Up against a brick wall
Q. Our next door neighbour has put in a planning application to build an extension to the front of his property less than 4ft away from our front window. This will not only take light from our living room but block our view and reduce the value of our house.
A. Write in to the local planning authority, giving the reference number of the application and setting out your objections. This must be done within three weeks of the notice of the proposals being published in order to ensure your views are considered. It’s a good idea to send copies of your letter to your local councillor and to the members of the planning committee. If for any reason your objections are overruled you should see a solicitor to see if the proposed building work can be stopped on other grounds, such as interference with a right to light. Generally speaking though no-one can claim a right to a view.

Blocked in
Q. I own a garage that takes two cars. I use one space and rent out the other. A new neighbour now habitually parks his car in front of the garage doors and we have to ask him to move it every time we want to get a car out. I don’t think the man who rents from me will put up with this much longer. Is there anything I can do about it? The lane to the garage is a pedestrian right of way maintained but not owned by the council.
A. You may be able to take out an injunction preventing your neighbour from parking there. If you have asked him to park elsewhere and he has ignored you I suggest you get a solicitor to write him a letter threatening to do this. With luck this will be enough to persuade your neighbour to be more considerate. It’s possible he has no right to drive a car down the lane unless he owns one of the garages: your title deeds should provide a clue to what the position is. If the lane is privately owned it’s unlikely you will be able to involve the police: on a public highway they can prosecute inconsiderate motorists for causing an obstruction.

Stepsons’ claim
Q. My friend tells me that neither she nor her husband of 20 years has made a will. Her husband has two sons by a previous marriage and the house they live in is in his name, although she has contributed throughout with her own money and has worked part-time. I am concerned about my friend’s legal position in the event of her husband’s death. What claim would the stepchildren have on the estate?
A. Currently the wife would get the first £125,000 of the estate and a life interest in half the remainder under intestacy laws. The stepsons would get the other half, assuming the couple have no children of their own. However it’s essential they make wills, since if the house is at all substantial it could well swallow up the wife’s £125,000 “allowance”. This would mean that the wife may have to move out of the house unless she had the intestacy distribution varied by court order to give her a greater share of the husband’s estate. This pitfall can be avoided if the husband makes proper provision for his wife in a will. If he wants to ensure that his sons receive a share of his estate after his wife’s death one solution would be for the will to create a trust giving his wife a right to live in the house after his death but with provision for it to pass over to his sons on the wife’s subsequent death.

All mine
Q. I have bought a house with a shared driveway and garage. However the builder has signed the property over to me and the shared land has been registered in my sole name by mistake. They’re now requesting it back, but I wondered whether I’m allowed to keep it?
A. There’s little doubt that the land now belongs to you, but you should check the deeds to see if it is subject to any rights for your neighbours. If not, the fact that you own the land won’t necessarily mean that you have the drive to yourself. If the builder has accidentally failed to reserve rights over the area you may be able to insist upon a payment from the builder in return for the creation of the appropriate right at this stage. However if it was intended that the right should have been reserved but there has been a mistake, the builder may be able to obtain rectification of the title deeds. Discuss this with the solicitor who handled your conveyancing.

Narrowing the field
Q. I am currently buying 20 acres of agricultural land and a routine search has turned up a covenant which was put on the land in 1950 by the Church Commissioners. We don’t know what it relates to, and I have been advised to take out an indemnity policy to guard against future problems. Should we search further and risk uncovering bad news or let sleeping dogs lie?
A. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to insure against future problems unless you make further inquiries: the insurers will want to know what the risks are. If you obtain a printout of the entry in the Land Charges Register you should send it to the Church Commissioners and ask what the covenant entails. If the Commissioners have no record of the covenant you then have the option of indemnity insurance. Who pays for this will be a matter for negotiation between yourself and the owner of the land.