Facing wall on boundary (not party wall)
Posted: February 3rd, 2017, 12:05 pm
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.
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.