MK, East Lothian
Your neighbour cannot dig up your garden and lay services through your property unless he has the legal right to do so.
Your solicitor should examine the titles for both properties. The rights may be stated in your title or contained within a separate deed.
If your neighbour has such rights, you should ensure that he has exercised them in accordance with any conditions stated in the deeds. Ask your solicitor to check what, if any, statutory or other rights the public utility companies have.
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Request that your solicitor also check whether such rights could have been acquired by prescription, or in other words, over a period of time prescribed by law. In doing so, it would be worth considering how services reach your neighbour’s existing property. Although unlikely, it may be that services were always there although no formal rights were granted.
If he has no such rights, you should request that he remove the services and restore your property to the condition it was in immediately before he carried out his work. If he refuses, ask your solicitor to write to him, and if he still refuses to do anything, you could consider taking court action against him.
Alternatively, you may offer to grant your neighbour the appropriate rights in exchange for a monetary consideration. This would give you an opportunity to set out your own terms and conditions. Taking this action will burden the area in question and its future use.
Finally, whatever you do, matters should not be left in abeyance.
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Martin Y Kerr is a partner with McClure and partners in Glasgow