Access via neighbour's land

[Sue56]

The garden of our holiday home is on the side of our property and, as such, a neighbour living behind us owns the land that goes right up to the back of our house.

We need to carry out some repair works to the rear of the property, roof and pointing.  The neighbour has allowed the roofer to errect scaffolding to carry out the work but today refused to let the man doing the pointing to go round the back of our house.

Can anyone advise how we stand on this matter and what options are open to us.  The house desparately needs repointing and once it has been done we will not have to "trouble" our neighbour again.  He is being very difficult and relations between us are now very poor.

I feel that we may need legal representation and also wondered if anyone could recommend a solicitor in the Morbihan area.

Many thanks.

[Val_2]

For essential works to property that encroach on a neighbouring property, you MUST be allowed to be able to carry out those works even without permission of the owner. I suggest you write a letter to the neighbour stating your case and that you intend to do these works whether he says no or not and that you are also depositing a copy of the letter with the local mairie. If you are given permission to go on the land, it is your responsibility to make sure everything is left proper when finished and any damage repaired,replaced or paid for.

[Harley]

Have you checked your deeds?  When we first bought a house here, mutual access was mentioned in the deeds for carrying out essential repairs to ours and the neighbours property.  They could have access to their property via ours and the same for us.[:D]

Perhaps I should add:

As far as I can remember[:)][;-)]

It might not be standard practice

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

[quote user="Sue56"]

.... The neighbour has allowed the roofer to errect scaffolding to carry out the work but today refused to let the man doing the pointing to go round the back of our house....

 He is being very difficult and relations between us are now very poor.

[/quote]

Without knowing any more about the situation than what you have told us, it sounds like something has hapened, even without your being aware, that has upset your neighbour. It seems odd that he let you put up scaffolding but now won't allow something less inconvenient.

Yes, you may need an avocat, but perhaps a "have we done something wrong?" would work better.

By the way, I'm pretty sure that there is an automatic right of access for maintenance, but once you get to calling in lawyers you may not want to retain your holiday home in the face of  serious hostility from the neighbours, their friends, relatives ....

 

 

[Pun]

Hi Sue,

this sound to me as already said "that since the workmen have arrived to errect the frame work, its upset the next folk, if I was in your shoes I would first try to have a nice and calm word with them, and if it is sorted get the work done and sell, you,ll not have any peace  trying to gite now this has happend.,

buy a place on its own,

[Chancer]

Did you give your neighbour the consideration of asking/letting him know that a macon would be working from his property to repoint your wall?

I formally asked my neighbour (Airbus Industries) if I could have their permission to enter their tennis court to render my boundary wall, I knew that I had the right but it seemed like the right thing to do.

They gave me verbal permission and the keys and it was followed by a letter of confirmation which said I can enter when I like, they also said that I can keep the keys.

I do occasional small jobs myself from their property but would always let them know if another person was to be working there, after all it might be someone they don't like.

[Sue56]

Many thanks for all the replies.

Just to clarify - the roofer knows the neighbour and the neighbour previously agreed to let him do the work. Neighbour said he wouldn't agree to any other roofer which was fine by us as we didn't want to ask any other roofer.   It now transpires that the neighbour doesn't actually own the land but his brother.  Our agent in France had previously sent a letter to the land owner advising of works but he had refused to accept the letter and it was returned.  Anyway yesterday a local municipal officer went to see the neighbour and they were apparently objecting to the pointing being done because they had not received any notification. 

Apologies and explanations given.  Letters sent again direct to neighbour, land owner & mairie now all is well and pointing being done!

There was a bit of history - 2 years ago when we had the fosse installed the lorry driver blocked our neighbour's drive and wouldn't move which caused a big row and then there was a dispute over our garden boundary - they thought they owned a bit of land that was actually ours.  So there have been a few things and this latest was yet another.  Having said that since the fosse business they have given us some fruit from their garden so it wasn't so bad that we weren't talking.

Will take the neighbour's mother (who lives next door to our neighbour at the back) "une petite cadeau" on our next visit.   I don't think it will come to us selling up as we don't even have to pass their house to get to ours or in and out the commune so things should settle down after this work.  They're probably just a bit fed up with us, we've come along and upset the balance a bit, even though we've tried our best to be considerate but as I say, once this is done we wont need to trouble them anymore.

Thanks again for responses.

[Beryl]

We got off on the wrong foot inadvertantly with our neighbour. The builder shrugged his shoulders and said he was known in the village for his bad attitude...which didn't make us feel any better.

On speaking to our neighbour the matter was resolved without further ado. In my short time here, I have come to the conclusion that people just like to be consulted and things cannot be taken as read. Good idea to give them  a petite cadeau but II bet by that time they won't even remember what all the fuss was about.[:)]

[Chancer]

Glad to hear it has been resolved, good luck with the future relationship with your neighbour.

Perhaps I may hijack the thread to ask if anyone could give me an indicative cost of repointing a brick built maison (per square metre)?

I have recently been given a devis which seems to me very expensive (they all do!) however I have seen the work that he did for my french teacher which was very good, she had to wait one year which I will also have to.

My price roughly corresponded to what she paid per metre (allowing for differences) so if he is booked up that far ahead I guess it must be the going rate but wonder what others have paid.