CONSERVATORY/BOUNDARY/RIGHT OF WAY

KEMYST

OK...the gate is ours and has been there as a boundary marker for 30 years - with no complaint from anybody. 
 
At the moment, the gate swings out onto our property and the door inwards onto their property - this is as it should be.
The neighbours have declared - unilaterally and with no evidence - that the gate is suddenly on their property (we are talking literally an inch here) and they intend to remove it with or without our permission.

They have boxed themselves in now because, for some reason the gate must be removed to construct the conservatory. There is no room for negotiation because the gate must be removed (I don`t know why). This removal of the gate has nothing to do with the swing of the door. 

We don`t want to remove our gate. We don`t want to be told construction crews have the right to occupy our patio for up to a month and we don`t want to be bullied anymore. We have been told we are to have no say in what is going to happen - at all. We have no rights

The gate/door is a fall back position if they can prove that the gate can be removed. The door will open out onto our property and the door (should) swing into their property...nothing will have changed. They will have exactly the same space to transverse the RoW as they do now. The door will not be locked. The only difference will be, is that we will see less expanse of bloody white plastic. This will cost us £2000 and I`m sorry, but we will decide whether to spend this amount of money to appease a pair of bullies. I have had some great advice on here and thank you all for your time. I don`t mean to be bolshie (I`m usually too placid!).

Jeepers_Creepers

KEMYST said:

OK...the gate is ours and has been there as a boundary marker for 30 years - with no complaint from anybody. 
 
At the moment, the gate swings out onto our property and the door inwards onto their property - this is as it should be.
The neighbours have declared - unilaterally and with no evidence - that the gate is suddenly on their property (we are talking literally an inch here) and they intend to remove it with or without our permission.

They have boxed themselves in now because, for some reason the gate must be removed to construct the conservatory. There is no room for negotiation because the gate must be removed (I don`t know why). This removal of the gate has nothing to do with the swing of the door. 

We don`t want to remove our gate. We don`t want to be told construction crews have the right to occupy our patio for up to a month and we don`t want to be bullied anymore. We have been told we are to have no say in what is going to happen - at all. We have no rights

The gate/door is a fall back position if they can prove that the gate can be removed. The door will open out onto our property and the door (should) swing into their property...nothing will have changed. They will have exactly the same space to transverse the RoW as they do now. The door will not be locked. The only difference will be, is that we will see less expanse of bloody white plastic. This will cost us £2000 and I`m sorry, but we will decide whether to spend this amount of money to appease a pair of bullies. I have had some great advice on here and thank you all for your time. I don`t mean to be bolshie (I`m usually too placid!).

I think you've reached the point where you should know where you now stand on this issue.

Please separate the emotive from the practical. I say this even tho' being effectively harangued by a neighbour is largely an emotive issue, as is this whole unpleasant situation, BUT, I doubt you'll get very far citing that as being the problem. In fact, it will almost certainly be counter-productive.

So, everything the neighbour is entitled to do, accept it with as much good grace as you can - through gritted teeth. After all, you bought your house knowing it had this RoW.

Focus instead on two things - one is to prevent their property (their door) from trespassing over yours (that's such a p-take it makes my head spin), and ideally arriving at a better compromise for you both.

If you can get them to talk in a reasonable manner about this - and for that you need to be too - then just perhaps you can get to the point where you suggest a different entrance point to their garden would suit you both.

I think it's pretty clear you have come down to this 'door swing' as being your only legitimate area of complaint, because you have been nobbled by not having LP on your insurance, and are sensibly not really entertaining going 'legal' from your own pocket. I mean, 'excessive use of a RoW' could well be a legitimate issue here too - have a Google for this - but you'll never know because you ain't daft enough to pursue it from your own pocket. It's too big a risk.

So, hold back the emotive, and make even the 'door swing' issue a simple matter of reasonable practicalities; you have been advised that this will almost certainly be an issue when you come to sell up. And it almost certainly will be. That's the way to play it - any part of a building which encroaches over a neighbouring boundary WILL be flagged up in a survey, and almost certainly WILL cause concern, and many folk to reconsider the purchase. It would me.

Yes, it's a large expanse of 'bludy white plastic', but... that doesn't matter. Keep to the things that do.