Our Neighbours are Building a Side Extension. Are Access Rights Anything to do with the Party Wall Act?

Question

Our neighbours are building a side extension which will butt up to the side of our house and we will not have access to maintain the 2 windows on this side is this anything to do with the party wall agreement?

Answer

This isn’t anything to do with The Party Wall Act – it is a legal question. Do you currently have access to maintain the windows or do you have to get your neighbour’s consent to go on to their land?

Question

Between our homes there is a small wall and on their side of the wall they built a enclosed lean to, when they first said they were building this we agreed on the condition we could still access the windows, so they put removable windows in to give us access.  The new structure they want to build will obviously be a brick built structure so I’m not sure how we would then be able to access the windows with this in place.

Follow-up

As the previous structure was built in a way that you could still gain access to maintain your windows it would not have removed your right of way. Although, I don’t know all the history I think it is unlikely that your neighbour can now block off your access with a permanent structure.