Example: imagine a block of two semi-detached houses. Pete owns ‘Brightside’, and Dave owns the house nextdoor: ‘Bombsite’. Pete regularly redecorates Brightside, it is immaculate. Dave has been writing his memoirs for 30 years and has done nothing. Bombsite has decayed. Its gutters are broken, downpipes blocked, and a family of feral mink live in garden shed. When it rains, rainwater fills the blocked downpipes, overtops and percolates into the walls of Brightside.
What can Pete do?
An owner of property owes his neighbour a duty not to allow his property to decay to the point where its state damages the property nextdoor. That duty is in private nuisance and extends beyond the state of the property to the activities carried out on the property.
So Pete can sue Dave for damage. If Dave does nothing, Pete can apply for an order permitting him to enter onto Bombsite’s land and carry out those works necessary to protect Brightside from further damage.
To succeed, Pete must prove the following.
First, that he has a legal interest in Brightside - i.e. he is the owner or leaseholder.
Second, that Dave is the true owner of Bombsite – and not merely a squatter.
Third, that the damage to Brightside has come about due to Dave’s failures to carry out some item of repair or maintenance of Bombsite and not some other cause.
Fourth, if Pete wants a court Order permitting him to get the works done (rather than just damages), he will have to demonstrate that he has given Dave adequate notice of the required works, that Dave is unlikely to do them, and that without these works being done his property, Brightside, will suffer damage in the future.
If your property is suffering because of the state of your neighbour’s house consider taking legal advice.
