Can Neighbour stand in my land when build his new garage?

what if the tables were turned and she wanted access to build?

then fiona has to make sure her builder follow the procedure and put up temporary fences for her neighbour including a promise of timeline when the job will be done. simple as that? if her neighbour do not agree then Fiona has to do her wall without going into the neighbour's property, if the wall is ugly Fiona's neighbour has the same right to request Fiona acid clean the mortar. I don't see any fault? fair go for for everyone.

look, i figure what happened here is that the builder did not factor in the cost of dealing with Fiona, and her neighbour do not want to give-in to the builder either for more payment, the ultimate goal of the builder is to keep the cost down + get the job done. Somebody has to give-in in the end.

That is! timeline is extremely important, they cannot access to my land anytime they like, without written agreement on that, there will be a No-No

I think Fiona has been reasonable in allowing the neighbour to access the land as long as there are certain guarantees and timelines. It would be great if all neighbours were like Fiona!

Thanks Casa2

just to keep everyone updated, i send an email to the neighbour stating the terms like, how many weeks do you need to access my land, and cannot destroy my plants etc...

he gets back to me and cannot guaranteen any of these, the only thing he agreed is to put the temp fence on, without telling me how long it going to be!

If he wants to be a knob about it then, say no. End of the day, it's YOUR land, you have every right to refuse him access, and to not be at all inconvenienced by all of this.

I'd like to see it go to court, you'll get someone like Judge Judy who will laugh him out of there by even daring to think he had a chance there.

Imho the neighbour is being a bully and if he can't give you the guarantees you requested tell him NO!!!

He needs to give you a timeframe, erect a temporary fence and restore your garden to how it was before he started building. That's not too much to ask of anyone.

Fiona you need to make sure you take 'before' photos so if anything is damaged while you are at work you have the evidence of how it was originally.

yeah...i am going to install a camera at backyard tonight!

if it's my turn to build in future, i would just change my building plan, he has about 3M next to the other side neighour, but he insist to pull down my fence and get into my land...why dont he just move his house +garage a little bit to the left side...so he does not need to pull done everyone's fence (i have tried this, his build tells me off)

fiona, just playing devils advocate here, there are always two sides to the story. In a pot of mine further above, I gave parking access to the builders building across a lane way from my car park - why would I do this - because it helps traffic flow in the area and traffic flow helps my business, but I drew the line to heavy vehicles. they crossed that line.

You neighbours have approval to build, whether they build a sloppy or tidy boundary wall facing your side, at the end of he day means little to them coz they wont see it, but you'll have to live with it and an irate neighbour who wont be compliant to any of your future needs. Changing building design and "moving" a house is not that simple. Lucky I have reasonable neighbours where i am building on the boundary, no timeline expectations, no temporary fence expectations and gave us excellent access. Even the neighbour who we had to reclaim land from was decent in the end after they investigated their rights.

Looks like you've dug your heels in, good luck with neighbourly relations.

Well, actually it is fairly normal - walls on zero boundaries usually are built by neighbours agreeing to access for same.
Subject to reasonable requirements like temporary fences if you have pets etc.

Sounds to me like the neighbour and yourself are both being pig headed here, both of you seem more interested in being right than in solving the problem. 2 wrongs dont make a right, you know.

Just a note to all above-bricklaying on zero lot walls can be done without access from the neighbour...it is called overhand laying. It's trickier and more time consuming and ergo probably more expensive.

Our house is also built to the boundary on one side-although we had the build moved 150mm so that the brick work is just inside the boundary and the guttering is on the lot line.

and what if the plan is to render?

Render doesn't have to be applied to the neighbours side.

As has been stated abovce-it does all come down to negotiation and compromise. Neither party will gain anything by bullying or bombastic behaviour.

From the sounds of the stingy neighbour, the chances or render are zero.

I don't know why everyone is jumping on Fiona about this...

She is happy to let this occur if the neighbor agrees to a few things for the safety of her pets and her family and also for the repair of items (garden, fish pod, etc) if damaged in the process. She is also asking for a time frame regarding the access, they know how long they want the access or anticipate it. I would bet money they are not telling you as it wont be just for the time the wall is built they will want access for other parts of construction (wall should be 1-2 weeks at worse)

None of these are unreasonable requests and I can tell you now I get on fine with my current neighbor's but if they needed the same and wouldn't agree to similar stipulations then have fun with construction by not stepping on my property.

Also seems like this person is trying to bully her into doing what he wants with the 'I'll take you to court if you don't let me use your land'. Sounds like a person I'd be happy to never talk to ever again.

This pretty much sums up your attitude for me.
Move your house so it doesn't put me out for a week or so. Be real Fiona.
Seriously, on a scale of 1.....10 where does this rate as the worste this that could happen in your life?

Why have any thing bad in your life, when you have a choice!

I've been following this thread for a while now. While I don't personally know either party, and I'm reading this from Fiona's point of view; I really believe there needs to be some compromise here. When I sit back and see some of the responses here it's no wonder countries are at war with each other! Look I know it's Fiona's land, and by the sounds of things, the builder is pushy and probably doesn't really care, but at the end of the day it's not forever. It will be an inconvenience to you for a while, and I understand the risk of damage to your garden, etc but from some of the responses, maybe your attitude has also ticked off the builder which has got him aggro too?

We had to build our parapet wall along the boundary to our established neighbours. This involved removing around 15 metres of fencing. Most of this was replaced by the parapet wall, but left a gap of around 2 - 3 metres which could not be replaced until the house was almost complete. It was the neighbours 'dead' side however they had a small dog, which used this area so for the duration they put up a temp wire fence to block the dogs access. For much of the neighbours side where he parapet wall was going they had a shed which was right along their boundary which couldn't be moved. Our builder used the 'hand-over' method to lay the bricks from our side. It's a little more difficult to lay but not impossible. The bricks could not be cleaned obviously where their shed was but it's hidden anyway, but above the shed - no problem.

Our neighbours were excellent about everything. We asked their permission, explained the fence gap would be there for a few months and made sure they were to let us know if they were unhappy with anything the builder did. After all we'll be living next to each other for a long time.

Look, I think to have peace in this world we need to get along, and sometimes that means choosing when not to fight. Like an earlier post said, you may be right and fully justified to stand your ground, but with all the angst this must be causing - is it worth it?

The above thing that you have done is exactly what fiona is asking for.

You spoke to the neighbour's and gave them a timeframe - she is asking the same from her neighbour
You organised for a temporary fence to safeguard the neighbour's dog - she has asked for a temp fence to protect her pets
You asked your neighbours to contact you with any problems with the builder - thats the same as my earlier comment regarding fixing anything they might damage

Fiona, rather than email the owner, have you tried contacting them and arrange to meet onsite to discuss the issue? Often meeting face to face to discuss the issues, may be a better solution, and he can see why you want the fence, and you ask for written assurances your garden will be looked after. Your neighbour should be the one instructing his builder. The builder has no interest in keeping good relations, but your future neighbour will be.