Neighbours Right of Access to Maintain their Property

HampshireH

Northernsoul123 said:

When we moved in the wife came round and said "Can we use your driveway?" I was a bit taken aback and said, "What, do you mean temporarily?" and I noticed what seemed like a look of annoyance. She then said, "We are laying paving on the front garden and are not supposed to walk on it for a few days." I said yeah, that's fine then so long as it's temporary - I thought you meant ongoing and laughed. So for a few days they were walking down our drive and cutting through into their back garden.
A couple of weeks later I noticed there was soil all down our driveway. I realised the neighbours must have been using our drive when we were out rather than going through their house. A week or two later we came home to find they had been clearing out and weeding the gutter i.e. had again been on our drive.
I looked in to this and was surprised to find that they do indeed have a legal right now to come onto our drive to maintain their new extension and I find it rather unfair that the law allows this because someone has been so selfish as to build right up to the boundary. They should however be asking us for permission and only using it for essential maintenance. They haven't asked us at all and this is what in particular I find out of order. They appear to have used up their own driveway and now want to access ours. 
 

But they did ask and you did give permission.

Perhaps what you thought was quite clear wasn't to them

Have you actually spoken to them since and discussed this and reaffirmed your stance

WIAWSNB

Northernsoul123 said:

Hi all,
We moved to a new house last year - a semi-detached with drive to side. The neighbours had built an extension to their house a couple of years before we moved in; their extension takes up their entire drive running alongside ours so they can now only access their garden through their house. We found it surprising they had built the extension right up to maybe 4 inches from the boundary line and then the 4 inches was a drainage gutter on the ground so that goes right to the actual boundary. Their back garden currently is a tip following the building of the extension and it currently has no fence to the side so is open to our drive. 
We had said to each other once moved in that we did not see how they were going to maintain this guttering as they had left no space to do so on their own land. Our solicitor had never raised anything though during purchase.
When we moved in the wife came round and said "Can we use your driveway?" I was a bit taken aback and said, "What, do you mean temporarily?" and I noticed what seemed like a look of annoyance. She then said, "We are laying paving on the front garden and are not supposed to walk on it for a few days." I said yeah, that's fine then so long as it's temporary - I thought you meant ongoing and laughed. So for a few days they were walking down our drive and cutting through into their back garden.
A couple of weeks later I noticed there was soil all down our driveway. I realised the neighbours must have been using our drive when we were out rather than going through their house. A week or two later we came home to find they had been clearing out and weeding the gutter i.e. had again been on our drive.
I looked in to this and was surprised to find that they do indeed have a legal right now to come onto our drive to maintain their new extension and I find it rather unfair that the law allows this because someone has been so selfish as to build right up to the boundary. They should however be asking us for permission and only using it for essential maintenance. They haven't asked us at all and this is what in particular I find out of order. They appear to have used up their own driveway and now want to access ours. 
We know we can refuse access and force them to seek a court order which we believe will be granted in their favour but they may also be then told to pay us compensation. However, this will then show as a dispute should we re-sell. 
How would you deal with this? We can block the access from their back garden with a fence and intend to do so but this won't stop them coming through the front to do whatever they see fit to the side of the extension and guttering. Guessing we should just confront them and say please ask our permission before coming on to our drive?
And should our solicitor not have told us about this when we purchased the house? I can't help feeling this has in some way damaged the saleability of our property if it comes up with a prospective buyer, "Oh and the neighbours will be coming onto your drive periodically to do maintenance work." It seems unfair this is allowed by law.

Regarding your solicitor's responsibility, it should be obvious on the ground whether a house or extension is likely to require occasional access for maintenance via a neighbouring property. This is pretty common, should be rare, and is often two-way. So I cannot see the solicitor having been remiss here.
A potentially different case could be if your neighbour was 'expecting' to continue having access down your drive that your vendor allowed them, willingly or not. If your vendor knew that their neighbour very regularly sought access to clear this drain to the point of it being a pita, then I think they had an obligation to mention this in the TA6(?).
Having said that, tho', it sounds a borderline case.
Step 1, fit CCTV cameras to cover your property. Make them discrete if you wish.
Step 2, make it clear, in a recordable way, that they must seek permission every time they require access.
Step 3, examine whether they have any alternative method of clearing that gutter.

Step 4 - explain to us, please, what you actually mean by a drainage gutter :-) We may be able to assess whether they do need access in order to clear it. Any chance of a pic?

Oh, and asking them to not come over your land in order to gain access to their garden is not a 'dispute'. Should they continue to do so after you have evidenced telling them 'non', then you would need to take action to stop them. Triple-check you have Legal Protection included in your home insurance before starting anything.

If you do need to take action to stop them, then you need to take action to stop them. You don't let anything like this slide just because someone shouts 'dispute'.

Obvs you should balance what's reasonable, but if you say 'non' to non-essential access as is your right, or allow it based on it being requested each time, and they fail to comply, they need stopping.

 

donutandbeer

How would the solicitor have known the neighbour built an extension really close to the boundary..? Solicitors don’t visit properties. It’s your responsibility to spot it when viewing the house and to ask your solicitor to enquire about it.

Yes who would know what to look at if they haven’t been stung before? The endless nightmare of housing!

Dustyevsky

It depends on circumstances, but building to the boundary may be a good option. It means the neighbouring property has the right to attach any extension they may create to the existing wall, saving on building costs. Also, the possibility of creating a narrow, unmaintainable gap in which debris may collect can be avoided.

gwynlas

If the neighbours garden remains a mess than you could suggest that they have a window of time to clear it before you erect a fence.

If you are the type of person who regularly treats your fence you will require reciprocal access to their side.

Access for maintenance of extension should only happen a couple of times per year so they should be able to offer you notice of when this is required.

Bigphil1474

Presumably , once the fence is on the back garden, they'd only need to access your drive to maintain the drain that's there? Would you want to do it? It's likely to affect you as much as them, so don't see the benefit of stopping them coming round to clean it every now and then. 

stuhse

My understanding is that the neighbouring land act would give them access to work on the wall that abuts your property.  It would not give them access to go through your property to access the back garden, this is subtly different.  I encourage you to get further advice on this to be sure as im not an expert in this area.

Elliott.T123

Northernsoul123 said:

Thanks for your replies.
Yes it is our drive.
I was under the impression solicitors should inform you of anything which might impact your decision on whether or not to purchase a property.
In all of the houses I have ever lived in (10 or so) I have never once had a neighbour want to access my land for any reason - guess I have just been lucky then if it is so normal! Wouldn't you expect them to at least ask first? As I say, that's not really the only problem; they are using the drive as if it is their own. The locked front gate is a good idea but would make it difficult for other visitors/couriers etc.
A fence will be going up to block off the garden.

The solicitor wouldn't have specifically made you aware of the right to access for maintenance because that is a standard law covering all properties (with a few special exceptions I am sure).

The neighbours do not have the right to use your driveway as regular access for their garden to do some weeding, to carry heavy bags etc. That does not count as essential maintenance. What they can do is use your driveway to access the wall if it needs repointing, to access the gutters or sofits to repair / replace.

The types of jobs that should be covered are things that you would expect maybe once a year or so at most potentially less.

We have neighbours with a wall on the boundary, they have been round 3 times in 5 years, all in the space of a month due to a leak they had. This was found, fixed and they haven't been back since (except on social visits, we get on well!) 

Herzlos

The neighbourly dispute is likely to have a bigger impact on selling than the occasional wheelbarrow, and it's probably better they did it whilst you were out and least inconvenienced. They should have cleaned up a bit though.

Technically, they only have access for maintenance that they can't use an alternative route for, and should be clearing it with you first. But given you're both going to be living next to each other for years, is it really worth starting a petty civil war over?

Do they have a plan to install a fence once the work is done?

Ksw3

have you spoken to them again?