Access to neighbour: who clears cuttings

vigman

Hi

I couldn't quite find the right forum for this so please move if inappropriate.

Two neighbours (both very unpleasant) want access to the back of their outhouses on our land to clear ivy. We made arrangements to view this today and the area in front of their outhouses on our land is brambles.

They insisted we clear this to give them access (which we don't want to do) but we said they could make a pathway to their outhouses and a working area in front of it.

My main questions are

1.) Do they, or we, have to remove the bramble cuttings of the pathway they make to their properties? (I am disabled and can't do this work and don't really want to pay someone to do this...we also want the blackberries!)

2.) Do they, or we, have to remove the ivy cuttings that are currently growing up their outhouses?

My wife wants relations to be as good as possible although they made very unpleasant comments including that they would come whenever they wanted to do it.

We are going to arrange times and dates for them and their agents to do this work.

Any advice welcomed

TIA

Vigman

G_M

vigman wrote: »

Two neighbours (both very unpleasant) want access to the back of their outhouses on our land to clear ivy. We made arrangements to view this today and the area in front of their outhouses on our land is brambles.

My question would be why have they put outhouses on your land?

vigman

G_M wrote: »

My question would be why have they put outhouses on your land?

The back brick walls of their Victorian outhouses border our land.

Vigman

cte1111

Unless your deeds say that they have access, then the answer to both questions is no.

jessex1990

I thought most people were knocking those outdoor toilets down. Don't tell me they are still using them?

PasturesNew

You don't have to clear the way for them to have access - but the deeds will say if they have a right to access for maintenance jobs (most/many do).

They could say that "your ivy" is damaging their outhouses in the longer term - and if they're unpleasant, you don't want to argue that toss with them!

Best way forward might be for you to be clear and fair: "I have no objectiions, I can see access is tricky for you - but two things: I can't clear those brambles myself and I want the blackberries. If you are prepared to wait until after blackberrying season and to clear your route, we can negotiate a date some time later this year"

vigman

cte1111 wrote: »

Unless your deeds say that they have access, then the answer to both questions is no.

Rather unwell today so may be missing the meaning of your reply. We are giving them permission to access the land and do the work but need to know who has to dispose of the clearance material.

So do they remove the debris from the path they clear on our land with our permission or do we?

Equally do they remove the ivy debris from their walls or do we have to?

Tia

Vigman

PasturesNew

vigman wrote: »

.... need to know who has to dispose of the clearance material. ....

Technically/legally, if there are clippings then they belong to you... so they could just leave them on the ground and walk away.

You need to discover the magic words to say that make them clear up/take the cuttings to the tip/wherever you take them in your area.

Smart/assumptions-laden clever-speak so they end up "grateful" you let them .... and scurrying away with all the clippings in their bags.

vigman

Thanks, PasturesNew.

Whatever is said and however nicely, these people will just cut through our brambles to get to their back wall and leave them where they fall. They had the cheek to ask why we had grown blackberries (brambles) there anyway. They have already said they will gain access to our garden whenever they want and we have pointed out that they must arrange times and dates which they grumpily agreed to.

We are talking about people who put up a locked gate across my mother's right of way to her garden and took years to get them to remove it!

I can understand that the clipped ivy from their properties is 'ours' and actually will not be so hard to deal with. The piles of cut brambles to the back of their properties which we didn't want cut anyway will be more of a problem if they don't remove them.

Vigman

karcher

vigman wrote: »

Thanks, PasturesNew.

Whatever is said and however nicely, these people will just cut through our brambles to get to their back wall and leave them where they fall. They had the cheek to ask why we had grown blackberries (brambles) there anyway. They have already said they will gain access to our garden whenever they want and we have pointed out that they must arrange times and dates which they grumpily agreed to.

We are talking about people who put up a locked gate across my mother's right of way to her garden and took years to get them to remove it!

I can understand that the clipped ivy from their properties is 'ours' and actually will not be so hard to deal with. The piles of cut brambles to the back of their properties which we didn't want cut anyway will be more of a problem if they don't remove them.

Vigman

I'm sorry Vigman, I have no practical advice but I feel for you.

Any decent person would ask for access and offer to take away the debris as they know you are disabled. Unfortunately, these people clearly lack any decency or empathy...there are far too many people like that in the world today

I hope you get it sorted.

PasturesNew

I can appreciate that cut brambles are a bl00dy nuisance. Especially if you're pretty useless at things/accident prone/rubbish .... I know, because I am. I have some brambles and have developed a VERY long winded way of dealing with them.

If they do leave them with you ... then go out and put your big bucket underneath the nearest big sticking out bit and use handheld clippers to clip it into 2" pieces. Takes aaaaaaages, but you don't end up wrestling 2-3' or more long and dangerous lengths of nasty stuff.

Just remember you don't have to do it all at once, or even all on one day ... it's not going anywhere .... just snip for 10 minutes a few times a day for .... er .... 2-3 weeks.

That's how I do it.

You can't grab/bend long lengths of that stuff into anything vaguely like a bag. Bl00dy nuisance the stuff is.... but it DOES cut up very small - and is easier then to work out what to do with it next ...