Balcony on top of my bay window

princeofpounds

All these responses are far too meek. Pull down the porch. Problem solved.

You know, as much as I am generally an advocate of due process, this may be one of those situations where such an approach might work.

You have to be careful re criminal damage allegations though. But on the civil side if I were your selfish neighbour I wouldn't bother with the expense of suing you for an unusable triangular two feet of dubiously-acquired balcony. Unless I was wealthy and felt like punishing you perhaps.

But best you find out where you stand legally first of all. The historical facts about how the balcony came to be there will be relevant.

tom9980

fed_up_and_stressed wrote: »

All these responses are far too meek. Pull down the porch. Problem solved.

Personally i prefer a chainsaw to the railing on my side followed by the aforementioned glass screen being installed.

DaftyDuck

I like to think outside the box, so I thought I'd run this up the flagpole and see who salutes it.... yes, it's been a five-hour teleconference with the Yanks again for me. Anyway, puts me in an argumentative mood.

See, I LIKE their balcony, oh yes I do. Lovely. No, don't knock it down... use it as precident. See, on the photo in post #11(ish) page 1, you have a lovely dormer window that gives onto the roof of your bay window. Now, a little midnight carpentry builds a REALLY long balcony of your own, right over to their similar dormer window. Occupy that as well for the hell of it. Your new balcony now runs over theirs. Time to put out your tomato plants and the sprinkler system, sit over their balcony and sing loudly. All night long.

Of course, the more rickety your balcony the better. DIY build it, badly, so it sags. Use nails to build it that are much too long. Leave bits dangling.

labellemo

Nice thinking DaftyDuck but unless I can hire a time machine and fast forward 12 years I think they would be legally in their right to ask me to remove it. What I am looking for is a legal way I can get them to vacate my side of the balcony.

larkrisetocandleford

Surely the thing to do is just serve them notice that as part of the renovations you will be removing the porch.?

DaftyDuck

Sadly, I think the easiest and cheapest legal solution is to offer them a bucket of fivers for their valuable and useful space. I suspect that will end up cheaper than any legally-fought or direct action solution, and I suspect they know it too. They may well have full legal use of it, and any physical action by you may put you very much in the wrong... And that may be costly.

How much they want may not be reasonable, it may end up being just less than the maximum it is worth to you. If it mattered to you more, I guess you would have insisted on it being sorted before sale.

bouicca21

Presumably they are likely to claim right to use the balcony by long term unobstructed usage. But that does not over-ride you rights to your bit so I'd be putting my potted plants there - assuming of course that I didn't care about getting on with my neighbours or the possibility of declaring a dispute when I came to sell.

mpet

Not sure if this is any help, but to me, that balcony arrangement seems to be part of the original structure - we have houses round this way with a similar set up. However, all those I've seen have some kind of divider down the middle with each property owning half each.

I suspect this is the case with your house, despite what your neighbour says - unles at some point a flying freehold was arrnged giving ownership to your neighbour.

I think the only option is via your solicitor who completed the conveyancing - hopefully thay may be able to confirm your ownership of half of the balcony.

DRP

mpet wrote: »

Not sure if this is any help, but to me, that balcony arrangement seems to be part of the original structure - we have houses round this way with a similar set up. However, all those I've seen have some kind of divider down the middle with each property owning half each.

I suspect this is the case with your house, despite what your neighbour says - unles at some point a flying freehold was arrnged giving ownership to your neighbour.

I think the only option is via your solicitor who completed the conveyancing - hopefully thay may be able to confirm your ownership of half of the balcony.

Yes we have similar in my area.

OP - Does the balcony look original?

C_Mababejive

Just remove the porch. What can they do..? Call the police or launch their own very expensive legal battle? The balcony rail should never have been erected in the first place. Is your porch roof structurally sound enough to support it?