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Boundary wall

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mistertea
mistertea Posts: 33 Forumite
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in House buying, renting & selling
Our originally detached property became link-detached in the 1950's when the owners at the time and next door's owners built adjoining garages. The garages were built with 2 layers of brick as the adjoining wall, so the boundary ran right through the middle of the wall. We bought as link-detached and were thrilled when a builder then bought next door and removed his garage, leaving both properties detached again. When the builder removed his garage he left both brick layers of the previously adjoining wall as the exterior wall of our garage. This was all part of huge renovation work which the builder neighbour completed before selling for a tidy profit and moving on.

Our new neighbour has wasted no time in asking me if I am aware that my garage wall is now on his property. I explained the background and he quipped something along the lines of "well your garage will need to be moved". I'm hoping he doesn't go down this route but could the new neigbour force us to demolish our garage? Re-building a narrower garage is a non-starter for us as it would be too narrow to store a car.

Any advice much appreciated - thanks.

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  • TBagpuss
    TBagpuss Posts: 11,203 Forumite
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    From what you describe, it sounds as though *your* garage wall is on your property, and that your neighbour has a wall on their property which was originally part of their garage.

    You would need to take advice, but presumably removing their wall wouldn't mean moving your garage, it would simply mean that your garage went from having a wall one brick thick to one 2 bricks thick. Whether your neighbours had any obligation to then finish the outside to ensure that it remained weather proof I don't know. For a garage, does the wall need to be more than one brick thick?

    What do the deeds say about the boundary?
    All posts are my personal opinion, not formal advice Always get proper, professional advice (particularly about anything legal!)
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
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    TBagpuss wrote: »

    it would simply mean that your garage went from having a wall one brick thick to one 2 bricks thick. .....
    Errrr....
    went from having a wall two bricks thick to one one brick thick?
  • mistertea
    mistertea Posts: 33 Forumite
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    Thanks, I will try to find out if a one-brick-thick garage wall would be safe/acceptable - that way at least the internal width of our garage would remain the same. Would I be liable for the cost of removing the brick layer on the neighbour's side of the wall?

    Title deeds don't mention anything unfortunately, I guess because the garages were a later extension of both properties.
  • Badger50
    Badger50 Posts: 123 Forumite
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    It's a party wall astride the boundary.. No risk of having to demolish your garage given the history.

    As to removing half of ihe wall that is a complete non-starter as the wall will include a lot of header bricks laid sideways to tie the stretcher courses together. A garage wall can be one brick thick for the most part but needs thicker supporting piers at intervals.

    I
  • jbainbridge
    jbainbridge Posts: 2,014 Forumite
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    Sadly ... and I'm sure you're already realised this ... but your new neighbour is an idiot. Good luck!

    Is it possible this 'builder' is thinking of building an extension to the house and now this wall is in his way?
  • moneyistooshorttomention
    moneyistooshorttomention Posts: 17,940 Forumite
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    jbainbridge wrote: »
    Sadly ... and I'm sure you're already realised this ... but your new neighbour is an idiot. Good luck!

    Is it possible this 'builder' is thinking of building an extension to the house and now this wall is in his way?

    Good point.

    To which I would add - your new neighbour presumably viewed the house before buying it - so he knew how things were.
  • Doozergirl
    Doozergirl Posts: 33,813 Forumite
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    It's a party wall. No need to remove it.
    Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
  • mistertea
    mistertea Posts: 33 Forumite
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    Badger50 wrote: »
    It's a party wall astride the boundary.. No risk of having to demolish your garage given the history.

    Phew - thank you! That will be my default response when the new neighbour (as I'm sure he will) raises the issue again.
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