Neighbours scaffolding – Am I being unreasonable?

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

Sorry, if it's a new build, the Access to Neighbouring Land Act does not apply.

OP said this was for an extension.

I'd certainly check on Dave's point here.

My understanding of the law is that home-owners are compelled to allow neighbours to have access for "maintenance" type purposes. Since when was building an extension "maintenance"?

I would be checking this out with a solicitor personally and denying him access for this, even if he had previously had a good attitude towards me.

You do sound like you are setting yourself up to get "walked over" with your concerns about even maybe postponing your own work in order to allow him to get on with his work:eek:

Back when I lived in a terrace house, I interpreted "having to allow access for maintenance" as merely if they needed to get at their fascia board that was in my back garden or at the side of their extension roof that was bordering on my back garden. I wouldn't have expected that they would have been allowed any more than that basically.

As it was, I made it plain that I didn't wish to grant access if possible (because of that neighbours behaviour towards me) and his workmen managed to do work on his place by a bit of "manoeuvring" without coming into my property.

I wonder whether this neighbour of yours is rather misinterpreting the fact that GARDEN walls are apparently allowed to have their footings on the next door neighbours land:eek:. But that is garden walls we are talking about and not extensions to the house.

See that solicitor now. It does come over very much to me that that neighbour has you weighed up as being a doormat, so you will feel better able to stand up to him if you are quite confident in your knowledge of the law.

Spirit_2

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

I was wondering that too? Also, ditto to your first sentence!

We are having our roof done soon. I hope the scaffolding doesn't go on to our neighbours property.

This winter we had scaffolding on our drive/against our garage whilst our neighbours had their roof replaced. It was there for a couple of months as the wet weather/highwinds continued. It was necessary to ease the access for the roofers to complete the job.

They asked, we agreed. It would not have occurred to us to refuse.

System

When I had my roof replaced the roofer/builder/whatever you call him needed to put scaffolding up on our neighbours property. It wasn't an issue.

CH27

I'd be very wary of refusing in case you ever need to do the same. He could make your life very difficult.

moneyistooshorttomention

Just rechecked first post and...yep...its definitely an extension being built that is the reason for the proposed scaffolding.

Roof replacement is "maintenance". Building an extension isn't "maintenance".

EDIT: Just checked and the relevant law seems to be Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992. Bits from it state:

...."that the works are reasonably NECESSARY for the PRESERVATION of the whole or any part of the dominant land...."

"...the Court shall not make an order...(if)....the respondent....would suffer interference with, or disturbance of, his use or enjoyment of the servient land..."


Game, set, match to OP.

If this neighbour wants an extension that much, then he will have to modify it (to a level he may not feel is worth it) or forget the whole idea. Either way, he might decide the house doesn't suit his purposes any more and move....so any "bad attitude" he might wish to demonstrate might not manifest anyway.

FBaby

So you say no just because of the inconvenience and you cause much trouble to your neighbour. He will from then on make sure your life is made a misery too in any way he can within the law. Very easy to do. It's our worth getting to this stage when instead you could agree to sit with him and agree on rules.

princeofpounds

You should be billing him for the car damage (I presume you took photo evidence...)

Is the extension a party wall, given the scaffolding needs to come so close? If so, you really need to invoke the party wall act ASAP.

Generally I agree that you should allow things like this within reason, but you have to assert yourself or you will be walked over.

You might get more advice on the houses sub-board above, or the NFH UK forum elsewhere on the web.

Davesnave

We seem to be falling into two camps here:

• those who think it's unreasonable, full stop, so be as obstructive as possible
• those who think that this sort of thing happens all the time, and that this is a potentially reasonable request being made incorrectly and without proper safeguards for either side

I know where the former leads....and you really don't want to go there!

CH27

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I'd certainly check on Dave's point here.

My understanding of the law is that home-owners are compelled to allow neighbours to have access for "maintenance" type purposes. Since when was building an extension "maintenance"?

I would be checking this out with a solicitor personally and denying him access for this, even if he had previously had a good attitude towards me.

You do sound like you are setting yourself up to get "walked over" with your concerns about even maybe postponing your own work in order to allow him to get on with his work:eek:

Back when I lived in a terrace house, I interpreted "having to allow access for maintenance" as merely if they needed to get at their fascia board that was in my back garden or at the side of their extension roof that was bordering on my back garden. I wouldn't have expected that they would have been allowed any more than that basically.

As it was, I made it plain that I didn't wish to grant access if possible (because of that neighbours behaviour towards me) and his workmen managed to do work on his place by a bit of "manoeuvring" without coming into my property.

I wonder whether this neighbour of yours is rather misinterpreting the fact that GARDEN walls are apparently allowed to have their footings on the next door neighbours land:eek:. But that is garden walls we are talking about and not extensions to the house.

See that solicitor now. It does come over very much to me that that neighbour has you weighed up as being a doormat, so you will feel better able to stand up to him if you are quite confident in your knowledge of the law.

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Just rechecked first post and...yep...its definitely an extension being built that is the reason for the proposed scaffolding.

Roof replacement is "maintenance". Building an extension isn't "maintenance".

EDIT: Just checked and the relevant law seems to be Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992. Bits from it state:

...."that the works are reasonably NECESSARY for the PRESERVATION of the whole or any part of the dominant land...."

"...the Court shall not make an order...(if)....the respondent....would suffer interference with, or disturbance of, his use or enjoyment of the servient land..."


Game, set, match to OP.

If this neighbour wants an extension that much, then he will have to modify it (to a level he may not feel is worth it) or forget the whole idea. Either way, he might decide the house doesn't suit his purposes any more and move....so any "bad attitude" he might wish to demonstrate might not manifest anyway.

This attitude demonstrates why you have neighbour problems.

SandC

I agree you need to make a claim against their builder for the damage to your car with the cement.

As far as the scaffolding goes, I agree to an extent about your concerns but is there anything that needs attention on your house that the scaffolding would be useful for so you could save on having to pay out for your own for a job in the not too distant future perhaps?