Neighbour drilling into my external wall!

tiggerjj

I own (well mostly the bank does) a small terraced house. Next door property is owned by a landlord and rented to tenants.

The current tenants are polish. When I came back from abroad last time i noticed that they have put up a corrugated covering in their garden in the space between their bathroom and the edge of their property, which is my external wall.

To support this they have fixed 2inch by 4inch batons onto my wall. Now i assume to do this they have drilled into my wall.

While i do not really have a problem with their covering I am not so happy about them drilling into my wall, could damp seep in if, their workmanship is not good and the holes aren't sealed?

Are they even allowed to do this, does the party wall agreement not apply?

I have tried to contact the landlord through the estate agent which rented the property but have heard nothing back. I know probably i should go and talk to them about it, but thats a little scary and to be honest i think i need to work out what i want first, and I don't know.

Basically i don't want any damage to happen to my property and I'm a little peeved that they have touched my property. I only mentioned that they were polish as maybe they are not aware that this is not allowed.

Advise please!!!

J

usignuolo

On July 1st 1997 The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 came into force .

If anyone is planning to carry out building work which may involve:

• work on an existing wall shared with another property
• building on the boundary with a neighbouring property
• excavating near an adjoining building

Then they must reach agreement with the neighbours concerned.
This does not remove the need for planning permission and building regulations.

Here is a booklet explaining the Act. http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/133214.pdf

daveyjp

Party Wall Act is not applicable - that only covers work on your property which may cause problems for a shared wall - by the sound of it your wall isn't shared. What your neighbours have done is commit a trespass and you are quite within your rights to remove the items.

tiggerjj

I don't think the wall is shared. on their side of it is just garden,
i have made a little pic...



hope it attaches.

For me to take it down would also involved trespassing, as i can't get to it from my land.

so what can i do now, do i have to go to the landlord or the tenant?

tiggerjj

ok so i forgot to explain the pic. my house is the one on the right. black lines are house walls. green lines are garden boundaries and blue hatching is the location of their covering

keystone

Can't see pic!

Agree the Party Wall Act is probably irrelevant. If its your wall soley on your land it certainly doesn't apply.

The offending persons should have asked your permission to fix something (yes anything whatseoever) to your wall. Failure to do so consitutes a trespass. Its more than likely that the tenant has no idae that he is in the wrong.

Equally you have to ask permission to enter their land to do maintenance work on your side of your wall. Its not the tenants land its their landlords so it is him you should deal with.

If he refuses permission you can gain access under the Access To Neighbouring Property Act of (IIRC) 1992 but if it has to go that far then relations will be very bad.

Just going the other side of the wall to remove it will be inflamatory and make the situation worse.

So talk to the landlord and if you can't get him then a recoded delivery letter via his letting agent.

Cheers

tiggerjj

keystone,
i think you are probably right about then tenants not having a clue.
i assume that land registry will give me an address which may or may not be where the actual landlord is living.

If not I will just have to ask the tenants for the landlords address and if they ask why....i guess just say that i am worried about it. can't see them liking me very much once i have spoken to their landlord about it,
grrrrr they do something wrong and probably i come out of it the bad guy!

paulsad

Pic not showing - are you attaching it from a file sharing site? It won't work just from your computer

tiggerjj

yes it is from a file sharing website, and if i click the website i can see it, but i have to open the image in a new window, i used photo bucket, maybe i did something wrong.

from my garden i see into the leant, there are no door and no visible illegals!

keystone

tiggerjj wrote: »

yes it is from a file sharing website, and if i click the website i can see it, but i have to open the image in a new window, i used photo bucket, maybe i did something wrong.

Copy the link to the photobucket image and post it here. Modify the post before submitting your post to either delete the http bit or put spaces in the link and replace the . with the word dot - eg photo bucket dot com.

That way the forum software won't treat it as a link and just leave it as text. One of us can then adjust it to make a link that the rest can see.

from my garden i see into the leant, there are no door and no visible illegals!

Yet! :rotfl::rotfl:

Cheers

poppasmurf_bewdley

They have committed a trespass onto your property.

But is it serious? I mean has it done any damage? Is it worth kicking up a fuss?

What happens if, in the future, you need access into the neighbour's garden to rectify a problem with your wall?

Why not have a word with the neighbour and ask him if you can have at look at what has been done just to satisfy yourself that the work has been done properly and caused no damage to the wall.