Neighbours attached gate to our wall without permission *PICTURES ADDED*!

gordikin

4743hudsonj wrote: »

...so what is there to lose?

..access to get the work done perhaps? But then maybe you don't have time to read the detail? Quality not quantity...and be polite!

patman99

Maybe it's time the nieghbourhood fought-back. Every time they cause problems, ring the Police (and get your nieghbours to do the same). Eventually they will find themselves being evicted from thier own homes.

shellsuit

How could you not notice before now, that it was there?

Can't you walk up the whole side of your house?

Snakeeyes21

miss_independent wrote: »

It is illegal to attach something to a detached property without the owner's permission.

And therein lies the problem, I'm sure if you tried to get damages via a court they will be able to argue you gave them permission to erect it, 2-3 years is a long time not to notice something as blatant as a gate attached to you house, what ever the reason was for not noticing.

Common sense would say (which it will come down to as its your word against theirs) you would have noticed it long before now and your now only asking them to remove it due to the problems (that you admit to) they are causing.

£$&*"($£&(

I'm confused. I think we need a diagram showing house walls, garden wall, Winnebago and gate.

Pitlanepiglet

grahawk wrote: »

I'm confused. I think we need a diagram showing house walls, garden wall, Winnebago and gate.

Me too....As I read it the gate has been erected on the neighbours land but attached to the OP's house. As such the OP couldn't have inspected as they have no right to access the neighbours land.

Personally, subject to any damaged caused, I'd not get too het up about it, neighbour disputes are a nightmare and ultimately only the lawyers win.

OP did you ask for consent for your tradesman to go onto your neighbours land? There is some irony in your complaint that they have done something without your consent if you did not ask their consent to go onto their land...

Legally, they have no right to attach to your property (unless there was an existing structure already that they wanted to replace?). A court may feel that you have delayed too long before acting but you could counter that with the fact that (if it's on their land) that you couldn't have been aware of it and that you have acted swiftly as soon as you became aware and I think you'd be OK.

If you cannot deal with this with your neighbours then you need to find yourself a lawyer and they need to write to the neighbour requesting that they remove the gate and make good any damage.

Given that you need access to your neighbours land to remove the gate yourselves (if that's the case) then you can't go ahead and do the work yourselves so you will need an injunction for them to remove the gate.

I repeat though that neighbour disputes really are a nightmare and there are never any winners. Think long and hard before starting this and remember that you will have to declare this dispute to any potential purchaser of your property (as will your neighbour).

miss_independent

shellsuit wrote: »

How could you not notice before now, that it was there?

Can't you walk up the whole side of your house?

Thats correct, we can't walk up the side they have attached the gate - to access the wall in question we would have to go into their garden. We can only access three sides of our home, the fourth wall is the one they have attached the gate to. They parked the Winnebago in their drive and backed it right up to the gate and they never move the Winnebago - TBH, I think that the only reason they bought it was to hide the gate as they never use it . Also, since the workmen discovered the gate (well over a week ago) the Winnebago has completely disappeared. The work was stopped due to weather conditions.

In response to another question, we wrote a note (a nice note!) politely asking that they leave the gate open and permission for our workmen to have access to our wall via their property to which we received no reply. The head of the business doing our fascias said that they have to give us access unless they want to open a huge can of worms about illegally attaching a gate to our house. In terms of "taking back the neighbourhood" - its difficult because we don't really want any animosity. I mean, our house is lovely and light and airy out the front and there are double yellow lines on the road in front of it but for the best part of a decade they parked two jeeps in front of our house (on the public footpath) and this blocked out all our light and made it very difficult for pedestrians especially with pushchairs etc. We never notified the police because the man is a bit aggressive but lots of others must have because the police used to come around 3 times a year and tell them to stop doing this. Eventually they stopped but like I say not after the best part of a decade.

They would let off fireworks in the middle of the night at a completely random time of year and once there was a massive explosion in the middle of the night, our house actually shook with the force as did our other neighbours and half the street was out as we actually thought it was bomb at first. All the men from the neighbourhood went round to their house to ask what the hell had happened - and they never answered the door, they also refused to open the door to the police and the police didn't have a search warrant. When the police go to their house now (even when they may have been the VICTIM of a crime ) they always pretend they aren't in and the police eventually go away. I think you can see they don't care about the law.

Like I said before, I will probably just leave it now. There is lots of dodgy stuff going on there and I don't think its worth the hassle. If however, they ever move then the gate will definitely be going! I just feel upset that they decided to go ahead and do this without our permission. For a long time we have suspected they are operating a business out of their garage due to what sounds like construction (woodwork, metal work) in the middle of the night and there are two European men living in their garden (in the summerhouse) who only seem to come out at night , so I think they put the gate up and the Winnebago in front of it so that no one can know what is going on. Best left alone I feel. At the beginning we spoke to them, then environmental health for noise problems, RSPCA for animal cruelty/dog unfed and constantly barking and scraping our wall like he had gone mad bless him and once they started refusing to answer the door to the police we gave up. I think the rest of us that live in this area rue the day they ever moved here.

Pitlanepiglet

Miss-independent, I'm really struggling to read your posts as they don't have any paragraphs and it all seems to blend in together with loads of detail! So sorry if I'm asking something that has already been said.

Is the gate on their land or yours?

If the gate is on their land then your contractor is seriously wrong about access. You have no right to go onto your neighbours land to gain access to your property without their consent. If they refuse you consent you can take action under the Access to Neighbouring Land Act which will give you access but you cannot just go onto their land (you might get away with it in an emergency).

Edited to add...if the gate is on their land you won't be able to take it down when they move as again you have no right to enter their land.

You say you left a note asking for access through the gate but you also say that the first you knew of the gate was when your contractor tried to get access? So presumably you made your written request after the first time the contractor tried to get in?

shellsuit

I'm intrigued now!

So the side of your house, outside the wall, is their land?

Can you not see your wall, from a window, or from the front or back of the house?

miss_independent

Sorry, about the paragraphs .

The gate is on their property. The gatepost is attached to ours. They attached the gatepost to our property. This is definitely covered by the Party Wall Act, as we first researched this (as did they) the first time they asked to attach the gate to our wall and we said no.

As for the issue of the workmen, yes they first saw the gate when they were on a ladder assessing a cast iron pipe on the corner of our property so they could prepare an estimate. When we gave them the job they asked if they could go and knock on the neighbour's door and ask them to remove the padlocks and chains from the gate next door as they needed access to our rear sofits/fascias (this is when we got confused about there being a gate!). We explained we were not on good terms and expected that they wouldn't answer the door. The workmen agreed to start on the other side of the property whilst we wrote the note and awaited a reply to whether we could have access at all. We tried to do things right as when they have workmen over they end up in our garden (for no real reason) and flick their cigarette butts into our garden so we know how unpleasant it is to have privacy invaded.

I believe because of the wall there is a condition in our Party Wall Agreement that access to the wall is allowed in the case of repair, upkeep or emergency. This was agreed between previous owners of both homes after a burst water pipe (in our house) caused damage to the other home when they were away or something, will have to research more into this as I am not exactly sure. I know it was a factor for us when buying the house. Luckily in those days, we had lovely neighbours.

Must point out, I didn't say I would go and remove the gate myself! If the current neighbours moved, this would all be sorted out through the appropriate legal channels.