I live in an end of terrace house and have recently had my driveway done in printed concrete. There is a fresh water soak away on my neighbours side, so I asked if we could run the drainage from the new drive to it. He said 'no problem' and told me that it actually used to be on my side, but when the people who owned the house before me put the fence up, they put it up in the wrong place and he inherited it. Now we've paid the builders thousands of pounds and it's all finished, he's suddenly decided that he doesn't want the water running into the soak away and wants it capped off. I've been on the phone all morning and can't actually get a building plan with dimensions on it to show the exact position of our boundary and that it is actually a shared soak away (our gutter pipe runs into the soak away too, so it must be shared). My builder came out and said it was a shared soak away as both gutters are running to it and that they can't stop us from running the drainage from the drive into that soak away as long as the pipe stays on our side and doesn't go past our boundary. Personally, I think my neighbours are being difficult for no reason as they admitted the soak away used to be on my side of the fence and surely they can't say yes one minute then no the next? Has anyone got any advice as they don't seem very receptive to being adults about this situation and I don't want to spend even more money getting my builders to move the drainage. Many thanks.
Hiya, Sorry to hear that, it sounds a right hassle. I am curious though how you know where the soakaway is? Usually they are just a hole filled with rubble and buried! How do you know that your gutters go to it? Logic would say that if your gutters run into it then it is a shared responsibility but the UK property law being what it is (an incomprehensible mess). Ask your neighbours for half the money for any maintenance that the soakaway needs, since he likes it so much. He might not be so keen to insist on 'shared' ownership then.......
What a kettle of fish. How long has the fence been in the wrong place? Move (threaten) it back, your soakaway, problem solved. Otherwise, although your gutters have an implicit necessary/acquired easement to use the soakaway, you (probably) have no right to increase the level of use beyond that, if your neighbour 'owns' it. Always worth downloading/getting all sets of title deeds, charges register, plans etc. from land registry in case there is anything that might help.
Kcw, clearly if you can prove that the fence was put up in the 'wrong' place by your predecessor, then that would be the easiest solution to this problem. How long have you been in this house? If less than, say, 5 years, then have a look at Multimap/Google maps etc and check out their aerial views - the ones of my house are around 5 years old and show what it was like then (Hey, what a job I've done of the front garden since then...) If that doesn't work, then try and contact the previous owner. Ask other neighbours when the fence was put up and whether they think it was in a different place. Also check your Title Deeds to see if there's a more accurate border guide on there. Meanwhile, can you do what the builder suggests - run the drain to the fence so's the water feeds through to the soak-away (what sort of inlet does it have?) Or can you add the drive drain to the downpipe that's already going there? Of course, if you go this route then expect your neighb to get cross. He might threaten to block where your drain feeds the soak-away, but you can make it clear that any damage/inconvenience caused to you by water not being allowed to drain off would make him open to legal action. Ok, the last paragraph is your last resort. If you do have to take this route, then speak to your neighb first (with a witness) and make it clear you are doing this reluctantly as you've been left with no option - you'd always rather sort things out agreeably. Also, you'd better make sure that running your drive into the soak-away doesn't 'overload' it so's it can't cope any more - if it suddenly starts overflowing after heavy rain and mucking up his land, then you might be liable. At the moment, I'm guessing water on his drive simply percolates through the ground and avoids the soak-away, and that yours used to be like this too?
go to land registery £4 and 20 mins later http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/wps/portal/PropertySearch big all
Fada - oh gawd here we go again. Yes big all, I said that, except it'll cost more than £4 to get everything he needs.
It should be noted that the position of the boundaries according to the land registry is only approximate and is not to be relied on. In fact there is NO definitive map of the exact position of boundaries.
Thats exactly right Hallbeck. Hence so many happy lawyers around. Boundary disputes are a favorite with the law, because as you know they always win! Its about time that boundaries were cleaned up in the UK. In NZ I saw heavy round metal numbered, disks that were heavily pinned to significant places; Masonry pillars, large wooden posts, even kerb stones or trees etc to mark boundaries. Here in Norway there is a little numbered dial type think on a long screw in rod or peg. My gut feeling is that in the UK there are enough 'unscrupulous' people that would be tempted to 'accidentally move' any new markers to make such a system dead in the water before it could get established. Shame, be nice to do a few fat cats out of a few inflated fees just to show you where your bloomin fence is!
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