Gaining Access to Neighbour's Land

If you have a good relationship with your neighbours, it’s not usually a problem for them to grant you permission to go onto their land in order that you can carry out repairs to your own property. It might be a gutter that needs replacing and you need to get onto their side of the fence to remove the old one and replace it with a new one. Perhaps it’s a tree that is situated in your garden but which has become dangerous and unstable and it needs chopping down yet some of the branches now hang over your neighbour’s fence. It could even be something like a drainage issue.

Ask Your Neighbour For Their Permission First

A polite approach to your neighbour to ask them if you can go onto their land to resolve a problem will usually be sufficient. Sometimes they might want to ask you for more specific detail about the nature of the problem and why you need to do the work from their side or they may be perfectly amenable to you gaining access from their side but it might have to fit in at a time which suits them but you should rarely encounter any objections to this kind of request.

However, there will always be ‘awkward’ people or those who prove to be the exception to the rule and, depending on your reasons for needing to go onto their land, they might refuse permission and they may have every right to do that. However, in certain circumstances you might be able to force access by taking legal action.

What The Law Says

The Access To Neighbouring Land Act 1992 can, in certain instances, force a neighbour into granting you access to their land. However, the reasons needs to be justified and applicable to the law and you must apply to the county court for an access order for which you will be charged a fee.

Justification For Granting Access To a Neighbour’s Land

When applying for an access order, you must be able to prove to the court that the repairs or any work that needs to be carried out would be necessary to preserve either a part or all of your land or property and that either the work could not be carried out, or would be substantially hampered by the failure to be given access to your neighbour’s land.

The Importance Of The Term ‘Preservation’

It’s important to be clear that an access order will only be granted in relation to the preservation, renewal or repair of any existing structure and related components of it such as drains, pipes, cables etc which might have become damaged or the removal of trees and other growing vegetation that might be dead, diseased, damaged or which may have become uprooted and could be deemed dangerous if not removed.

Therefore, this does not mean that you will succeed in being granted an access order if you are building an extension to your property, even if you have planning permission. Yes, certain alterations, modifications and improvements might be permissible under an access order but only if they are incidental to the other preservation work which is carried out and it can be justified that this is necessary.

Unless relations between you and your neighbour have become so bad that they have reached a point of ‘no return’, there is rarely need for you to ever have to apply to have an access order granted. However, it is important that you understand the legal implications and the limits of the Court’s powers in this regard, especially with regard to any planning developments that you may be considering where it might be highly advisable to discuss the potential for access to your neighbour’s land with your neighbour directly, if you think that might be necessary, before going ahead with any work – even if you have been granted planning permission.