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That's what I was trying to explain to them - how could I distinguish a Network Rail contractor with someone here up to no good, or trespassing on the line. It was one of the key concerns I wrote in my letter back to their lawyer and noted as a reason why some notice was required, but they have completely ignored that concern when they replied. I was told by one of their team that I could call the 24 hour emergency track access line with any concerns but when they tell me they have no record of any work being carried out here so cannot tell me who is on my property what am I to do? I don't want them to call me, a simple email would do as a heads up and I would have thought that was easy enough to do? But they are adamant that "we cannot agree to give you advance notice due to the operational importance of the access point".

Yes it does. That was my first thought but sadly it extends to their contractors too. Damn!

The first letter was from their legal counsel and the latest letter is from a 'Project Interface Co-Ordinator' but most of the content is from their legal team as it states that in the letter and is clearly written by someone in the legal team. The letter says that their staff will simply remove the lock from the gate unless I remove it first. It also mentions 'vehicles' having access. The Deed of Conditions does mention that they have vehicular access but now that I look at the plan closely point 'A' that they mention as being the place where they can park is along my neighbour's single track driveway and there is no way they can park vehicles there without blocking them in completely . Big screw up by my neighbour's solicitor I think, but I don't see why I should have to allow them to park on my private area instead which is what tends to happen. I don't want to fall out with my neighbours either mind as they are great ...... I didn't actually put the lock on the gate (my neighbour did) and I don't have a key so couldn't remove it even if I wanted to. Sadly they (Network Rail) did not send that letter to my solicitor, the letter was sent by the vendor's solicitor (the plot changed hands twice after it was sold off when the rail network was privatised, then it was split into 2 and I bought one of the plots). I had expected that the advice received from my own solicitor would have been on the basis of him checking the deeds but now I am in this position I think he hasn't bothered. We specifically asked him to check this very point so I am pretty annoyed that he couldn't be bothered (or got it wrong). My neighbour's solicitor was even worse which is why 10 years after they moved in (they bought from the builder) they still don't have a completion certificate or temp habitation certificate which was only discovered when I received mine and the council told me that next door's house had not been signed off by them What a mess.

It's not the train operator who is responsible though (ie ScotRail etc), it's Network Rail (I've named them now ) so they'll say it's nothing to do with them, and actually ScotRail doesn't run trains down here, there are only Virgin and Cross Country trains on this line and it's not a majorly busy line relatively. I'm probably just feeling extra irritated by the letter they sent as I've been stuck here for almost a week due to the snow so am going stir crazy. It looks like it's finally starting to melt though so I might actually be able to get back to civilisation soon . The local FB site has been a joy this week with people accusing their neighbours of buying all the milk, and being greedy. One lady even wrote that iodine in milk exacerbates acne so 'think on oh greedy ones' . But in better news apparently one lane of the McDonalds drive thru is now open . Priorities ......

Thanks. I am pretty peeved if he got it wrong to be honest, especially as this was one of the key concerns we had about the plot so made sure to ask for the terms to be established, and the 48 hour notice was acceptable to us. Had he said 'they can come whenever they like day or night' I do think it may have altered our decision to proceed. I went for an established central Edinburgh solicitor rather than a cheaper one as I thought I would get a better service and he was relatively expensive compared to others. Seems sometimes you do not get what you pay for

Keep the bloody noise down is more tempting to be honest . About a dozen of them standing under my bedroom window in the middle of the night yelling for about an hour was the night I lost it, got dressed and went outside, closely followed by my neighbours who despite being further up the road had also been woken. This was the 5th night of it so we were raging by then. My neighbours the other side who are nothing to do with the access said later that they had been woken night after night too. It's the disturbance more than the parking in truth (unless they park a truck right in the middle of my parking area essentially blocking most of it which they've done once before) but once you've been annoyed by one thing you tend to be annoyed by all of it. But I should be able to control the parking so will tackle it from that perspective as one hopes that if they are briefed about the parking they may also be briefed about general courtesy too. I've actually ordered a load of large plant pots from Amazon Prime but we haven't had any post here for a week due to the snow, but I'm hoping that they'll arrive this week.

Don’t think HS2 comes anywhere near here TBH. The Edinburgh route goes up through Manchester and the east leg seems to end at Newcastle. They’ll run out of money long before then anyway! There is a place they can park in the corner of the orange area which anyone with half a brain cell could determine. I don’t believe they have been given any instructions as to the access terms however which is a failing of their company hence they think they can park on my private parking. I wanted to do it via their office as going out there on my own at 2am doesn’t appeal much (although I have done that before and nothing improved because next time different people arrive).

I may do that, and there is even a section in the Land Certificate that notes their obligations re inconvenience and disturbance but it’s in the same section as the 48 hours notice that they claim doesn’t apply to general access so I guess that doesn’t apply to this either. How odd that all the things noted re consideration for the property owners apparently never apply here. They work mostly at night for safety as no trains are running and they state that in the letter. I don’t know what they are actually doing as they disappear down the track and are not doing whatever it is in this location. Some companies are very good at handling disputes. This one however seems to go straight to legal when there was no need at all.

Yes they are. Their contractors even told me that they were told to use this access ‘as a meeting point’ which concerns me too. I will be speaking to the company but am very annoyed that they sent a threatening legal letter instead of attempting to engage with me despite the case report they opened stating the below. They went straight to their lawyers. The latest letter arrived last Tuesday hence me asking for advice here.

Added to say that I had great difficulty trying to find a policy that suited my needs so in the end I went through a company called QuoteRack. I simply completed their online form detailing what I was looking for and subsequently 4 brokers called me, and I sourced a policy from there. My policy is with a household name but not one I could have sourced without a broker I believe. Remember though that when it comes to insurance full disclosure is imperative so don’t hold back on any details that may be relevant. https://www.quoterack.co.uk/

I also found a policy, via a broker, that would insure my home, and contents, before the completion certificate was issued. My build took a few years longer than planned due to my husband’s illness but the main structural work was complete and it was just the fitting out that was still in progress. I explained everything to the broker in detail so as not to be faced with any non disclosure issues if I later needed to make a claim (I haven’t) and he sourced me a policy. I do not have accidental damage cover on my contents insurance as work was still going on, but that was acceptable to me. In fact many people who are having building work done on their home may unwittingly find that their standard buildings and content cover is compromised. Now that the work is finally complete I will move to another policy on renewal.

For info here are the relevant bits from the solicitors' letters. The one from the vendor's solicitor has interesting wording now that I read it again. It appears to say that their client has advised re the access, ie the vendor, rather than it being their own assessment of the legal position, and despite them enclosing the Land Certificate. The wording from my own solicitor is less clear. He seems to imply that he has passed on what the vendor's solicitor has said re the access so not sure whether he has a get out clause on that basis. Surely 2 solicitors should have read the document however and provided proper legal advice? I had no reason to suspect at the time that neither solicitor had actually read the document and assessed the formal legal position in relation to the access.

It says they have vehicular access too unfortunately. The gate is a railway track access gate, and they can apparently park outside the track access gate. That doesn't restrict my access at all, but it completely restricts the access to my neighbours' property as that white strip next to it is the access drive to their house. So they tend to park on my personal parking area instead .

Doubt that's possible unfortunately as the letters from the company are clearly dated February 2018 so any new insurance will say they are not liable. I very much doubt the local council will be remotely interested.

Thanks. Unfortunately there is now a garage at the side of the wider shared area at the bottom so I have to drive down the orange bit to access it. The start of the garage is more or less where the arrow is on the 25.8 measurement. And I have to park outside the garage (too much junk to get the car inside) as I have to plug the car in there. It's not the access I'm annoyed about really, it's the 'who the hell is out there making a racket' in the middle of the night, and the company (who run a 24 hour access line) tell me they've no idea who is there or why when I call them. I get on great with next door and there have never been any issues with access etc with them. And the contractors have bloody parked on the white bit on occasion which infuriates me.

Yes I have the Land Registry document and I can see a 48 hour notice period in the Burdens Section that says that 48 hours notice is required but the company say that there is a general right of access with no notice required and an additional right of access where notice is required but that these conditions don't apply to any work the company carries out at this location . The document goes on forever and the Burdens section alone is 18 pages long. It's clear however that 2 solicitors were not clear that the 'general access' didn't have the 48 hour notice period attached to it given the letters I have. I imagine the first thing I need to do is clarify what the access conditions are as it's by no means clear from the very long document. And if the company is right 2 solicitors have got it wrong already, so I'm in no position to confirm the access requirement myself. I just looked at my house insurance - no I don't have legal cover. It's a bit of a special policy as I didn't have a completion certificate from the council and the self builder insurance ran out so I managed to get a 'building still in progress' type of cover. Now that I finally have the completion certificate I will alter it to a 'normal' policy at renewal as it's much more expensive than a standard policy. My former solicitor was the last remaining partner in the practice I believe as the practice closed when he retired. Thank you re the pointer to the Scottish Law Society - I will give them a call.

The plot is accessed by a gate at the front of the plot. The access area in the form of a driveway shared with next door is in orange. This was the eventual access decided upon by the council after 2 challenges from the community council over access to the adjoining plot. I have parking for at least half a dozen vehicles in the white area which is solely owned by me. At the back of the orange area there is a gate, and this is where they have access plus a right over the orange area in order to access the gate.

When I purchased my plot in 2009 there was an access right over the shared access area (shared with next door) of the plot in favour of the original landowner (a company). At the time of purchase we were concerned about the use of the access point and the conditions of entry so made sure to fully understand the conditions. There is a long legal document "Deed of Conditions" that details all the conditions but it's not something that is an easy read without legal training . That said I have a letter from the vendor's solicitor stating that except in an emergency the original owner has to provide 48 hours notice and a letter from my own conveyancing solicitor saying the same. The vendor also stated that the original owner had only used the right of access once in 2 years. That was ok with us so we went ahead with the purchase. Recently however the original owner has sent along multiple contractors to use the access point without any notice, without any ID, logos on vehicles or clothing, and mostly at night. It came to a head a few weeks ago where we had multiple vehicles parked outside on the road overnight and over a dozen men wandering onto the shared driveway making crazy amounts of noise night after night. Both my neighbour and I reported this to the 24 hour access line that the company runs, and they said that they had no works scheduled in that area so weren't sure who was there, but someone would get back to us. Despite many chasers and attempts to open dialogue we got nothing back from them and they continued to access the property so my neighbour padlocked the access gate. The company's first course of action was then to send a letter from their legal council. I replied back and said that we are merely asking for the conditions of access to be respected and I have just received another letter stating that they don't have to give any notice at all, and that the 48 hours notice is for a specific purpose which does not apply at this location. Had we known this I am sure we would have changed our mind about the purchase so I feel like we were misadvised by 2 solicitors. I know that my own solicitor retired about 4 years ago but can anyone advise what I should do now, and whether I have any hope of pursuing a claim please. Obviously I am concerned about the cost of the action and what type of solicitor I need to engage. My neighbour is also equally concerned about the access so we will instruct a solicitor jointly I think, although my neighbour doesn't appear to have anything in writing from their solicitor stating the access conditions so it may be harder for them to pursue anything. To note - I haven't named the company in case it identifies me or prejudices any action but they are a UK wide company. I'm in Scotland but I imagine the principles may be the same as in the rest of the UK.

How many times will you enter the house and head straight to the kitchen? Surely mostly you'd head for the living room, and then the kitchen is conveniently located off there. I get the point of the double doors is to open the space up (you could also consider losing the actual doors as I imagine they'll be open much of the time if you want an open space thus encroaching into the living space?) It wouldn't be an issue having 2 lots of doors into the kitchen if you had lots of space but as it's at a premium I would look to lose one set. With the current trend of having more open spaces I would lose the single door. Can't advise re the hall I'm afraid as no expert on the design of stairs etc .

I'm definitely no expert lol but do you need to have 2 doors into the kitchen? If you lost the single door it would give you more usable space in there.

I think the layout is great. I could easily live there . Do you have a breakfast bar somewhere in the kitchen? I can't see easily. I have a kitchen island that I use all the time for casual dining. A breakfast bar somewhere would be perfect.

Looks wonderful! Well done xx

I have pale cream grout too (big mistake with dogs). When I asked the tile shop about the best way to clean it they sold me this which was ace. The dirt just lifted out with no effort and wiped clean. I have tried other things but this has been the easiest so far. Last time however I didn't have any and resorted to thin bleach and a small brush. Was a lot more labour intensive but it did do the trick. I resealed the grout afterwards but it's an uphill battle in truth. I'm sure that the bleach affects the colour but as my grout was so light there didn't seem to be any difference. Mine are ceramic so do check the compatibility of anything you use.

I can't get my head round it either . I'm hopeful that some knights in shining armour will address that soon though. Doesn't help that I have no building knowledge whatsoever and whereas my hubby would have stand up arguments with contractors on occasion, I start from a position of no knowledge and sometimes get shafted. I'm pretty resilient though and live to fight another day . The model sounds great. My husband used Sketchup a lot. We were restricted here to a degree as the council only really wanted the same house built as next door which meant that conversations we had with them re making the windows larger in places etc were met with resistance. I'd love to have a go at shaping my own house from scratch as a blank canvas. Then again, I don't think I'm over this one yet .

I'm leaving it be! Just need to know if a new one is required for the one that's gone ballistic.