Access rights and neighbours responsibilities

bballgirl3

I am hoping someone can help me with two issues I'm having with my neighbour:
1) The lady next door to me doesn't maintain her garden and it has overgrown so much, it has pushed my fence down. I have approached her about this and she said that we could go back and cut away the shrubbery and try and fix it ourselves. After doing this, we realised that the damaged can not be repaired and the fence needs replacing. What are my rights?

2) My property is situated at the end of a private lane, and is the fourth (& last building). As such, the deeds depict that the first three properties have to allow access for my property. The first two properties maintain their part of the lane perfectly but my nieghbour has allowed her overgrown garden to encroach about 2 feet on both sides. She has also taken to leaving her bin on the lane and I often have to move this to get past. When I drive down, the shrubbery is now so bad, it is touching the car. Emergency vehicles would not be able to pass. Again, I have spoken to her and asked her to cut it back but she does a very minimal job when really, the whole area needs cutting back. What can I do and what are my rights.

Notes - I should say, I have offered to help, I have offered her use of our tools and mulchers, I've offered to take away the excess. She often cries and says it's all too much and I don't want to upset the woman or cause her distress but I also need it sorting.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Many thanks.

Bendy_House

Are you even prepared to do the actual work? You shouldn't have to, of course, but it would likely solve the issue and show how good a neighbour you are.

Should she keep this access clear? Almost certainly 'yes'. Could you force her to? Almost certainly 'yes'. But that would be a last resort.

Do you think/know if she's suffering genuine financial hardship? Or is her "it's all too much" mostly about the organising of it? If the latter, perhaps you could suggest you get a couple of gardeners out to quote to do the work for her, and she then has a choice. If she really cannot afford to have this work done - if she is near destitute - then I can't see how even 'forcing' her to act will work.

By 'forcing', I mean starting the legal process on enacting the requirements of your, and her, deeds. Do you have LegProt on your house insurance? As I said, this is very much a last resort, but they can be good at giving advice on how to handle such things; they want issues sorting without going 'legal' too, if possible.

bballgirl3

Thank you for your reply - I have offered all sorts of help and her response was "I'm not letting you touch my garden".

Unfortunately I think she suffers from anxiety or can't cope with life's issues very well, I've tried to be as accommodating as I can, open communication, flowers when she's been struggling etc.

I know that she can afford it as she has previously offered to buy my bungalow, with cash so money isn't the issue.

I don't want to go down the legal route, like I said, I don't want to cause her any distress, when she obviously is struggling to cope with general life. I just want to know my rights so I can discuss it with her.

I will look in to my insurance and see if they can offer any services.

Many thanks

Bendy_House

Sounds as tho' you are being as thoughtful and reasonable as you can be. And you clearly appreciate that she's probably not trying to be awkward, at least not intentionally so. In some ways, that makes it more difficult for you as you don't want to get heavy-handed with someone who may have emotional issues.

Have you checked your deeds for the exact wording of the covenant/easement/whatevs that allows you your access? Please do this first, as your LP will most likely want this info in any case. If it is less than 100% clear, you may wish to also download your neighb's deeds too, to see how it compares.

Armed with what is almost certainly a right to have unhindered access to your property, you can then get advice on the best/most gentle-but-insistent way to act.

Does she have family you can contact? That could also be a good approach - a responsible offspring who might visit and persuade her to do the right thing.

As for her bin - what do you think? Deliberate or just absent-minded...?

bris

The general rull of thumb is anything encroaching your land or shared land can be cut back and the cuttings offered to the neighbour.

You dont need permission.

So you either do it or spend a lot of money getting her to do it, which can drag on for a long time.

Norman_Castle

bris said:

The general rull of thumb is anything encroaching your land or shared land can be cut back and the cuttings offered to the neighbour.

Not sure that applies to a private ROW although its the approach I'd take. What do the deeds say?

With regards to your fence and the overgrowth Its likely easier to cut it back, leave the cutting on her land as she's not bothered about it and fit a sectional fence to enable easy removal and regular cutting.

Hudsonbutler

Could she be trying to force you out. She's offered to buy your bungalow for cash, leaves the bin out in your way and let's her property become overgrown. Just a thought.

Ectophile

If your fence was flimsy enough for a few shrubs to push it over, it was probably going to fall down soon anyway.  You have a right to hack back anything encroaching onto your garden.  Then build a sturdy fence the old-fashioned way.  If you build it with concrete posts and arris rails, then nothing short of a tree falling on it will move it.

Two feet of shrubs/weeds doesn't take very long at all to hack away if you have the right tools.  You could probably do it yourself in less time than it takes consulting legal experts and taking her to court.

bballgirl3

Thank you for everyone's replies and advice.

I appreciate your time and I will update with any progress 

theonlywayisup

Norman_Castle said:

bris said:

The general rull of thumb is anything encroaching your land or shared land can be cut back and the cuttings offered to the neighbour.

Not sure that applies to a private ROW although its the approach I'd take. What do the deeds say?

With regards to your fence and the overgrowth Its likely easier to cut it back, leave the cutting on her land as she's not bothered about it and fit a sectional fence to enable easy removal and regular cutting.

If it is a ROW I would hack anything back that was on my land.  

Our public footpath is left to its own devices - or to the council that come out every 3-4 years and hack it back.  Why should I bother?

The law is unbalanced.  The art is to balance it in your favour. 

canaldumidi

What are your finances like?

Whilst it's not your responsibility, it may be that the way to a) get the job done asap and b) with minimum antagoism (ie no legal action!) and C) maximum maintenance of neighbourly relations, would be get a quote from tree surgeon, gardeners etc and offer to pay to both repair the fence and also cut the overgrown road access right back.

There's little point spending months pursuading her to trim 6" off the sides, or doing so yourself, when by summer it will be overgrown again.

Tea and cake!

But as others have said, ultimately you could use the courts to force her to provide unhindered access, but: time, cost & animosity........