Buying 6" of land from neighbours
Discussion
Piglet said:
Why do you think you need to approach the Council?
Simply ignorance on my part! If the council are not involved then that simplifies things. 
We'll be talking to the neighbours today, so I'll float the idea and see what reaction I get. I have a feeling they'll want the ability to park a car to the side of their new garage/extension, so they might not be willing to sacrifice much space.
I'll consider the idea of not having a fence at all, which would be the simplest idea by far. However it's not a future-proof solution: future owners might put a fence up anyway, meaning that we could no longer park our Hummer there.
There is a potential technical snag too. I believe there's some kind of soakaway running underground along the boundary, which I think our neighbours are currently responsible for. I don't know what the soakaway actually consists of, but I imagine it might make it impossible to move the boundary "only" six inches; we might have to move the boundary to completely include the soakaway and then it would presumably become our responsibility.
garyhun said:
pmanson said:
Won't they need to keep 1m of space between the extension and boundary for access?
Nice to have but not a planning requirement.A couple of pictures might help. Our house is the one on the left. The angles are all a bit odd: their house is not quite parallel to ours.
The problem bit is where the front corner of our house makes the narrowest gap with the fence. It goes down to about 2.2m at that point, which sounds plenty but actually their garage is not quite in a straight line with the fence, so you've got to reverse in with half a wheel of steering lock on so the corners of a longer car would be at risk of scraping. Behind that point, there's plenty of space for most cars.
We've just popped round and rung the doorbell but got no reply. Eyeing things up, I'm not sure that they'd be able to get a car down the side of their new garage anyway, because the remaining space will taper significantly. Also, the plastic pipe that I presume is the opening of the soakaway is actually on our side of the fence, so I may be wrong about it being their responsibility!
(I know, sorry, worst "I've got a TVR" thread ever!)
The problem bit is where the front corner of our house makes the narrowest gap with the fence. It goes down to about 2.2m at that point, which sounds plenty but actually their garage is not quite in a straight line with the fence, so you've got to reverse in with half a wheel of steering lock on so the corners of a longer car would be at risk of scraping. Behind that point, there's plenty of space for most cars.
We've just popped round and rung the doorbell but got no reply. Eyeing things up, I'm not sure that they'd be able to get a car down the side of their new garage anyway, because the remaining space will taper significantly. Also, the plastic pipe that I presume is the opening of the soakaway is actually on our side of the fence, so I may be wrong about it being their responsibility!
(I know, sorry, worst "I've got a TVR" thread ever!)
Just had a chat, which went really well and I think we've got a potential solution we're both happy with.
They are indeed keen to park a car at the side of their new garage, so don't want to relinquish any space at that point. However, they would be willing to alter the angle of the existing fence such that there is no "kink". This would mean moving the front end of the fence by about 8 or 9 inches towards them, and would mean that there's no turn necessary when I'm backing in. The minimum width of 2.2m would remain, but without the kink I think that's wide enough for lots of cars.
This solution is probably doable without involving solicitors etc.
So, in the end this turned out to be simpler than I'd thought. Just goes to show that a quick chat with the neighbours can work wonders!
Thanks for everyone's help.
They are indeed keen to park a car at the side of their new garage, so don't want to relinquish any space at that point. However, they would be willing to alter the angle of the existing fence such that there is no "kink". This would mean moving the front end of the fence by about 8 or 9 inches towards them, and would mean that there's no turn necessary when I'm backing in. The minimum width of 2.2m would remain, but without the kink I think that's wide enough for lots of cars.
This solution is probably doable without involving solicitors etc.
So, in the end this turned out to be simpler than I'd thought. Just goes to show that a quick chat with the neighbours can work wonders!
Thanks for everyone's help.
I was going to say that after seeing the pictures.
It looks like its the slight bend that's causing the issue as you'll be watching your front end against the fence (assuming you're reversing in)
At least you've got a solution. It's better than nothing! Although, I don't see why they need to park a car down the side of the garage when they've got so much room out front!
With a bit of luck (for you) the extension will be made a bit too big resulting in dead space to the boundary. Then they may aswel move the fence a lot.
It looks like its the slight bend that's causing the issue as you'll be watching your front end against the fence (assuming you're reversing in)
At least you've got a solution. It's better than nothing! Although, I don't see why they need to park a car down the side of the garage when they've got so much room out front!
With a bit of luck (for you) the extension will be made a bit too big resulting in dead space to the boundary. Then they may aswel move the fence a lot.
If you do move the boundary, use it as an opportunity to legally enforce the boundary position. You don't want to find your neighbour selling up, then the new owner finding out they could have more drive space due to the original boundary space being bigger (you won't believe some people). This is from someone who is in the middle of a legal boundary dispute that could cost lots of money (to both sides).
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