could be a party wall and therefore it should be okay for a boundary fence to come off it. Theoretically the fixing for the gate shouldn't cross a neighbour's boundary and go into the wall but most people wouldn't take umbrance. If it's been there for years, you could argue that you've established possession or simply that his boundary isn't right and that part of his wall is on your land and therefore all the gate fixings are on your land. It's impossible to establish the true boundary line - you could argue for years with expensive lawyers about it.

The garden law website is good for this sort of thing. You can download plans from the land registry to try and establish who owns what. It costs 3 pounds per title plan that you download.

Doozergirl

Robert_Sterling wrote: »

If it comes to the crunch could you fix a gate to a post which is near to ( within 1 millimetre ) his wall but not touching his wall.

I was going to say that too. Just refix the gate away from his boundary.

fatboy88

I was thinking that but i think it'll cost a lot more as its all concreted and i'm not sure about it being so close to the pavement. It may fall right on the join so not sure if you can do that.

Basically he is the end terrace which is why he says its his wall, it sort of sticks out a bit at the end of his wall which is where the gate is attached.

Doozergirl

fatboy88 wrote: »

I was thinking that but i think it'll cost a lot more as its all concreted and i'm not sure about it being so close to the pavement. It may fall right on the join so not sure if you can do that.

Basically he is the end terrace which is why he says its his wall, it sort of sticks out a bit at the end of his wall which is where the gate is attached.

If it is shared access to the back of a terrace then there might even be something in the deeds for the properties that states that a gate needs to be maintained there.

He is being obtuse. The fact that part of the wall sticks out more than the rest of the wall almost puts it on the wrong side of his boundary. He can hardly argue that he could pull down next door's house because it comes off his wall.

Why does he want to take it down? Gates get put there for security in the first place and I wouldn't want kids hanging around at the back/side of my house.

fatboy88

The gate is falling off the top hinge and damaged a bit of the wall so it has to be removed to repair it.
However he wont put it back even though everyone has offered to split the cost of repairs to the gate and wall

fatboy88

The cheeky git has just gone and taken the gate off and crushed it. He says the deeds show as per his solicitor it is his gate but we think he is making it up as have you ever seen a solicitor do something within an hour.

We are looking into if we can sue him for the damage of the gate as hes just taking the !!!!