Leasehold flat - Window opening into garden of next flat

horsewithnoname

curtains/blinds/shutters are your friend.

waseem432000

this is the window I am talking about and it’s not the biggest one in the world but still opens outside.

I will wait for my solicitor to check this but I think I am not going to pass on this flat for this quirk. We quite like flat and if purchase is completed, won’t be selling it anytime soon.

doodling

Hi,

Are you expecting to be able to open (or indeed use in any way) the windows?

Does you neighbour have the right to erect a structure (on their land) which would prevent opening the windows? Probably worth asking your solicitor that question.

Also worth asking if the neighbour has the right to erect a structure (e.g. a fence panel) which completely obscures one or more of the windows rendering them pointless.

HouseHuntingAmy

Two separate things are getting mixed together in the answers so far, and they matter differently at purchase. The privacy question (can the neighbours see in) is a living-comfort issue - personal, mostly solvable with obscured film or top-opening lights, and your wife has to live there so her view is the one that counts. The legal question is the one your solicitor must nail before exchange, and it turns on detail: a window that OPENS OUTWARD over a neighbours land can technically trespass into their airspace, and the usual escape route (a prescriptive easement from 20+ years of uninterrupted use) only helps if the windows have always opened the same way. The 2022 replacement is the wierd weak point here - if the new frames changed the opening direction or how far they project, the clock arguably restarted, and the 1960 construction date stops being your defence. Three things to ask for specifically: the lease plan (does the demise include that airspace, or is the garden your neighbours?), written confirmation from the sellers solicitor that no complaint has ever been made, and if there is any doubt, a quote for a one-off indemnity policy (usually cheap, £50-200, standard conveyancing practice for exactly this). And keep the resale lens on: whatever you decide you can live with, your future buyer will ask the same questions you are asking now, so get the paperwork answer even if the living answer is "we dont mind".

ExEstateAgent

Are the gardens that the window/s open into part of the same development of leasehold flats, or are the gardens belonging to totally separate properties?

If the gardens are part of the same development, are they communal or demised specific flats? i.e. for their use only?

WIAWSNB

These are on the ground floor?

My concern would be a loss of privacy to the neighbour, and if they could do something about it like screen it off. Ie, they could block your 'view' and significantly reduce the light levels in these rooms.

I suspect they could not do this, tho', at least not right against the window, as this would cut your light down too much, and I'd hope that your right to light would have been prescribed by easement, if not in a written covenant.

But, consider whether you'd be happy with some loss of light and a view, if they planted screening a couple of metres away, for example?

The other issue of the opening sections could be addressed, if needed, by replacing them with internal openers, or even sash type.

I think it was asked whether the other flats have similar setups - overlooking neighbouring gardens etc? Check covenants in the lease that may allow this.

waseem432000

I have instructed my solicitor to check the legal side and they haven’t got back to me yet. We are still fairly early in the process and my solicitor has ordered searches and haven’t probably gone through the lease yet.

The flat I am buying is in middle in a small development of 6 flats(attached the front picture below where flat I am buying is in middle) and each flat has a private garden so my room and toilets windows are opening in gardens of flat 1 and 5. When I asked estate agent, he said they have always been like that and there has never been any dispute but I will obviously wait for my solicitor to check that.

I think we are fine with privacy side of the things for the window. It’s not like you can sleep with an open window even if it opens into your personal garden so we will probably obscure the glass in the bedroom just like it’s already in the toilet.

waseem432000

Other flats don’t have the same setup as side flats 1,2 and 5,6 have their windows opening outside while only flat 3 and 4 have windows opening inside the garden with flat 3 being the ground floor one.

WIAWSNB

Could you annotate the pic to show the flat numbers, and the windows and gardens involved, please?

They don't look out on that shrubbery, do they? Or are the windows on the other side?

waseem432000

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82153287#Comment_82153287

This may explain the property slightly better. Copied it from title plan

because flats 1.2,5,6 start earlier from the front and flat 3 start a bit behind so side windows in both sides (have toilet in one side and bedroom 2 in the second side, open into gardens of flat 1(toilet) and flat 5 (bedroom).