Did you know?

I have been made aware by our surveyor that the Party Wall Act (rules of what can be done when your boundary meets your neighbour’s) allows the petitioners access onto your property to use it when carrying out works on the adjacent land. Things such as scaffolding supports and scaffolding over your property are completely allowed; even if the supports are on a separate plot to the adjacent land that you just so happen to own (not adjacent to the petitioner’s land). The only time they cannot enter or make construction upon your property is I am being told by the surveyor, when it causes an ‘unnecessary inconvenience‘. I still do not have a definition of what this means but the fact is that everything I have in my opinion shows that we will not be able to use the additional land we own (as we always do) to exit the passenger side of our vehicle. In short, due to the width of the drive and that the imminent plan appears to me to ‘fence us in’ (ten scaffolding supports along approximately 15 feet of our drive), I cannot see how we will be able to use our driveway as it looks to me as if we won’t be able to get out of our car! I’m beginning to think that I would need to suffer an injury before the ‘unnecessary inconvenience‘ criteria kicks in; even then I would surmise I would probably be expected to clean up first and then crawl away so as not to become a nuisance.

The council also wrote in their approval of the plans that no ‘encroachment‘ onto our property was to take place, oh well that seems to have very little actual meaning.