It is common for a house’s gutters, eaves and facia to stick out further than the walls. But what if your wall is on the boundary between your and your neighbour’s house, so the gutters overhang the boundary? Do you have a right for them to remain? And if your neighbour’s gutters or eaves overhang your land, can you get them removed?
It is a well established principle that you own the airspace above your land, so if your neighbour’s gutters overhang your land then they may be a trespass, even if you cannot reach them or they don’t interfere with the day to day use of your land.
Land Registration Act 2002
If there is an overhang, the following principles can legitimise what would otherwise be a trespass:
- The deeds to the house may specifically provide a right for them to be there;
- If the overhanging gutters have been in place for over 20 years, then the owner may have acquired a prescriptive right for them to be there. In certain circumstances, use of a neighbour’s land can be acquired by right through long usage. It is possible to acquire a right to drain rainwater through overhanging gutters;
Trespass
If your neighbour has recently installed overhanging gutters, then the position is probably quite different, as the above require them to be in place for some time or a specific granted right.
If you have gutters in your airspace that have no right to be there, then it may be that you can insist on their removal. They are a trespass and, as a last resort, a court has the power to order an injunction to remove them. If you are building a new extension or property very close to or on the boundary, you need to consider whether you have you left room for any guttering, etc.
A word of caution is necessary here, however: a gutter overhanging many feet up in the air may be considered by the court as a trivial trespass. Unless you can show some real harm or serious implication requiring its removal, then the court may not order its removal and can penalise parties for bringing trivial cases.
So unless there is a serious problem (perhaps the gutters are poorly maintained and causing damage to your property or so large that they restrict development of your land), you should consider whether to simply let it be.
For more information on boundary disputes, any of the matters raised in this article or on civil litigation matters in general, please contact Lyons Davidson’s Civil Litigation team by telephoning 0117 904 6000.
