Extension wall being used by neighbour

moneyistooshorttomention

Very much a design defect to have all these extensions that have walls on neighbours boundaries.

I'm in that situation myself and have to put up with a neighbours side extension wall as one of my garden walls - and that has caused aggro (even though I can see that his render protrudes into my back yard). In reverse - my own house has one of its walls being garden wall to the neighbour the other side and that has also caused aggro. He created when I painted my garden wall in MY colour - even though its right "in my face" and he cant see it at all without specially being nosy and going round and having a look.

Yep - admitted....I want it both ways.:rotfl::rotfl:

I want to be able to do what I please to my own garden wall on the one hand - but not have the neighbour the other side lay a finger on my house wall (ie THEIR garden wall) on the other side.

This style of things does create problems and was not a good idea.

tbs624

Your neighbour has no legal right to attach anything to your property without your express permission- this includes fence posts, trellising, climbing plants and yes, shelves such as you describe.

Cissi

tbs624 wrote: »

Your neighbour has no legal right to attach anything to your property without your express permission- this includes fence posts, trellising, climbing plants and yes, shelves such as you describe.

As I understand it, the shelves were put up before OP moved in, but he's only just noticed them as he was in his neighbour's garden for the first time - if this is indeed the case, would he have any legal recourse? Sounds very tricky to me...

desthemoaner

I know its very easy to become fixated about issues like this one, but try not to worry about it unless the inside of your wall starts to show signs of penetrating damp.
Life's too short.

sirmosh

Cissi wrote: »

As I understand it, the shelves were put up before OP moved in, but he's only just noticed them as he was in his neighbour's garden for the first time - if this is indeed the case, would he have any legal recourse? Sounds very tricky to me...

I don't think you can ever gain the right to put something on someone else's house even if you've gotten away with it for years.

At the very least you could remove the shelves from your property and return them to him undamaged.

ariba10

sirmosh wrote: »

I don't think you can ever gain the right to put something on someone else's house even if you've gotten away with it for years.

At the very least you could remove the shelves from your property and return them to him undamaged.

I think the OP would have to trespass to do that!

grifferz

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Interesting DRP , would like to know myself , its just that its not even a bog standard brick wall its been rendered as well but the neighbour still didnt mind wacking shelves up on it?

There was a thread on here a few weeks ago where next door neighbours in rented accommodation put up a gate across the shared entry between two houses in order to keep their dog in, however they drilled the one side directly into the wall of the house next to them.

The owner (OP) was not best pleased, with concern over damage and damp penetrating, and all responses seemed to agree that it was not acceptable. IIRC OP complained and next door tenants had to remove the gate and put their own post in.

Why would this case be any different?

mark?_3

personally i'd be neighborly and let him keep his shelves, but ask him to run some mastic or silicon sealant around the fixing points to fully weather proof it.

G_M

In post 5, hampster asked

depending where the wall is (on your side of the property or on the boundary) it is owned by you 100%, or is a shared/party wall.

this needs answering.

If the wall is within the OP's boundary, on his land, then the neighbour is
a) trespassing and
b) causing damage to OP's property.

If the wall is ON the boundary, then arguably it is a Party Wall.. Indeed, if wall is on the bounday, the foundations are probobly over the boundary, so OP is trespassing.

But frankly, these legal fine points are the last thing you want to get into.

Far better to resolve amicably over a cuppa (yup - my recent solution to everything where possible!). Then inspect the wall from his side together and discuss your concerns. Make sure any drill holes are filled with mastic to prevent water getting in.

Discuss the herpathitical possibility of water getting in, behind the render, and pulling the render away, and try to reach agreement that IF that should happen, he would re-render/make good, but that otherwise you are happy for him to have the shelves.

Then send a friendly letter confirming your discussion.

edit: how do you spell "hipathetical"?

Tenyearstogo

Hypothetical.