12 ★ FTWeekend 21 March/22 March 2020
House Home
Avoid a
border
dispute
more important to maintain
neighbourly relations than to argue
about the cost of a bit of fencing. If
disputes over small problems like
this end up in court, you can be sure
you will have spent much more than
it would have cost you to fix the fence
— and you can be sure the court will
be critical of everyone involved for
letting it get that far.I live in a four-bed houseshare in
south London with three other people.
In the past couple of months, my
housemate has moved her boyfriend
into her room. He is contributing to
the rent but the house feels rather
crowded now. Does this affect our
lease — and if so, is it best if I ask
this person to leave?not necessarily responsible for its
maintenance. This is ultimately a
boundary issue, so you should check
yours and your neighbour’s property
deeds — these should be available from
the Land Registry. The deeds should
describe the land concerned and may
impose an obligation to erect and
maintain fences around it, or indicate
which fences belonged to which plot.The deeds don’t say anything about
fences. What can I do?
Having fallen into your garden, the
fence certainly amounts to a trespass,
and possibly a nuisance, against you. In
that scenario, you could put it back on
to his land, or you could fix it. If you
incur cost, you could try to claim it
from him, but I suspect you could onlyThat will depend almost entirely on
the terms of your tenancy agreement.
If each tenant has a separate tenancy
agreement with the landlord, then
this is unlikely to affect you at all.
You might wish to agree among
yourselves how you will each
contribute to household bills and
record that in writing.But we are all on the same tenancy
agreement. Can the landlord evict us?
In this case, it is likely that you would
all be treated as a single “tenant”, so a
breach of the terms of the tenancy
agreement by any one of you would
be a breach by all of you.
Check the terms of the agreement
first. It might prohibit sharing
occupation with others or require you
to seek the landlord’s consent first.
If the addition of a new occupier
represents a breach of the tenancy
agreement, the landlord could try to
end your tenancy, but would have to
serve notice on you and apply to court.
It may be worth you and your fellow
co-tenants approaching the landlord
for consent to an additional occupier.Is he likely to agree?
It is hard to say. The additional person
might put the landlord in difficulties.
A houseshare of four people does not
always require a licence — although
this depends on where the property is
because each local authority area has
its own rules.
If the property is already licensed
then there may be restrictions about
how many people can occupy the
property. A property with five
occupiers made up of two or more
households always requires a house
of multiple occupancy (or HMO)
licence. So if the property did not
have a licence before, it would
require one now. Apart from having
to pay a hefty licence fee, the
landlord may also have to carry out
works to the property to comply
with HMO legislation, such as
installing fire doors. You could offer to
contribute to the cost of the HMO
licence if it would encourage the
landlord to grant consent.Edward Cracknell is a senior associate in
the property and housing litigation team
at Russell-Cooke.
The legal issues discussed in this
column refer to England and Wales.
Scenarios have been compiled for
illustrative purposesJames FryerM
y next-door neighbour’s
fence blew down into
my garden during a
storm a few months
ago. It is still there, and
it is making my garden look
incredibly shabby. How can I make
him re-erect it?
This is a common occurrence this
time of year but there is very often
no satisfactory solution. First of all,
how do you know the fence belongs
to the neighbour? Has there been
any agreement between you both
about maintenance?My neighbour erected the fence a few
years ago. Nobody has maintained or
agreed to maintain it since.
Just because he erected the fence, he isclaim the sum it would reasonably cost
to abate the trespass or nuisance. You
could only claim the repair costs if
repairing the fence were the only
reasonable way of dealing with the
problem. You may have to accept you
will have to do the work and hope you
can recover the cost in the future. Take
care to get several quotes.Anything else I should know?
Talk to your neighbour. It is usually farHow to deal with wayward
fencing — without going to
court — plus what can be
done about overcrowded
shared housing.
ByEdward Cracknell
Property law
You can be sure that the
court will be critical of
everyone involved forletting it get that far
MARCH 21 2020 Section:Weekend Time: 18/3/2020- 18:35 User:rosalind.sykes Page Name:RES12, Part,Page,Edition:RES, 12, 1