New house - how to deal with exisitng power supply to shed?

[Steve35]

Hi everyone.

Me and my wife have just moved into our house a couple of months ago.
In the back garden we have our own land but between our house and the one attached to use is a small set of mutually owned steps that go up to what was a washing green when the houses were council owned.
Our garden is completely enclosed though as the previous owners built a wall round it (which means we effectively can't access any of the mutual land.

We have a shed in the garden that the previous owners put in and this shed has power to it. Power is supplied via an armoured cable that comes out of the house's main fuse box and then runs under the house and out of the back wall (it comes out below ground level as there is a void under the house for all thr pipes, wiring etc). It then goes under the wall of the garden and it then emerges at the foot of these mutually owned steps. It runs up the steps and then when it reaches our land at the top is burried until it enters the shed.

Now our neighbour has decided to tidy up these mutually owned steps and has pulled the cable up along the length of them and hung it over our garden wall. Seemingly the previous onwers put the cable in and he's been anoyed at this for many years. He now expects us to do something with it and get it moved.
As this is a power cable i've turned it off as I don't want anyone getting hurt.

On our own land i am happy to reburry the cable in a trench, fill with sand and mark it with warning tape, then turf over the top. I belive this should be to 700mm depth?

Not sure what to do over the mutually owned area though. Realistically we can't get it back over our side as it is under a 7 foot wall. Can I attatch it to the wall inside so form of duct to protect it, until it reaches the land we own where it is burried?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[pjcomp]

There are two issues here - the electrical and the land-ownership. The electrical is straightforward, yes it could be clipped to the wall in the right circumstances, or reburied and suitably marked as you describe. But it sounds like your first problem is the ownership rights and our neighbour.

As you're the new neighbour I'd recommend a softly-softly approach to Mr Problem, explain your needs and ask how he thinks it could be sorted out. get him on side and any other neighbours will probably just let you get on with things.

Few things as damaging or expensive as a dispute with neighbours ....

PJ

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Can't really picture it properly, but can't you run a new cable to the shed, forget about the old?

 

[sparkwright]

Did this neighbour start messing about with this cable without discussing it with you or the previous owner?

Is there a good reason for this cable not to be near the steps, apart from it being unsightly and perhaps a bit of a rough job?

Is there any way you can disconnect the cable at one end, to enable you to re-route the cable?

Is your neighbour an rshole?

 

[5parks]

[quote="Steve35";p="1956847"
Our garden is completely enclosed though as the previous owners built a wall round it (which means we effectively can't access any of the mutual land.

Sparkwright obviously the previous owners thought so

[/quote]

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You might like to consider creating an access to the land you have a right to use.

IANAL, but I'm pretty sure that in some circumstances you can lose rights like that if they remain unexercised for long enough.

 

[bernardgreen]

Our garden is completely enclosed though as the previous owners built a wall round it (which means we effectively can't access any of the mutual land

That should have been picked up and remedied by your solicitor when the property was being purchased. Though as it was the previous owners who built the wall you have inherited the results of their actions.

If you have right of access across mutual land to land you own there may be a covenant in the deeds that allows you the rights to install and maintain pipes and or cables along or under that right of way. If there are then the neighbour has to accept and allow that cable and access to it for maintainance

 

[Steve35]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The whole set=up was put in by the previous owners, from what i've gathered from neighbours they didn't seem too worried about what they did upsetting other people so i imagine they just ran the cable up the outside of their wall as they didn't want to deal with it properly (out of sight ,out of mind etc).

The land ownership issue is not too much of a problem because we don't want the steps to be accessible anyway. They are overgrown and can't be used as the top of them ends in the walls for the respective gardens. They wouldn't add anything to the garden so removing a wall to give access to them would be a cost we don't think is neccessary. To be honest we'd be happy to forget that small piece of land as it would cost more to make it accessible (demolishing a wall, removing rubble etc), money we don't have.

If attaching the cable to the wall and then burying it with marking is safe then we'll go with this.

I think the issue our neighbour take with the cable is that because he has no fence/wall/hedge to screen his view of the mutual area he feels it is making his garden look untidy to wants it dealt with.
Realistically, without doing a lot of demolition and building work the cable can't be brought this side of the wall. I suspect it goes under the foundations of the wall near the house and this is probably pretty deep.

I'll talk with neighbour and see if he is happy with it being done the way i said.