Neighbour attaching things to his wall, over my path

lukerichardson40

Hello all,

I hope this is the right section, apologies if not.

My house is a detached property with a side gate down a small passageway. The passage is between my wall, and my neighbours. The passage is part of my property.

Question is, what can my neighbour put on his wall, bear in mind it is over my path.

I ask because the neighbour is a restaurant. He has put some ducting in there which he asked me about, I said fine. But it is massively different to what he described (originally it was ducting 'the diameter of a tin of beans', it is infant about the diameter of a bucket). And now he is planning on putting an air conditioning unit in.

Do I have any say on this, or because it's his wall, he can do what he wants?

I must add we are on good terms but I do think he is taking the proverbial a little bit.

Many thanks in advance.

daveyjp

He's trespassing.

How you deal with this depends on the outcome you want. I'd want it taking down to prevent problems in the future.

lukerichardson40

He hasn't put any AC on yet but I'm expecting he will want to.

There was some old ducting on the wall when I bought the place, I suspect that might change things there.

moneyistooshorttomention

He lied to you. He almost certainly knew what size it would really be at the outset.

It's your airspace - I'd send him a letter (copy kept) stating words to the effect of "You said and I agreed to x size. In fact it's 10x size - which is not what I agreed. In view of that - please remove it by x date (2 weeks time). Nothing further is to be erected in the airspace over my passageway".

If he tried to be "too busy" to remove it - he'd get another letter saying "It WILL be removed by 2 weeks time" (suitably phrased) or I will have it removed myself" and do so if need be.

EDIT: the law is that property owners legally own the airspace above their property up to a certain height. Can't recall exact height - but it basically equates to a tall tree.

eddddy

lukerichardson40 wrote: »

I ask because the neighbour is a restaurant.

...originally it was ducting 'the diameter of a tin of beans', it is infact about the diameter of a bucket...

Well.... a restaurant would use catering size tins of beans - which approach the size of a small bucket.

(Do you think he might have said 'the diameter of a tin of beans' specifically because it might mislead you???)


As others say, if the ducting encroaches on your property without your consent, it's trespass.

ReadingTim

I'd take claims of "air conditioning" with a pinch of salt too - suspect it's more likely to be kitchen extractor fans, therefore the whole area is likely to be filled with the smell of cooking, especially frying (and possibly the greasy/oily residue too).

Think you need to stamp this out, PDQ....

davidmcn

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

EDIT: the law is that property owners legally own the airspace above their property up to a certain height. Can't recall exact height - but it basically equates to a tall tree.

I don't think there is any maximum height - generally speaking you own everything all the way up and all the way down, unless there are specific reservations in the title e.g. of mineral rights, or statutory exemptions (like the ability of planes to trespass your airspace temporarily).

moneyistooshorttomention

ReadingTim wrote: »

I'd take claims of "air conditioning" with a pinch of salt too - suspect it's more likely to be kitchen extractor fans, therefore the whole area is likely to be filled with the smell of cooking, especially frying (and possibly the greasy/oily residue too).

Think you need to stamp this out, PDQ....

not to mention noise...

Smodlet

davidmcn wrote: »

I don't think there is any maximum height - generally speaking you own everything all the way up and all the way down, unless there are specific reservations in the title e.g. of mineral rights, or statutory exemptions (like the ability of planes to trespass your airspace temporarily).

... All the way down? Yeah, until fracking.

Badger50

The neighbour has no right to oversail your property and the permission you have given is only a licence which you can withdraw at will.

m0bov

Get round there pdq and ask for it to be removed but dont write letters just yet.