Seven bizarre property laws you might have broken without realising
When it comes to our homes and neighbours, working out when the line has been crossed is not always easy.
It is why This is Money receives so many emails from frustrated readers about the latest disputes and disagreements on their street.
We have been contacted about the house next door becoming a student HMO for six people, and a neighbour stealing someone's garden.
We've had one reader emailing in about their neighbour's dog jumping up at their fence relentlessly, and another about the person upstairs removing carpets and causing an unbearable noise.
Many off these involve lesser-known rules that can catch homeowners off guard.
Darren Gallagher, property expert and founder of property consultants Elite Realty Invest, has shared seven of these strange – but legally grounded – property laws that are still in force.
From urinating in your garden to being fined for hanging washing in your front lawn, the UK is home to some weird and wonderful property laws – many of which are still enforceable today.
We asked two legal experts to explain the rules - what the consequences would be for those breaking them.
Can you legally pee in your own garden?
Technically, yes – but only if it's private and not visible to others.
'Whilst not itself illegal, if seen, you run the risk of indecent exposure,' says Mike Hansom, consultant for property litigation at BLB Solicitors.
'Also, if urine finds its way onto neighbouring property, causing damage, you risk your neighbour claiming damages for nuisance.'
Declan Storrar, a solicitor at Hodge Jones & Allen adds: 'If your garden lacks privacy or you're doing it to be seen or cause alarm or distress, you could risk committing a public nuisance or indecent exposure offence.'
You must offer cut tree branches back to a neighbour
Branching out: If you cut a neighbour's tree which hangs over your garden, you must offer the branches back - though not much is likely to happen if you don't
If a neighbour's tree hangs over your garden, you have the right to cut branches back to your boundary – but you are legally obliged to offer the cuttings back to the tree's owner.
Throwing them back without consent or disposing of them could technically lead to a civil dispute.
'This is correct if the branches are cut from the neighbour's tree,' says Hansom.
'However, it is unlikely the neighbour would have a claim of any significant value if you did not return them.'
Looking into a neighbour's window can be harassment
If your behaviour causes distress, it can be classed as harassment - even if you do it from within your own home.
This is the case if you persistently look into a neighbour's window, or another part of their property.
If proven, the affected party may be able to seek legal action, including an injunction.
'It would be unusual for a single incident to amount to harassment,' says Hansom.
'However, it might do if it forms part of a general course of conduct that you know, or ought to know, amounts to harassment.
'Alternatively, it could breach privacy rights, especially if you recorded what you saw.'
Declan Storrar adds: 'Repeatedly watching your neighbour through their window without consent can amount to harassment, nuisance, anti-social behaviour, or even voyeurism.'
Mowing a verge outside your home could be illegal
Many homeowners take pride in tidying the area at the front of their home – but if it is a grass verge, it may belong to the local authority.
In this case, cutting, planting or altering it without permission may be considered unlawful interference.
'Such acts are likely to be unlawful, but the council is unlikely to pursue the matter in many cases,' says Mike Hansom.
'Mowing the land belonging to another is a civil trespass, and depending on the circumstances, it could be a public nuisance to interfere with the land if it forms part of the adopted highway.
'It could also be a criminal offence if the activity obstructs the highway.'
Hanging washing in your front garden can be banned
While it might seem harmless, certain councils restrict where washing can be hung – particularly in conservation areas or near listed buildings.
These aesthetic controls can include bans on visible clothes lines, even on your own land.
Declan Storrar says: 'Though not illegal, some areas have rules - set by the local authority, developers, or in the property's title deeds - that prohibit hanging washing in front gardens. Breaching these restrictions could result in a civil claim against you, or a fine.'
'If you have covenants on your property title, it could be prohibited,' says Hansom.
'If you own a leasehold flat or a house on an estate, you could be bound by covenants restricting activities such as hanging laundry.
'The same goes if you are a rental tenant. In addition, if you live in a conservation area, it might amount to a breach of planning control.'
Your neighbour may have a legal 'right to light'
If a window has received uninterrupted natural light for over 20 years, the property owner may have acquired a legal right to that light.
Any new structure you build that blocks this light could be challenged in court.
You may need planning permission for a driveway
If you lay impermeable paving over more than five square metres of front garden without proper drainage, planning permission may be required.
Without it, councils can issue enforcement notices and require the work to be reversed.
'Planning permission may be required for a driveway, depending on local regulations, the materials used, and the location,' says Storrar.
'Check whether your property is in a conservation area and consult your local authority before starting any work.'
Hansom adds: 'Planning permission is often not required for a new driveway, provided you meet certain conditions.
'However, planning policy varies significantly across the country, so it is essential to check the law as it applies in your area.
'You will likely need the highway authority's permission to install a dropped kerb. Without this, it would be lawful for others to park their cars in front of your new driveway.'
Best mortgage rates and how to find them
Mortgage rates have risen substantially over recent years, meaning that those remortgaging or buying a home face higher costs.
That makes it even more important to search out the best possible rate for you and get good mortgage advice, whether you are a first-time buyer, home owner or buy-to-let landlord.
Quick mortgage finder links with This is Money's partner L&C
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To help our readers find the best mortgage, This is Money has partnered with the UK's leading fee-free broker L&C.
This is Money and L&C's mortgage calculator can let you compare deals to see which ones suit your home's value and level of deposit.
You can compare fixed rate lengths, from two-year fixes, to five-year fixes and ten-year fixes.
If you're ready to find your next mortgage, why not use This is Money and L&C's online Mortgage Finder. It will search 1,000's of deals from more than 90 different lenders to discover the best deal for you.
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Samuel Pepys's diary, which covers 1660 to 1669, is regarded as one of the great classic texts in the English language. Words spill out of Pepys – 1.25m of them – as he bustles around London, building a successful career as a naval administrator while navigating the double trauma of the plague and the Great Fire of London. Historians have long gone to the diary for details of middle-class life during the mid‑17th century: the seamy streets, the watermen, the taverns and, as Pepys moves up the greasy pole, the court and the king. Best of all is his eye for the picturesque detail: the way, for instance, on the morning of 4 September 1666, as fire licks around his house, Pepys buries a choice parmesan cheese in the garden with the intention of keeping it safe. Not all of the diary is in English, though. Quite a lot of it is in French (or rather Franglais), Latin, Spanish and a curious mashup of all three. Pepys increasingly resorted to this home-brewed polyglot whenever the subject of sex came up, which was often. Indeed, sex – chasing it, having it, worrying about getting it again – dominated Pepys's waking life and haunted his dreams, many of them nightmares. Putting these anguished passages in a garbled form not only lessened the chance of servants snooping, but also served to protect him from his own abiding sense of shame. As an extra layer of concealment, Pepys wrote 'my Journall' using tachygraphy, an early form of shorthand. Pepys's diaries were published in bowdlerised form in the 19th century, and it was not until the 1970s that they became available in 11 unexpurgated volumes. Even then, explains Guy de la Bédoyère, there were many transcription errors and, crucially, no attempt was made to translate the coded passages into English. Historians knew about them, of course, not least because all you needed was a bit of classroom French and Latin to work out their meaning. On 25 March 1668, Pepys records that he has given 'Mrs Daniels' eight pairs of gloves 'for tocar my prick con her hand', which is hardly likely to keep anyone guessing for very long. All the same, it has been easy to lose sight of the sexual thread of Pepys's diary amid all the chatter about navy ships and expensive cheese. Which is why, for the first time, De la Bédoyère has gone back to the original manuscript and translated all of Pepys's coded entries, publishing them end-to-end with only a minimum of contextual information. The result is an extraordinarily detailed snapshot of life seen through the eyes of a man for whom no day was complete unless he had managed to fondle at least one woman's 'mameles' (breasts) on his way to or from work. In the past, people have blamed Pepys's bad behaviour on the Restoration. These were the years when the dour pieties of Oliver Cromwell had been replaced by Charles II's permissive libertarianism. But there is much more – and much worse – to the occluded parts of Pepys's diary than mere bawdiness. On 3 February 1664, for example, he is travelling in a carriage down Ludgate Hill when he witnesses three men raping a woman and wishes he could join in. On 1 December 1660, he beats his maid Jane savagely with a broom, though it is clear that he is eyeing her up for a future assignation. He often uses the words 'towsing' and 'tumbling' to describe what he is doing with women which sounds jolly and bucolic until De la Bédoyère explains that these terms are euphemisms for violence. The only occasion on which Pepys might hold back was if he knew a woman was single, which would make any pregnancy impossible to explain away. (It was a mercy that he didn't realise that an earlier operation for a bladder stone had probably left him sterile.) For that reason, he badgered any girl he wanted to sleep with regularly to get married, so he could carry on regardless. As news of his behaviour got around, so others would try to exploit it. On 11 August 1665, an old waterman called Delkes presented Pepys with his daughter-in-law, who was willing to sleep with him in return for a guarantee that her husband would not be pressed into naval service. And then there was his marriage. Pepys had wed Elizabeth when she was just 14. He was proud of her beauty, congratulating himself on how much prettier she was than the many grand ladies at court whom he encountered on his way to becoming secretary to the navy. Everything else about her frustrated him. He grumbled about her untidiness, extravagance, moodiness and the fact that her heavy periods and a recurrent labial abscess meant that she often wasn't available for sex. Most of all, he resented the way that she had taken to hiring plain maidservants in the hope that he would leave them alone (it didn't work). Inevitably he took out his frustrations with his fists: on 19 December 1664 he gave Elizabeth such a black eye that she was unable to go to church on Christmas Day for fear of what the neighbours would think. While Pepys's dark side has long been known, it is something else to be confronted with the evidence laid out quite so starkly. The man who emerges from De la Bédoyère's meticulous filleting is no Restoration roustabout but a chilling embodiment of male entitlement. This newly explicit view of Pepys does not negate the continuing value of his diary – which remains a magnificent historical resource – but from now on it will be impossible to go to it in a state of innocence, let alone denial. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion The Confessions of Samuel Pepys: His Private Revelations by Guy de la Bédoyère is published by Abacus (£25). To support the Guardian order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
