Who are you?

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I wish to carry out works to my property

Ah, then you are a 'Building Owner'

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No, no, it's my neighbour who is doing the work

Ah, then you are an 'Adjoining Owner'

My tenants are very upset.

They are called 'Adjoining Occupiers'

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Thanks! Now we know who's who!​

So, what seems to be the problem?

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My neighbour is...​

You mean the Building Owner

Yes, yes, the Building Owner.

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Ok, what do they want to do?

Well, you see, we both have a bit of land at the back. There is a fence which separates the land. We think the fence is on our land. They want to remove the fence and build a wall, partly on their land and partly on ours. They want to remove the fence and build the wall. They also want their builders on our land to build it. We don't want that! Why should they just help themselves to our property, remove our fence which we placed recently -it is still new! This is ridiculous. They say the Act gives them the right to do that! Is this so? They want us to sign something.....

We don't want to upset our neighbours, but we feel really trapped! What should we do?

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If you haven't signed anything, don't panic! They have rights, and so do you!

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Oh, it gets worse!

Oh dear!

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Yes, they want to remove two chimney breasts on their side, remove the roof and add another floor by fiddling around with the roof shape and the party wall height, and they want to place great big beams into the party wall to make their home and new extension open plan. Just like that!!

We feel for you! However, the Building Owner does have rights under the Act to do those works. You have rights too, but your rights cannot stop them from doing the work, they can however affect the way they do things. We will explain later.

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I haven't finished!

Oh no! Tell us more....

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They want to dig a huge basement under their property. Well, our properties are attached and we are really very worried. We heard some horror stories of things like that happening up the road where houses have cracked, floors tilted....people have had to leave because major repair works had to be done. They finally had to go to court which was very expensive and they are still fighting to get their costs. Utter disaster! We recently decorated our house; it is in immaculate condition and we would not like to be those people we heard of! Our houses are big enough so whey would anyone need a basement? We are surrounded with large trees, people say we have clay everywhere and you know about small print on our insurance policies! This is such a lovely quiet street. We have lived here for forty years and never had a problem such as this. The building owner says they have a right to do this! Imagine!

You are right. It is difficult. But actually the Building Owner does have rights and they cannot be stopped.

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​😒This all sounds very complicated!😒

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Not for us!

We can help!

Contact us

No fees for preliminary advice!

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