Access?

Vomityspice

Note that not all rights are recorded with the Land Registry!

The potential new neighbour has three options if he is hoping to claim an easement;

1) The Rule in Wheeldon v Burrows

2) S.62 LPA 1925

3) Easement by prescription.

Any half descend solicitor will dispose of 1+2 in the contract of sale. 3 will only apply if he encroaches for 20+ years.

If you like the house, and are happy to put up with some non-sense, listen to your solicitor's advice and then make a decision that will suit you.

timmyt

Vomity is textbook right, so good luck

Drodough

OP I feel for you so much. All I would like to add, is, I am moving essentially because of my neighbours. They are not even in the same league as this guy. They fell out with me, I only recently discovered why (and it was something I didn't even do!!) and I have endured 2 years of stares/ being ignored/ muttered (or, not so muttered) comments about me/my house etc. Now, this is not even in the same league as this guy, but I got to the point I dreaded coming home from work and take my car to a friend's house to clean it as want so badly to avoid them. It got me down so much. Now, you may be a much stronger person than I- in which case, maybe you can proceed with this (taking account of legal advice obviously). However, for me, I would not buy any property, no matter how nice or what the price, if I thought my free time would be blighted by unreasonable and difficult or nasty people. Just my opinion, and I guess it depends on your priorities etc, but please do think about how much a neighbour can impact on your life before going ahead.

missb123

Hi Drodough, sorry to hear about the time you have had, my situation at present is that i live in a mid terrace, i rent from the council,(after the breakup of my marriage, selling family home, didnt have enough to buy ect ect ect). my neighbours at present are... next door to the left, a woman who has two men, all alcoholics, dont work,party all night, pool table, dart board and karaoke system all next to party wall. some nights it can be quiet then they will blast the music on around 3 or 4 in the morning, i am working and at college, so find this quite hard going, neighbour next one down.. same set up.. on his own and plays the same cd every night over and over.. i know every drum beat and bass line!! other side of me is a nice old man, he hasn't been there long. prior to him there were drug dealers and after them was a 16y/o who was given the house and used it as a party pad,after that a psycho alky guy who said i wasnt allowed to sit in my garden cos i wouldnt speak to him, he was nasty and ended up saying awful things. my point is that even though im sad that my potential new neighbour isnt going to be nice (understatement methinks!) surely to god its got to be better than this?
Our solicitor is sending the sellers solicitor a letter asking that the boundary issue gets sorted before we complete, he says she has to do this, he is also going to request he send mr crazybins (love that name, somone on forum said it!) a letter pointing out that he has no right of access and to stop going into garden, our solicitor says he can only request this but if the sellers solicitor won't do it then he will do it on our behalf.
Crazybins can't claim prescriptive ROW because he would have been trying to claim it from his landlord ( house im buying was bought in 98 from council, he bought his in 05 from council) his claim would start from 98 when it became private land.

Ulfar

Why does the land becoming private affect the rights of way issue ?

People can have rights of way over council or common land.

This is a legal minefield and he may still claim that he has been using it for 20 years, a judge may decide that this does give him right of way irrespective of who the owner is or was.

You say surely he can't be as bad as your current neighbors, I would disagree an awful lot of neighbor disputes are over boundaries and access. These things can get very messy.

Alibat

Please walk away from this house as fast as you can. Yes the situation you are in now is awful, but the one you would be buying into has the potential to be far, far worse.

It is not like it's the only house you can move to. Please, please walk away and find another one.

I don't have words to fully describe the emotional and financial toll this man will take on you, and this time you won't be able to move away, you'll be trapped there.

I've just sat and read your thread from start to finish, hoping all along that the next post I read from you will have you saying that you've pulled out. I mean this in the nicest possible way (because you sound like someone I would love to live next door to) but if you think being neighbourly and reasonable is going to win this man over you are being heartbreakingly naive.

Please listen to all the advice you've been given about how hard he can make your life. The law might be on your side but that does not stop people like this man from ruining people's lives. The law, no matter how reassuring it looks and sounds, will not protect you from years of heartache and stress.

If the greenhouse was gone, the gate removed, the garden reinstated as per the plans, his bins happily rehoused in his front garden and somewhere created for his girlfriend's mobility scooter I would still not move into the house you're considering buying even if the vendor paid me to take it off her hands.

This man is one of the harder type of neighbours from hell to fight - the sort who think they have the law on their side and no matter how often they are told they do not they will continue to find ways to cost you both financially and perhaps more importantly emotionally.

I'm sorry for going on so much but I couldn't live with myself if in the months to come I read posts from you detailing the scenario I can see happening and I hadn't tried to warn you.

Please, please, please walk away.

Running_Horse

missb123 wrote: »

Crazybins can't claim prescriptive ROW because he would have been trying to claim it from his landlord ( house im buying was bought in 98 from council, he bought his in 05 from council) his claim would start from 98 when it became private land.

We decided not to buy a lovely ex-council house in a nice area when we noticed there was no fence next to the back of the house. Turns out council included right of access when building it in the 70s. They said the neighbours were lovely, but neighbours change, and it wouldn't have felt like our house with people walking through the garden. Please do not proceed until all problems have been resolved, including the greenhouse and fence. I would have walked away long ago. There are better houses out there.

cheepskate_2

Got to aggree with the majority.
We have mr Wheelybins of sorts in our area, said that he must be about 60 as well. Some houses have a path found their back garden that the middle house has legal use of . He blocked this, put up locks and made his neighbours life hell, all because he didnt want anyone passing the back of his garden.

New neigbours moved and have never used this path as it is all locked up and have to trail all the garden things through their house, just dont think they want to get into a dispute with him as he is quite aggressive, .

Walk away he seems a nutter like our mr Wheelybins he WILL find something else to go on at and life will just be stressfull for you and the children

paddy's_mum

Alibat - that was the best post I have ever seen - 'hitting the nail right on the head' doesn't begin to do justice to how well you have described the reality of a neighbour dispute. I was sitting here, reading that, punching the air and going "yesss!" and "too bluddy right"

:T

missb123 - you're a free agent and none of us can do anything other than try to warn you what you are walking into. The choice is yours - and I can see that you may feel that lightning won't strike you twice - but please understand that people are telling you to try to protect you from painful experience.

I wish you luck, whatever you eventually decide to do, but remember always how difficult it is to shed a blighted house, as your seller is already finding out.

pingu2209

Walk away.