leasehold, removing a mini dish

dboswell

I own the flat downstairs in a two flat conversion.

When I moved in 18-months ago, I asked permission from the upstairs flat owner to put a sky mini dish on the external wall. This weekend she has asked me to remove it.

I will be reading my lease carefully. I will also speak to her this week to find out her objection, but I am keen to keep good neighbour relations

any advice on how to tackle this problem would be helpful.

duncan303

I asked permission from the upstairs flat owner to put a sky mini dish on the external wall.

this is a bit ambigious, on wall adjioning your flat or her flat. Did you explain exactly where it was going. Did you explain exactly what it would look like.

Assume nothing, she may have been to frightened to say no at the time, did you confirm that it was ok on a subsequent occassion or just ask her once. under what circumstances did you ask, for example was she struggling upstairs with shopping at the time.

Did you just say for example " I am going to get sky" and expect her to understand that it implied you installing an object on the outside of the property.

She obviously now objects..... what steps did you take to visualise the installation to her.

I would apologise profusely for not making yourself clear to what you intended and arrange to have it removed, and remember to ask her permission to allow somebody to remove it.

Then deal with the situation again from the start. ask her if she would reconsider her objections and would there be a more aggreable location that would impact her less. She will very likely conceed seeing that you have gone to steps to appease her.

Leaving it up and arguing could initiate further difficulties, if not this, then others aspects of ownership.

youve been without sky for 18 months then a few more perhaps will not harm you.


HTH

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silvercar

How long have you had the dish? If it is less than 12 months you will still be under contract to Sky and so have to pay to get out of the contract.

If you have permission in writing, then I don't see how the other flat owner can now require its removal. Who is the freeholder? At the end of the day it is the freeholder's wall and so they are the ones that need to give consent.

dboswell

duncan303 wrote: »

this is a bit ambigious, on wall adjioning your flat or her flat. Did you explain exactly where it was going. Did you explain exactly what it would look like.

Assume nothing, she may have been to frightened to say no at the time, did you confirm that it was ok on a subsequent occassion or just ask her once. under what circumstances did you ask, for example was she struggling upstairs with shopping at the time.

Did you just say for example " I am going to get sky" and expect her to understand that it implied you installing an object on the outside of the property.

She obviously now objects..... what steps did you take to visualise the installation to her.

I would apologise profusely for not making yourself clear to what you intended and arrange to have it removed, and remember to ask her permission to allow somebody to remove it.

Then deal with the situation again from the start. ask her if she would reconsider her objections and would there be a more aggreable location that would impact her less. She will very likely conceed seeing that you have gone to steps to appease her.

Leaving it up and arguing could initiate further difficulties, if not this, then others aspects of ownership.

youve been without sky for 18 months then a few more perhaps will not harm you.


HTH

___

hmmm. to be clear, the mini dish has been up for 18-months without any problems until this weekend.

the wall is the external wall to the first floor flat (we are ground floor).

dboswell

silvercar wrote: »

If you have permission in writing, then I don't see how the other flat owner can now require its removal. Who is the freeholder? At the end of the day it is the freeholder's wall and so they are the ones that need to give consent.

indeed, but I want to maintain a good neighbour relationship.

silvercar

Any idea why the change of heart? Are they thinking of selling?

All very well maintaining good relationships, but what would you have done if you were still in the contract term with sky? What would have happened if you had let the property with sky dish included? I don't see how permission can suddenly be rescinded.

duncan303

Prescriptive, explicit or implied permission by acquiescence… for her to suddenly ask you to remove it after 18 months is clearly not the whole story.

For her not to qualify why she wants it removed is not good for you. Rather than running for the deeds, perhaps:…………

1. She has decided to stop watching television and has not renewed her tv licence, the presence of equipment, situated as it is, would suggest that she has other equipment capable of receiving a television signal is causing her grief. She has to agree to an officer entering her apartment to check she has no equipment because of your dish.

2. It attracts pigeons that coo repetitively and annoy her.

3. It is badly placed and whistles in the wind at night and keeps her awake

4. She has been asked to have it removed by another authority: conservation

5. Your use of the equipment is causing her annoyance… too loud… too late.

I would hold my hands up and apologise to her that you have unwittingly caused her inconvenience and that that it was not your intention. Consider it may be nothing to do with the dish itself but that she may feel that you have gradually taken advantage over several little occurrences necessary for her enjoyment of her apartment.

I would still consider taking it down… only a half hour job.

As a matter of interest did you ever speak to her specifically as to whether she was happy and agreeable with the siting of the dish when it first installed? Did the installer ever consult her?

How about getting cable. Appease her and say that you will be moving over to cable and in the meantime she may reveal the actual problem.

Are there any joint service charges? Perhaps you could suggest paying a small amount extra or taking over responsibility for something…. Taking her bin out and back again if that is an issue. If you are on the ground floor are you keeping the garden tidy…. It could be hundreds of different things……….

Hmmmm……..

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sooz

perhaps she just thinks it's ugly.
Ask her why she wants it removed, & if she'd consider you keeping it if ti's resited out of view. They can put the dish up on a chimney, but are usually too lazy to do so.

Jomo

18 months down the line though...hmmm something isn't right there.

g_attrill

sooz wrote: »

perhaps she just thinks it's ugly.

You can paint them to match the house - I put one up for a relative and painted it using brick/tile paint, it matches really well and people really don't notice the dish. The only thing to avoid painting is the front of the LNB, and don't use metallic based paints.