Neighbour built lean to attached to garage

Sister_Sister

Hello

I’m not sure if this is the correct forum but any guidance is welcome.
Following the fun that was going through the buying process we’ve now moved into what we hope will be our forever home. 

However after popping round to say hello to the new neighbours we’ve discovered they have built a sort of lean to which is attached to our garage this is a picture of it.
They’ve also attached shelving to our garage  wall. 

I know it is already there and so it is perhaps too late but what can I do? In the future can I say that we aren’t happy to agree to anything being attached as ok not sure our garage is designed to hold this up?

I don’t want to be that neighbour but equally I don’t wanted to end up with a garage wall falling down.

Doozergirl

That is not a good photo. 😬

Emmia

I really can't see what this is a photo of, it's very unclear.

sheramber

Did the previous owner agree to it?

It looks like they have covered in the gap between two properties. 

sheramber

Sister_Sister said:

sheramber said:

Did the previous owner agree to it?

It looks like they have covered in the gap between two properties. 

They have covered the gap between the properties. It wasn’t mentioned in any of the documents we got when we bought the house and the current owners stated it was like that when they bought it.
Truly you can only really see it from their side it isn’t visible fully from our side.

So a previous owner could have agreed to it. 

How long had your seller lived there?


If it was historic when they bought  it doesn’t seem likely it is going to fall down . 

Sister_Sister

My seller lived here for 20 years they were a little peculiar that is according the the neighbours and didn’t speak to any of the neighbours. I’d doubt very much they would have agreed to it.

Equally you can’t really see it is attached to my garage until you on their side. 

If I am stuck with it now can I notify them that I do not give consent for anything else to be attached to my walls without me speaking to the builder involved.

Yorkie1

Do you have legal advice on your house insurance?

BikingBud

Yorkie1 said:

Do you have legal advice on your house insurance?

What would legal advice offer that the conveyancer should have if the OP had brought it to their attention during the purchase?

Really difficult to see what the image shows, looks like a passage has been covered over but not really sure where this might be in relations to the OP's house and why it was not observed before purchase if it had been there over 20 years.

I'm nosey so would have been rootling around front and back of garage and asking questions.

Is the garage within or on the boundary, if within how much might they have encroached? What is the status of the wall? Our garage was demolished to enable an extension to be built but we still have a legacy party wall, is that likely?

I have a feeling that not only has the horse bolted, the Grand National is on the second lap.

Sapindus

Did you have a survey done?

Sister_Sister

I’m house number 38 they are 37 and have attached a lean to between their house and the back of my garage. It has a white front which you can just about see in my first picture and then corrugated Perspex roof. It isn’t fully sealed and is sort of open either end

We did have a survey and it wasn’t pointed out to us equally we didn’t notice that it was attached to the house. Looking back at Googlemaps I can see it was build in 2017 

ThisIsWeird

It's unlikely a survey would have picked this up as it isn't visible without going on to the neighbour's land. Had it been obvious, then I'd like to think it would have been commented on, but who knows.
Is your neighbour allowed to do this? No, not without the owner's express permission - otherwise it's a 'trespass', very possible one which includes 'property damage', which could technically make this a 'crime' - but not to be overstated.
Being detached, your garage wall is almost certainly fully on your side of the (invisible) boundary line; it wouldn't make any sense for your detached garage to be built with that wall straddling the boundary, making it a shared, or 'party' wall. So, it's almost certainly yours, all yours; the outer surface touches the boundary line, but it's still 100% on your land (as far as anyone could realistically ascertain.)
The same applies to your boundary fence along that border - if it's in the original position, it would appear to be marked as your responsibility. That almost always means it sits on your side of the boundary line, and is therefore fully owned by you; ergo, your neighbour shouldn't touch it, even paint their side, without your permission.
Soooo, could you oblige or legally force them to remove it? I understand, yes, you can. The first stage would be to determine whether they can credibly evidence having been given permission to do this by your vendor. I'd imagine that would be very unlikely indeed.
The real Q, tho', is, do you have the resolve to action this? Are you 'happy' to live with the most likely consequence; that you'll no longer have a useful relationship with them? 
A reasonable neighbour would, of course, be apologetic, fully understand, remove it all, and not take umbrage. But then, a reasonable neighbour wouldn't have done anything so utterly presumptuous in the first place - so anticipate the worst if you pursue this, and be prepared to consider it an acceptable outcome moving forward. To be blunt, if this pees them off, then their calibre is pretty low in any case.
A Q - how well can you see the insides of this lean-to? You can see shelves mounted on your garage wall? Ok, is there anything similar attached to their house wall? If not, doesn't that shout volumes?
Your choices are, to ignore. Or, point out your awareness, that you are certainly not happy about it, but that you are not minded to oblige them to remove it for now, but could do so at any time (Ie, so that they cannot gain any easement over time - I think that should do the job there?). Or, that you need to insist they remove it as you are concerned about damage, and also any future legal consequences, say when either of you come to sell.
Do you have Legal Protection? If so, no harm in calling them up for advice. I suspect they'll say, 'yes - if you want it removed, then do this...'