Buying a house with neighbour's outbuilding built against wall

Pboi93

Hello all.

I've had an offer on a property accepted but I've got some concerns about a lean-to/outbuilding that is in the neighbour's garden against the wall of the house I'd be buying. I've attached a photo. It seems there's cladding against "my" wall and whatever the structure is it has electric cabling wired to it from the neighbour's house.

I'll be trying to chase up answers from the estate agent about it but I'm not optimistic that they will give any real answers. I'm tempted to ask the neighbour's themselves but I don't feel like that's necessarily such a great idea.

Is this something I should be so concerned about? It feels like I should know how much the structure is connected to the wall? Where would I stand with repairs? If I paid for a survey would they even have access to check it out?

In principle I'm not really all that fussed about the building being there but I can't help thinking about is they've done some drilling into the wall and it's gonna be slowly filling up with rain water and I'll buy a house and one of the walls is going to fall off.

Soz for such a rambling post. Any advice is much appreciated.

Doozergirl

What's the layout here?  Can't work out what is yours/theirs/public!

TheJP

The brick structure on the right looks like its an existing wall and the neighbour has added a roof structure and joined it to the OP potential property. OP ask your solicitor to check if they have a party wall agreement, if not that could be a messy dispute asking the neighbour to remove the structure.

Bendy_House

I don't know if it's a Google-image fault - they can often be blurry in places due to camera movement - but the front shed doesn't appear to have proper flashing against that house wall - so potential for damp - whereas the sloping roof behind it does.

But, regardless, you'll want to know if these additions are legitimate, have had permission, have been done properly, and you are happy to accept them. Your vendor should be made to address this if they wish the sale to proceed; you really don't want to start life in your new home with confronting a neighbour

If either of these outbuildings are workshops, and the owner loves their hammering and grinding, then...

It's your call whether you are ok with it.

Bendy_House

Try a 'historic' Google images of the house - see if you can tell roughly when these sheds were built.

Slinky

Is it just me, but that back one looks like it's sagging in the middle.

Section62

Slinky said:

Is it just me, but that back one looks like it's sagging in the middle.

I think it is either two sheds, or probably more likely one with a central valley gutter (to avoid draining the roof towards the neighbour's house wall)

Heres_the_deal

Same situation as yours in the next road to me. A gable wall forms the boundary to another garden, houses are laid out in an L formation.

A very large shed was fitted in the garden using this persons gable wall to form the fourth side. Inside the shed went three phase electric, a lath, milling machine and other engineering equipment. The noise from the shed permeates the gable wall into the house 8 hours a day.

The house 'was' detached up to that point, now it has a large shed attached creating hell and an expensive ongoing legal battle.

badger09

Surely one can’t simply attach structures/buildings to a wall belonging to someone else, without owner’s consent. Even if that wall is on the boundary of your property. 

Slinky

badger09 said:

Surely one can’t simply attach structures/buildings to a wall belonging to someone else, without owner’s consent. Even if that wall is on the boundary of your property. 

They may have got the neighbour's consent. It may or may not be the person selling the house to the OP or someone who lived there before them.

TheJP

Slinky said:

badger09 said:

Surely one can’t simply attach structures/buildings to a wall belonging to someone else, without owner’s consent. Even if that wall is on the boundary of your property. 

They may have got the neighbour's consent. It may or may not be the person selling the house to the OP or someone who lived there before them.

Surely it needs to be a legally binding consent like a party wall agreement otherwise OP can buy the property and demand the structure is removed from their property. Fag packet agreements don't really hold up.