right of way/access

[lottie dolly]

hi all ,has anyone any knowledge of how the law stands,or where to get infoe from,on the following,we have had on and of vehicle access at the rear of our garden for aprox 24 years,as the previouse owners of the property did,onto a bit of council land{ex garage space},then down a short narrow road onto another street,however they now are talking about 2 council homes being built on it,and we wondered if there is anything in law,to still give us the right to continue the use of access,i have tried google with no luck,and wondered if other peeps has any advice they could give,we have expressed an interest in buying said land,and 3 time we have been totaly ignored,there are no plans drawn up YET,so i have to keep an eye out on the planning portal,so the council dept.,said when i enquired about what was going on ext,i know how wise you are,so thank you for looking.

[Bren In Pots]

Have you had a look at the 'Garden Law' forum they could point you in the right direction :-

Garden Law Discussion :: Index

[Mac]

Hi Lottie Dolly, not too sure if it will be the same in England, but up here if there has been a so called "right of way" regularly used for X-number of years, then it has become an actual right of way so can't be blocked or built on. If you just phone your planning office they should be able to help you.

[lottie dolly]

thank you for the replies BIP & BW,
MAC,thats exactly what WE thought,we actually knew a family several years ago,he actually threatened anyone who went down a known right of way to the fields,eventually he got sole rights,but that was in a different place to this 1,

[lottie dolly]

have looked the garden law forum,very interesting,thankyou,bren in pots,
bilbo,we own ours,we know the land we go over is council land/rubbish dump,louts playground ext,we put a big gate at the bottom of our garden,have been using the for aprox 24 years,and thats just us,if we can still use the entrance,it will be good place to put the trailers ext in,and be DH area lol,then i can have the front looking nice,

[SlugLobber]

Hi Lottie Dolly,

If you've had access for a certain period of time with express written consent from the landowner, you can fight to retain that access, but if it's not the sole access, or you don't have written permission, I'm not sure where you stand.

If you DID retain access, the landowner has a right to charge you for that access, in the form of rent. An example being driveways which cross National Trust land. My ex is a NT warden and he had this issue arise some years ago. In the end, the NT backed down from charging, but only because lots of little old men/ladies were banging on the various wardens doors, shaking nasty looking sticks, lol! The NT apparently were well within their rights to start charging, even though access had been there for decades AND it was the sole access to each property!

[OllieMartin]

I have no facts to give, but:
Near where my folks lived, a chap owned a field that he never used, so he allowed a farmer to graze his cattle on it. He did so for some 6-or-so years before the land owner decided he wanted to develop the land. It turned out, that because the famer had been using it as his own for so long the landowner wasn't legally allowed to evict him as this would impact his income and livelihood as he had depended on the land for so long without interruption.
The long and short of the story is that the landowner had to pay off the famer some rediculous amount of money (a good deal over 7 figures!).

Assuming that this isn't just folklore, I'd suggest that as you've been using the route for 24 years without interruption, you've become dependant on it and as such have rights to it.

[Florence Fennel]

I used to rent my council house, end terrace. It has a small piece of garden both back and front, but a huge piece of ground on the side which used to belong to the council and they used to come and mow the grass. I fenced off the whole of the garden and the side 20 years ago because we decided to have German Shepherd dogs and we had to start mowing the grass ourselves because the council wouldn't then do it. When I decided to buy the house 5 years ago, the land on the side came with it, because I had maintained it for so many years.

[lottie dolly]

thankyou all so much for the feed back,i have heard of this time span thing before,but it only happens to others,we wondered if we were being greedy ext,it's not the land it's self anymore,as they are going to build 2 council bungallows on it,we have to wait untill the plans are drawn up,so we can see just how they going to be sited on the little plot,we always thought that the council originaly had it of ours and next doors,but having looked into the deeds no,it has a tiny bit of tarmac road from it to the street at the back,originaly it was garage space to rent when we first moved in,another near neighbour had access from his garden as well,so we thought,why not use it until we hear otherwise,but on realising the time span ext,tried to buy it,next thing its in the local free mag what they ARE doing with it,idealy we only want access,as we do at pressent,1 of the councilors and the local beat bobby are aware of we use it,and nothing said,will be pleased to have it built on,then the louts and dumpers will stay away,hence the beat bobby ext,and it is possible for us to acheive it,the thing is,we stuck on is how to approach the issue,and what is involved,ext,hence my thread,would like to tread very carfully without causing offence to anyone,but how ????

[Hilary B]

If there was garage space accessed via this route, it is likely there was a right of access for SOMEONE, but it may never have been formalised. If you point out to your own councillor that you only want the right to get your vehicles to the rear of your property, you may make progress.
Who had use of the garage space? That may be the key.

[lottie dolly]

thanks Hilary,anyone private and council homes rented a garage space from council,and own garages erected,but vandelism took over,little darlinks GRRRRR,

[Hilary B]

The right of access may have 'gone with' renting a garage. If so, it probably lapsed when garages were demolished.
OH (who knows quite a bit around the edges of anything to do with houses) reckons you need to discuss it with a solicitor.

[lottie dolly]

thank you for the advice Hilary