We want to demolish our Garage....

prudryden

(1) The Act is not entirely clear. Has it been agreed with your neighbour that the wall is entirely on your side of the boundary line? These boundary lines are almost impossible to determine within centimeters.

(2) Read part 20 of Section 1 of the Act. "You must also inform the Adjoining Owner by serving a notice if you plan to build a wall wholly on your own land but up against the boundary line. You may want to base your notice on Example Letter 6." "The Act contains no enforcement procedures for failure to serve a notice. However, if you start work without having first given notice in the PROPER way, Adjoining Owners may seek to stop your work through a court injunction or seek other legal redress."

fluffymuffy

prudryden wrote: »

(1) The Act is not entirely clear. Has it been agreed with your neighbour that the wall is entirely on your side of the boundary line? These boundary lines are almost impossible to determine within centimeters.

(2) Read part 20 of Section 1 of the Act. "You must also inform the Adjoining Owner by serving a notice if you plan to build a wall wholly on your own land but up against the boundary line. You may want to base your notice on Example Letter 6." "The Act contains no enforcement procedures for failure to serve a notice. However, if you start work without having first given notice in the PROPER way, Adjoining Owners may seek to stop your work through a court injunction or seek other legal redress."

(1) Yes - there is no question of where the boundary is (thankfully)

(2) But we want to knock one down - not build one

prudryden

fluffymuffy wrote: »

(1) Yes - there is no question of where the boundary is (thankfully)

(2) But we want to knock one down - not build one

(1) Excellent. That is 90% of the battle.
(2) It's your wall then and not subject to the Act. Good point.
(3) If you build a new wall for the garage up to the boundary, then you must serve notice, as I understand it.
(4) If you are digging a trench within 3m of his building, then you must give notice.

Sounds like you are in good position. Good luck.

fluffymuffy

Thanks - And for good measure we'll be ringing our solicitor tomorrow. I'll report back.

Errata

I hope I'm not going to add to the confusion, but here goes! I thought all the stuff about party walls was referred to a wall between two buildings, as in the wall separating semi detached or terraced HOUSES. Clearly no wall of the garage is a party wall as there is no building 'sharing' the wall on your neighbours side.
Why not speak to your local planning officer in case you need planning permission to replace the garage. If you do need it the permission covers quite a few years before it runs out, so you wouldn't have to build your new garage immediately, and it will give your neighbour an opportunity to object although to be honest, they don't have any grounds for objection if you're replacing a DANGEROUS garage with a very similar garage.
HTH, sounds like you've got lovely neighbours who are clearly great lovers of mirrors and ivy!
I'm not sure if they have any right to stick anything on your garage wall. It might be a matter of principle eg would it be acceptable for them to use your garage wall as the back wall to a home built summerhouse or greenhouse? Common sense says it wouldn't be acceptable as their construction could easily damage your garden. I hope you can see what I'm trying to get at.
My local council has on its website a page about planning consent which gives people instant answers on anything they want to build/replace advising if they need planning consent, stuff about building regs etc. Your council might have something like this.

HugoSP

It seems that they are genuinely nice people that cannot see the whole picture. That is how a lot of neigbour disputes start.

Just inform them in writing and verbally that the garage will be demolished on a certain date and a temporary barrier will be erected in its place.Give them ample time to remove their decorations from the wall and inform them that you cannot be responsible for any decorations that they may fix on this or any other boundary feature (fence/walletc).

At this stage it seems that discussions wrt law etc could muddy the waters.

It is your garage and they have hung their rubbish on it.

The fact of the matter is that the garage, including the wall has to come down and that is it. The new garage will be built with its wall in the same place and no doubt they will want to redecorate it.

So just tell them and get it done. If you want to be really neighbourly offer to help them remove the items at their risk.

prudryden

Errata wrote: »

I hope I'm not going to add to the confusion, but here goes! I thought all the stuff about party walls was referred to a wall between two buildings, as in the wall separating semi detached or terraced HOUSES. Clearly no wall of the garage is a party wall as there is no building 'sharing' the wall on your neighbours side.
Why not speak to your local planning officer in case you need planning permission to replace the garage. If you do need it the permission covers quite a few years before it runs out, so you wouldn't have to build your new garage immediately, and it will give your neighbour an opportunity to object although to be honest, they don't have any grounds for objection if you're replacing a DANGEROUS garage with a very similar garage.
HTH, sounds like you've got lovely neighbours who are clearly great lovers of mirrors and ivy!
I'm not sure if they have any right to stick anything on your garage wall. It might be a matter of principle eg would it be acceptable for them to use your garage wall as the back wall to a home built summerhouse or greenhouse? Common sense says it wouldn't be acceptable as their construction could easily damage your garden. I hope you can see what I'm trying to get at.
My local council has on its website a page about planning consent which gives people instant answers on anything they want to build/replace advising if they need planning consent, stuff about building regs etc. Your council might have something like this.

Planning is not the same thing as the Party Wall Act. A Party Fence Wall can separate gardens and is covered under the Act.

Errata

prudryden wrote: »

Planning is not the same thing as the Party Wall Act. A Party Fence Wall can separate gardens and is covered under the Act.

Clearly I don't understand. As I have a wall, a fence and hedges separating my garden from my three adjacent neighbours properties, can you tell me what rights I have to remove them? I'm now very confused.

fluffymuffy

Spoke to our solicitor who confirmed that we can do what we like with our garage and next door have no rights to attach anything to it or require that it be left there because they made their side pretty. He said we should write a letter telling them to remove their things from it and we did this - throwing in for good measure the fact that we'll be putting a fence up and we don't want them attaching anything to it.

I'm sad that it should come to this - writing letters to my next door neighbour about something that's been discussed for many months. I expect there'll be tears on the day we take it down too - I'll let you know.

LandyAndy

My garage has a party wall with my neighbours garage. That it was a party wall was made quite clear to us during the purchase by our solicitors. If it's a party wall I think you would know.

Try spraying the ivy with weed killer:rolleyes:

EDIT: Sorry-don't know how I missed your last post