At the side of my house (a semi-detached on an estate built in the 1930s) there is a small strip of grassy land, around 5m wide that is, I believe, owned by the local authority.
As this land is not used by anyone, I would be interested in pushing out my side wall to make a bigger garden. How do I go about it, or is it done?
First you should contact your local authority to see if it does in fact own the land. If it does, you can apply to purchase the plot. This involves filling out a form and paying a small initial administration fee, usually €100 if the land is for your use, or €250 if you are considering development. Once your application goes in, it will be passed through each of the authority's departments for consideration and approval. So, for example, if the lighting department wants to hold on to the plot for future lighting purposes, then your application is likely to be turned down. The same goes for drainage, housing, roads, etc. As you can imagine, the process can take some time. After that, the council puts a valuation on the plot - this is a commercially set rate although if the plot has no commercial, i.e. development, potential, then the purchase price is likely to be nominal.
What you are hoping to do is common enough; years ago when every centimetre of land was not so valuable to developers, it was not unusual for there to be scraps of land left over here and there in large estates. Over the years these lands tend to be used as informal playgrounds etc for the residents of the estate. It can cause bad feeling when one householder buys the land for their own private use, so you should be prepared for at least some raised eyebrows. While the process of buying from the council is open to all, in that anyone can apply to buy land, it is not entirely transparent as a notice similar to the planning permission notice does not have to be put on the land to announce that someone is thinking of buying it. Your neighbours may feel cheated that they did not have the opportunity to object.
Neighbour's extension is ugly
There is a narrow pedestrian lane running at the back of my house. The house directly behind mine built a large two-storey extension that extends to the back lane wall. As my back garden wall is quite low I am now looking out on an ugly, badly rendered two-storey wall. Can I plant creepers up against this wall to improve my view.
You could, if you ask the homeowners' permission. People are rightly nervous of creepers, thinking that a particularly vigorous ivy could get into the walls or at the very least grow up and damage the gutters. Before you approach the back neighbour with your request, you would be wise to go to your local garden centre and get advice as to what would be a suitable, non-invasive creeper and present all this information to your neighbour. You could also promise that you would cut back the creeper if it looked like getting too high. If the neighbour flatly refuses to let you grow anything against this wall you may still be able to although it will mean getting into the legal small print. This would be on the arguable grounds that the lane is common area.
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Unfortunately, it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.
