Boundary Issues

[sairejayne]

Our neighbour (not ajoining) has buit a one story extension right up to the boundary and then has guttering overhanging onto OUR property. Is this allowed?
We are looking to to do our own 2 story extension and this guttering would cause problems. We have only just moved in (3 months ago) I have no idea how long our neighbour has been there.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks

[eyebrows]

it depends on your deeds, its a fact that properties bound rays are not always defined by fences or walls....you have to find out whether of not they actually are on your property or not, it may be that they have found this out too?

If it is over on you side, then dont you think it may just be a better idea to live with the 3 inches loss of space.....?

i dont know, thats down to the person, but you dont want it to get messy, especially after only 3 months.....

[sairejayne]

Thanks. We are not looking to get this done straight away, maybe a year or so. I will have to check the deeds properly. You said about living with the guttering there (overhanging onto our driveway), which is not a problem as it is, but when we do build our extension, it will infringe on our space. I heard that you must leave six inches from boundaries to allow for guttering etc, which means we would loose alot more space due to this. If he is in the wrong, when we extend, can we get them to replace their guttering with the type that sit on top of the roof, as it is only a single story garage they have built?

Thanks again for you help.

[eyebrows]

one that sit on the top of a roof? the idea of guttering is to take water that lands on the top of the roof, therefore it needs to be at a lower level to the roof.

If your extention will be two stories, then you can practically build up against teh guttering, possibly a case for you council then?

[buildersmate]

Like Eyebrow I don't understand how you think you would be able to adapt his existing guttering to give you more space for an extension.
The long and short of it is that it shouldn't have happened. However this should be been raised at the time when it was being built. The LR title plan shows what are known as General Boundaries. However if you have taken a straight line between existing features such as walls or fences are these pieces of guttering project into that space on your side then you are probably right. However getting him to move it now without involving expensive legal resources is probably impossible. Many homeowners have spent silly sums of money on boundary disputes of a few inches with their neighbours.
The Local Authority will not want to know � it is nothing to do with them.
I suggest you try confronting him with the situation and ask him to move it. But it is hard to see what he can do about it if the water flow on the roof is towards you.
That then means you will have to stop your build short of the guttering to leave a gap. Because you are building so close to the boundary, you should ensure you use the Party Wall Act during construction. See below (download the booklet) about your obligations and his rights. Of course he should have also used this Act during his build � but its too late now to do anything about that.
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/pla nningandbuilding/partywall