Access to neighbour’s property

MinnieTed2016

Hi there
I wondered if anyone has any knowledge of property law or experience in arranging access to a neighbour’s property to carry out maintenance to your own?

We live in a detached house where one of the walls forms the boundary between our property and the land belonging to a small block of flats. We tried to purchase a small strip of land to extend our boundary by a metre but the freeholder would not give us a fair price. We then attempted to arrange an access agreement privately to allow us maintenance to our own building and to pull weeds on the boundary line etc. There is also a large dead tree and two tall ash trees on their land but inches from our wall which need to come down as they present structural risks to our property.

The plot of land in question is large and the flats themselves are some distance away so we wouldn’t cause much of a nuisance going on there. The land isn’t enclosed at all, I could just walk over there right now if I wanted to but we wanted to agree things formally so there could be no dispute.

However the firm acting on behalf of the freeholder (an investment firm!) has now asked for £1,200 for their solicitors to consider our access request.

I feel like this is unreasonable? We’re not talking about access every weekend, probably just once or twice a year once the current maintenance issues have been addressed.

I know we can try to get an Access Order through court but I don’t know how risky this is and what we could end up having to pay?

Anyone have any advice at all?

Thanks!

Comms69

Taking this to court would probably cost you that much anyway.

on the flip side, if you just go ahead with it, there's very little they can actually do. (that maintenance to your property i mean. DONT touch the trees etc)

unforeseen

Have you looked at the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992?

princeofpounds

Going for an access order is not risky at all if you can prove that you requested access but were refused, that the repairs are reasonably necessary, and that they would be too hard to carry out from your own land. It may even be one of those rare occasions where you do not need a solicitor, but that's up to you.

To be honest, if it's just weed-pulling, just go and do it. There is no offence of trespassing. None of the leaseholders in the flats are likely to care. But you'd have to leave if asked I suppose. I presume the estate is not locked?

The trees are a separate matter and come under nuisance laws. Bit of a long topic for now, don't have the time to cover it.

princeofpounds

unforeseen said:

Have you looked at the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992?

That's what the access order the OP refers to is about, so they may have 

MinnieTed2016

I am aware of the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992 but we’d still need to get a court to grant an access order according to this legislation wouldn’t we?

The trees are going to be a big problem, they’re already as tall as our two storey house and could cause real problems in the near future as they get bigger. Plus they’re self-seeding so we may end up with many more saplings to deal with down the line! We’re not asking them to do or pay for any of the work though, just allow us on their property to be able to do it. The trees are actually protected currently in a conservation area so we’d have to deal with the council too.

I just wanted to see if there was a way to prevent this landlord from charging us just to consider giving access. I’m concerned it could open to door to them charging a fee for each time we do access, or a penalty for if we accidentally drop a twig on our way out!

MinnieTed2016

We only moved into the property 6 months ago and it was empty for a year prior to that so there is some stuff to do just to correct the neglect. Other than that it’s dealing with these trees and then just keeping an eye on it from there and pulling up saplings when they show themselves!

Comms69

MinnieTed2016 said:

We only moved into the property 6 months ago and it was empty for a year prior to that so there is some stuff to do just to correct the neglect. Other than that it’s dealing with these trees and then just keeping an eye on it from there and pulling up saplings when they show themselves!

Just be aware that if you do this without permission you would be committing criminal damage. You have no right to remove or interfere with your neighbours property

Carrot007

Comms69 said:

MinnieTed2016 said:

We only moved into the property 6 months ago and it was empty for a year prior to that so there is some stuff to do just to correct the neglect. Other than that it’s dealing with these trees and then just keeping an eye on it from there and pulling up saplings when they show themselves!

Just be aware that if you do this without permission you would be committing criminal damage. You have no right to remove or interfere with your neighbours property

Would it? Surely either.

1. They are on OP's property but only accessed form other's property.

or

2. The are on the other property in which case OP need to tell them to do it.

MinnieTed2016

Comms69 said:

MinnieTed2016 said:

We only moved into the property 6 months ago and it was empty for a year prior to that so there is some stuff to do just to correct the neglect. Other than that it’s dealing with these trees and then just keeping an eye on it from there and pulling up saplings when they show themselves!

Just be aware that if you do this without permission you would be committing criminal damage. You have no right to remove or interfere with your neighbours property

I appreciate this and we don’t intend to. Is there some way we can get an order to force the neighbours to remove trees which are a structural threat to our property if they won’t allow us to do it?

We’re not talking about overhanging branches here but two trees that are pushing 20ft tall within half a metre of our external wall.

Comms69

MinnieTed2016 said:

Comms69 said:

MinnieTed2016 said:

We only moved into the property 6 months ago and it was empty for a year prior to that so there is some stuff to do just to correct the neglect. Other than that it’s dealing with these trees and then just keeping an eye on it from there and pulling up saplings when they show themselves!

Just be aware that if you do this without permission you would be committing criminal damage. You have no right to remove or interfere with your neighbours property

I appreciate this and we don’t intend to. Is there some way we can get an order to force the neighbours to remove trees which are a structural threat to our property if they won’t allow us to do it?

We’re not talking about overhanging branches here but two trees that are pushing 20ft tall within half a metre of our external wall.

TBH it's unlikely to cause massive damage, it depends on the type of tree, some only grow to 20ft. 

A surveyor can tell you - but at a cost. 

Yes if there is a need to get them removed this can be done via court.