Facing wall on boundary (not party wall)

[tux222]

The boundary at the bottom of my garden is partly formed by the wall of an outbuilding belonging to the owner of the adjoining property. It's an old agricultural building of rough Cotswold stone blocks, and the pointing facing me is in a pretty dire state. The owner may well be unaware of this, since only I can see this wall! The boundary is marked on the title plan as his responsibility ("T" on his side) but the outbuilding itself is not shown on the plan. just the legend "stone wall".

I intend to erect a garden shed on my land, which will be a foot or less away from this wall, therefore making it impossible to access it for repointing.

It seems only polite that I contact the owner of this outbuilding before I do this, to offer him or his builder a chance to repoint his wall from my property. However, I do not know him, and am wondering:

(a) can he make my life difficult in any way, such as trying to stop me from laying a concrete pad adjacent to his wall's foundations, or claiming that it's a party wall not a facing wall?

(b) what happens if he declines to do anything now, and in some years time decides that he does need to repair his outbuilding and cannot access my side of his wall because my shed is in the way? I'd hope that he'd then be obliged to pay for storing the shed contents, taking it down, and reinstating it (which would give him a considerable incentive to fix his wall now), but I know that the law is not always what one expects.

(c) the outbuilding roof is constructed so as to shed water onto my side of the wall, which at present soaks into the ground. Can I insist on installing guttering to divert this water away from my shed base (which would mean drilling and screwing his wall). I'm happy to do this myself if he is, but am I right to assume in law that it's his responsibility to do this and to pay for it? Also is it his water since it starts on his roof, or does it automatically become my water when it crosses the boundary? (With a view to installing a water butt).

Anyone know the answers? I can find lots of advice on party walls but very little about a building's facing wall.

[redsturgeon]

Lots of info on here:

http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=24

John

[Clitheroekid]

(a) can he make my life difficult in any way, such as trying to stop me from laying a concrete pad adjacent to his wall's foundations, or claiming that it's a party wall not a facing wall?

As the concrete pad will clearly be within 3 metres of his wall the Party Wall Act kicks in if you need to excavate deeper than his foundations. However, I assume a concrete pad wouldn't need such deep excavations.

More importantly is the existence of any access rights your neighbour may have, so you need to check your title deeds. If your land was sold out of his title then it's quite likely that the vendor at the time will have reserved rights to enter on to your land to carry out maintenance works. If you build in such a way as to make such rights unusable the neighbour could, at least in theory, force you to remove the shed.

At the same time check that your property isn't subject to any restrictive covenants. Sometimes there are covenants prohibiting the erection of any structure, which could include a garden shed.

(b) what happens if he declines to do anything now, and in some years time decides that he does need to repair his outbuilding and cannot access my side of his wall because my shed is in the way?

If he has the sort of rights mentioned above he can insist on access, and you would potentially have to move your shed at your own expense to facilitate this. If he doesn't have such rights but you can't reach agreement he can ask the court to grant him access under the The Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992. However, although he may well be granted access he would probably be ordered to compensate you for any expenses or losses incurred as a result.

(c) the outbuilding roof is constructed so as to shed water onto my side of the wall, which at present soaks into the ground. Can I insist on installing guttering to divert this water away from my shed base (which would mean drilling and screwing his wall).

Again, he may have a legal right to drainage in the title deeds. Even if he doesn't, he's probably acquired a `prescriptive easement'. This is a legally enforceable right that's acquired by having exercised rights over someone else's land as of right for a period of 20 years or more. It sounds as though he's been draining onto your land for well over 20 years, in which case he could well have a legal right to do so, and you could not, therefore, insist on him installing guttering.

In all situations involving a neighbour although you should check your deeds to see what rights exist it's generally better to act on the assumption that your rights are minimal, and to approach the neighbour on the basis that he would be doing you a favour. Even if you have legal rights to do what you want, asserting them at the outset is rarely a good approach, as it makes you appear aggressive, and will potentially get your neighbour's back up. And although he may not be able to stop you doing what you want there are plenty of other ways an aggrieved neighbour can cause you problems.

In this case, therefore, I would recommend asking him at the outset if he would have any objection to you building your shed there, and assuming he doesn't you could then offer to put the guttering in yourself at your own expense.