Can a tenant grant access to neighbour's garden?

[victorian18]

This sounds like a simple question but I am struggling to find the answer. Basically I need to access my neighbour's garden to attend to my wall which is on the boundary line. The reason for this is another long story. The house currently has tenants. The tenants are happy for me to access but the landlord is refusing. Who has the final say?

[theartfullodger]

It's tenants property, merely landlord's investment, during a tenancy, even if rent not paid. So yes.

But if you damage landlord's investment and they've told you not to, probably big problem.

Think it maybe a part wall issue. Is wall the boundary (so owned by both) or 100% yours?

[victorian18]

Thanks that is interesting. Should I check the tenancy agreement?

It is not a Party Wall Issue. I am having building work done and the Party Wall Surveyors have agreed that this falls outside of the Party Wall Act.

The wall sits on the line of boundary and is covered in asbestos so I need to have a contractor remove the asbestos before I can demolish the wall.

A further complication is the landlord has a power socket drilled into the wall which I have never given permission for and need removed.

I offered to pay for everything including socket removal if I could work from their side but they want me to pay a huge amount in license fees for access.

[jpkeates]

Access to the property is currently in the control of the tenant (assuming it's an AST).
So the landlord can't demand a licence fee for access they don't control.

If the landlord granted access and the tenant declined to allow it, you wouldn't be able to access the property.

I'd just go ahead with the tenant's permission.

The socket is a separate problem, and you can't remove that unless it's definitely your wall.

[pebblepebble]

What jpkeates said although I assume as you are demolishing the wall it is yours.

[victorian18]

It is definitely my wall. Thanks this is very enlightening.

[jpkeates]

It is definitely my wall. Thanks this is very enlightening.

If it's your wall, anything that anyone fixes to it becomes yours.

It becomes a fixture of your property, so you can simply demolish it with the rest of your wall.

[theartfullodger]

.....

The wall sits on the line of boundary and is covered in asbestos so I need to have a contractor remove the asbestos before I can demolish the wall............

Asbestos removal is a tricky thing, if it wasn't handled properly and someone suffered (unpleasant illness or death) you might be liable.

If next door was removing asbestos over "my" land (oh, OK my investment - as a landlord) I'd be more than interested, if only to check it was being done correctly. But I'd probably have been concerned over the "covered with asbestos" boundary next the my dwelling's garden.


Firms claiming to be asbestos specialists aren't always and/or mysteriously disappear after a short time... (I speak from experience).


(Happened to do some work on Asbestos at school aged about 18 in the early '60s: Been waiting for any "interesting" developments since the late '70s when I became aware of the issues..)

[victorian18]

I feel fairly confident that the asbestos company is legit. They prepared a 54-page document describing the methods with risk assessments and HSE was notified. I shared all of this with the neighbour. It is the most dangerous type of asbestos so they need to build a tent-like structure so that everything is removed under negative pressure. If they do it incorrectly and HSE gets to find out then their license is revoked and they are out of business.

The 'less dangerous' asbestos inside the house was removed by an unlicensed contractor. Not sure how that part of the industry is regulated!

The wall that is covered in asbestos is right next to the patio area and has been painted and drilled into by the neighbour, i.e. disrupted. Wouldn't be my favourite place to sit out with a morning cuppa!