neighbour refused entry to his property for essential repair.

carolingus

Hi there.I am having a nightmare.The electrical earth to my property dropped 3 days ago due to damaged cables under my property and my neighbours directly next door.The problem has caused my boiler to stop working leaving us with no heating or hot water or shower and for the electrical supply to the house to become unsafe.my neighbour has the main grounding equipment(sub main)for the 5 houses in our row and a cable needed to be run from his sub main to ours which would of entailed about 5 meters of cable of which some would have been covered by white trunking in both our homes where it would have been visible..in his about 1 mt running down the corner in his hall.My neighbour point blank refused to let the workmen in to carry out the repair,infact refuses to let them over his door and the only other way to was to excavate my front garden,disturb my retaining wall,did up the pavement and part of the street.All workmen involved are astounded at the amount of work and distruption that has needed to be caused due to my neighbour being so unreasonable and the work is still being carried out now.My garden is a complete mess,yes the workmen have done a fairly neat job but it is still a mess and my retaining wall has been weakened.Can i claim damages from my neighbour or do i have any sort of come back?.I live in Scotland and for the record i have never had a problem with my neighbour,we have always got on well.:(

jbainbridge

carolingus wrote: »

Hi there.I am having a nightmare.

The electrical earth to my property dropped 3 days ago due to damaged cables under my property and my neighbours directly next door.The problem has caused my boiler to stop working leaving us with no heating or hot water or shower and for the electrical supply to the house to become unsafe.my neighbour has the main grounding equipment(sub main)for the 5 houses in our row and a cable needed to be run from his sub main to ours which would of entailed about 5 meters of cable of which some would have been covered by white trunking in both our homes where it would have been visible..in his about 1 mt running down the corner in his hall.

My neighbour point blank refused to let the workmen in to carry out the repair,infact refuses to let them over his door and the only other way to was to excavate my front garden,disturb my retaining wall,did up the pavement and part of the street.

All workmen involved are astounded at the amount of work and distruption that has needed to be caused due to my neighbour being so unreasonable and the work is still being carried out now.My garden is a complete mess,yes the workmen have done a fairly neat job but it is still a mess and my retaining wall has been weakened.

Can i claim damages from my neighbour or do i have any sort of come back?.I live in Scotland and for the record i have never had a problem with my neighbour,we have always got on well.:(

That's better.

NVRAM

Claim damages from your neighbour? why
Because he didnt want a meter of plastic trunking down his hallway?

Who paid for the repair work?
Would the trunking option have been cheaper?
Was the way the work was carried out vastly more expensive this way?

Grass/plants will grow back in time.

paidinchickens

Sorry I know it must be hellish but I wouldn't want cable running down my hallway either.

I bet your neighbour feels uncomfortable if "all" the workman are astounded by him.

How old is your neighbour? I know with my Aunt she does not handle "bother" at her age

carolingus

Of course the trunking option would of been cheaper..how much is it going to cost to repair my retaining wall,not to mention the time ive had to take of work to be at home for the workmen to gain access to my property.

carolingus

If he has the main sub for the whole row,can he actually refuse to let the workmen at it???

carolingus

My neighbour and his wife are in the mid 30's.

NVRAM

Seems he did quite easily.

Workmen were probably wanting to cut corners by having trunking all over the place, my earths aren't viewable anywhere in my property and I don't have trunking anywhere.

AFAIK all my earthing is where it should be, under the floor not where it could easily be damaged or touched.

EDIT:
Also AFAIK when it comes to Mains supply's you are responsible for it within the boundry of your property.

carolingus

'all over his place'...it was one meter of half inch plastic.

paidinchickens

Could the neighbour have refused all access and made you take him to court first? could it have been worse?

NVRAM

your point being?
Lets say I've recently decorated my hall then?

Now some company is asking to run a meter or half inch plastic trunking down my hallway... would stick out like a sore thumb

trunking looks horrendous no matter how it's installed.

It really does sound like the company were trying to cut corners, get the job done easier and quicker most likely but cutting corners nonetheless