Urgent action please regarding scaffolding erected on my property without permission

[rosie74]

I would be grateful for any help i arrived home from holiday to find that my neighbours roofer has erected scaffolding on my property without my permission, i cannot access my garage and the scaffolding is all the way down the side of my property. I have contacted the police they dont want to know nor the council and the builder says he will take it down when he is finished do i have any legal rights and how soon could i do something i am sooo frustrated by this as i feel the builder is laughing in my face

[bluebottle]

Re: Urgent action please regarding scaffolding erected on my property without permiss

Hi Rosie and welcome to Legal Beagles.

If the scaffolding is on private land, there is nothing the police or local authority can do as it is, technically, a civil matter. Is the work on your neighbour's roof being done as an emergency in order to prevent damage to the rafters or structure of the building? If so, then it would be reasonable for the builder to erect the scaffolding in order to effect the work as, under current safety regulations, they must use scaffolding if working above a certain height. If not carrying out the work could affect your home, then, again, it is reasonable. If it is, simply, your neighbour replacing their roof as part of general maintenance of their home, then it is not reasonable to erect scaffolding on your property without your agreement. However, you say you returned home from holiday to find this scaffolding in situ. Had your neighbour said anything to you about work on their roof prior to you going on holiday? I feel your best bet is to seek professional legal advice. You can obtain free or very low-cost legal advice/assistance from your local Law Centre or Community Legal Service office, if you are on a limited income. Otherwise, any high street solicitor should be able to advise. Go to the Law Society's website at www.lawsociety.org.uk to find a solicitor in your area.

[wales01man]

Re: Urgent action please regarding scaffolding erected on my property without permiss

Have you asked the neighbour how long the scaffolding will be up it seems that to try for a legal remedy might be costly and time consuming having been in the building industry for a long time disputes over scaffolding are common mainly when the scaffolding is on the property being worked on and the neighbour get all worked up saying things like the builders can see into our house or debris will fall into there gardenin all case i heard of the work carried on and the scaffolding came down at the end of the job i would speak to the neighbour and ask questions legal action just winds some people up and resolves nothing by the time anything happens the work will be finished

[brummie]

Re: Urgent action please regarding scaffolding erected on my property without permiss

Hi Rosie
All the points above are worth considering, and as walesman has mentioned to job will probably be finished in a week or so...
I would speak to your neighbour and try to address the following;

Any damage caused to your property is at their risk and they will remedy on conpletion.
Ask if the scaffold can be modified as your access is restricted.
Request that the scaffold comes down in a controled manner, and from their side(scaffolders have a terrible habit of "bombing" tubes down that embed themselves into the ground)
Take some pictures of the poles sat on the ground from your side.
Remind them of their responsibilty to clean up behind themselves. most decent builders would do this anyway....
If you have any gutters nearby, ask them to clean them out when they have finished.

These are just my thoughts, having spent 30 years in the construction industry.....hope it helps

[GeneralScaffolder]

Re: Urgent action please regarding scaffolding erected on my property without permiss

Hopefully this matter has now been resolved. I'm interested in the outcome of this if you're happy to share?

I work as a scaffolding erector myself and would never put scaffolding down on someone's property without permission, it's just plain rude at the very least! Although it was on private property, the police don't soley deal with situations on public land, otherwise their powers would be very limited!

[enquirer]

Re: Urgent action please regarding scaffolding erected on my property without permiss

(1) Trespass: Civil remedy. Note however that damages for simple trespass on its own are unlikely. There is also mitigation if the work forms part of emergency repairs.

Note that there is a right of access for routine maintenance. If that is refused, entry may not be forced. The person seeking access must seek a court order.

(2) Interference: Civil remedy. Compensation may be claimed for denial of the use and enjoyment of your property (the garage).

(3) Criminal Damage: Have they knowingly or recklessly caused any damage to your property? Also possible civil remedy.

(4) Assault: When you confronted the builder, did you feel threatened at any time? Did you feel that you might be struck, shoved or otherwise manhandled in any way? If so, that's assault.

In the first instance, the best course of action is probably to get a local solicitor to fire off a very sharp letter to the neighbour. Make sure that you impress upon him/her that this is to be done immediately.

And as Brummie suggests, take photographs.

[Larry Lamb]

Re: Urgent action please regarding scaffolding erected on my property without permiss

From experience don't let anyone put up scaffold unless there is a signed agreement in place and loads of photos to prove before and after together with a time frame and penalty for over run.

[YannisG]

Under Party Wall Act I'm the 'Adjoining Neighbour' of a soon to be erected 2 story, side/back extension. Due to my neighbour being Mr. Sneaky, his extension is acquiring extra costs££ in terms of Party Wall Surveyors; 3 of them. Had he bothered to speak with me from the get-go it could have been avoided; for example he was planning 3 windows on my side of his extension; within 2.5m of my house!! I had a fight on my hands with Council, also had to get help of a Councillor, but got 'rid' of all 3 windows; now no windows.
Neighbour wants to put scaffolding on my drive, and take up 1.5m of 2.5m wide drive - leaving me with approx. 1m wide to get out of my door/step and up/down my drive. He will further extend the scaffolding 1.5m to the front and back of my house (and his) on my drive. At the front it'll leave me with the length of my car + about 1m. But who wants to park a car within 1m of a 'building site'? I’ll be unable to park on my drive or any family/friends/workers etc. for however long he takes to build his extension. Surveyors are lying all over the place too, hence the 3rd Surveyor in on the act; they're really a well-oiled 'tag-team'. PW Surveyors told me originally that the PW Award would have written into it the specific number of weeks the scaffolding would be allowed on my property, with an addendum that I would charge neighbour £150 pw for every additional week the scaffolding remained on my property/drive. Surveyor said it would 'gee my neighbour up to get job finished ASAP'. Surveyor said he thought 10 weeks would be good, allowing for bad weather. I agreed to this as it gave me some 'comfort' that the scaffolding would be gone as soon as the # weeks were used up. Then a month later, the same Surveyor told me over phone that he'd not said this at all; then that he had said it, but as an example of another client of his, but it didn't relate to my case?! Then he said maybe something could be done but he'd have to see? He totally confused me, but I figured out they were both working for my neighbour and lying to me.
I got in touch with a RICS Surveyor, as the 2 already on the case are useless and not RICS Surveyors. Question: Party Wall Act states 'workers & surveyors' etc. are allowed on my property, but says nothing about me having to allow anything 'physical' like Scaffolding. It's not even implied. Under the Act, my Rights state I cannot suffer ANY unnecessary inconvenience. I park my car on my drive, near my door, as this particular car is 'low', and I can't get the front of it in my garage without scraping it. I've lived here 24 years btw, used garage until late 2012; 18 years. I use it to store garden implements like lawn mowers etc. I'm pretty infirm already with Fibromyalgia/ME, and about to be tested for ‘early onset Dementia’. If I lose use of my drive to park my car on for an unstated period of time, I'm going to struggle to carry food bags or anything, from wherever I can find to park, to my door. I don't want to be unnecessarily obstructive BUT Mr. Sneaky has been sneaky throughout. There was NO reason to involve Surveyors had he been reasonable and communicated with me. Neighbour on other side of me built a very large extension and communicated with me throughout - and there were no problems at all. So it's not me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[paulajayne]

IIRC there is the option that you can charge for use your land.

Seem to remember a post along these line on this forum.

I will search.

[paulajayne]

Check post #37

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...ge=2#topofpage

"we had similar, came out of the house one afternoon, had been in all day & the neighbour had allowed their contractor to put scaffold all down our side alley, effectivly blocking our usage. A scaffold pole was also butting right up to the joist above my back door, had the scaffold slipped it would have put a hole in my wall or worse.

I informed them instantly that they had 24hrs to remove it before I sent them a bill of for usage of my pathway.

The builder tried to appease by offering to move it closer to the fence but I refused as it meant husband still was unable to get his bike ( rode to work daily) down the path & affected my ability to access back garden as back door was also exited to my side alley.

The neighbour then proceeded to shout abuse at me for ruining their life whilst I just kept repeating that they had not asked permission & had to move it ASAP.

The builder was very apologetic, he had been told that the neighbour told him they had received my permission. As pointed out to him, I had ben in all day (I worked from home) & as no one had knocked it was BS.

The posts were still there 24hrs after I asked for them to be removed so I had my solicitor write up a quick letter stating that my own builder would be round the next day to remove them at their expense & that they would be liable for the costs of my inconvience (£300 a day for each day thus far).

The scaffold was removed promptly at 7.30am the next morning, presided over by myself. The neighbour hid in her house.

The point is, you have rights over the proprty. I was not the owner of that house but I had legal rights over the property as the legal tenant. The neighbour thought that as I wasn't the owner she could do as she wanted, she was wrong & it cost her in time wasted & extra costs of builders time etc."

[paulajayne]

From this forum:-

http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...re-scaffolding

And this:-

https://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3403