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OK so this is a real odd one, and not sure whether this is the correct part of the forum to post this...advise if not!
We have a garden in our deeds (it's not attached to the house). In the garden there are two outbuildings. Said outbuildings are split into two (they were previously old toilets/coalsheds). We own a HALF of each of these outbuildings (i.e. one toilet in each lol). The other half of each outbuilding is owned by our neighbour who is presently selling her house (it's actually sold but not completed). To get this into perspective the outbuildings are in an awful state, and we have been asking our neighbour to come to an agreement regarding maintenance since Christ was a lad...she doesn't user her side and they're full of holes and leaves. For obvious reasons, if we maintain all the buildings, we bear all the cost and only half the benefit, she gets away with paying nothing, and to boot could argue that our rectification work is not to standard and is an eyesore, and even sue us to put it back to the state it was.
On the sale of the property she promised to sell her share to us, but has reneged on this promise.
We own the land surrounding the buildings and own the land underneath OUR HALF of the buildings (she owns the land and 'airspace' above her share). To be blunt they need serious remedial work, or knocking down and rebuilding as they are hugely unsightly, and unsafe - we have dogs and children playing in the garden and we're worried they may get hurt. As I said, we cannot do a lot to our own half as we're bound to our neighbour...if we demolish our side then we could make her buildings even more unsound and she could maybe even say we damaged her property!
From talking to our legal reps they say that we have virtually no leg to stand on, we cannot force her to sell (fair enough), but I cannot see how we cannot force her to come to an agreement regarding maintenance. The buildings are unsafe. Our legal rep said that the neighbour could argue that we are not maintaining our half - but as I said, our hands are tied regarding that!!
Surely there must be some case law regarding a duty of care to maintain a building on someone else's property due to the safety aspect of it? We just feel totally stuck.
Please advise
Bambi
We have a garden in our deeds (it's not attached to the house). In the garden there are two outbuildings. Said outbuildings are split into two (they were previously old toilets/coalsheds). We own a HALF of each of these outbuildings (i.e. one toilet in each lol). The other half of each outbuilding is owned by our neighbour who is presently selling her house (it's actually sold but not completed). To get this into perspective the outbuildings are in an awful state, and we have been asking our neighbour to come to an agreement regarding maintenance since Christ was a lad...she doesn't user her side and they're full of holes and leaves. For obvious reasons, if we maintain all the buildings, we bear all the cost and only half the benefit, she gets away with paying nothing, and to boot could argue that our rectification work is not to standard and is an eyesore, and even sue us to put it back to the state it was.
On the sale of the property she promised to sell her share to us, but has reneged on this promise.
We own the land surrounding the buildings and own the land underneath OUR HALF of the buildings (she owns the land and 'airspace' above her share). To be blunt they need serious remedial work, or knocking down and rebuilding as they are hugely unsightly, and unsafe - we have dogs and children playing in the garden and we're worried they may get hurt. As I said, we cannot do a lot to our own half as we're bound to our neighbour...if we demolish our side then we could make her buildings even more unsound and she could maybe even say we damaged her property!
From talking to our legal reps they say that we have virtually no leg to stand on, we cannot force her to sell (fair enough), but I cannot see how we cannot force her to come to an agreement regarding maintenance. The buildings are unsafe. Our legal rep said that the neighbour could argue that we are not maintaining our half - but as I said, our hands are tied regarding that!!
Surely there must be some case law regarding a duty of care to maintain a building on someone else's property due to the safety aspect of it? We just feel totally stuck.
Please advise
Bambi
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