Advice on Title Deeds Please?

suz10

Hi, my house was built in 1900 and separated into one ground floor flat and one upper villa by the regional council who owned it at the time in around 1950. The house is split horizontally, with my downstairs neighbour having one floor and me having the other two. The garden area was split to the left and right of the house. My title deeds say that it is disponed to me all subjects delineated on the plan in red and pink which include 1. upper floor flat, 2. fixtures and fittings, 3. the whole rights, joint, common, mutual or exclusive therein and thereto and 4. our whole right, title and interest present and future. My neighbour downstairs is not allowing us access through his side of the garden for our window cleaner and my next door neighbour on the other side is using my garden and concrete area infront of the house to bring his wheelie bin round to the street because he has no access of his own unless he goes through his own house. I am hopeful that my title deeds say I have the whole right but am I way off beam here or is that the case? Please help, any advice gratefully received. Thank you.

Debt_Free_Chick

The part you've quoted doesn't give you any access over your neighbour's garden. However, that access may be given in another part of the title deeds. You need to read the whole thing and see if there is anything that refers to a right to pass over or through your neighbour's garden. If there is, copy it up here and we can comment.

What access do you have to your garden? From the house, only? Anything at the end of your part of the garden e.g. a gate on to an alley or other road?

suz10

There is nothing else mentioned about access in the title deeds. The garden was simply split half and half, right and left of the house. I have access to my house and garden through a gate at the front of the building and then external steps up in to my house. My downstairs neighbour has access to his property from the same part of the street, only on his side of the boundary wall instead of mine. Neither of us have any other accesses to our properties. My other neighbour who lives in an end terraced house which is on the right hand side of my house only has access to his garden from his back door. At some point many years ago, a door was put into another bit of the boundary wall through from his garden to mine and he uses this. My house is a fully detached old 3 storey house surrounded completely by boundary walls and fences which contain the garden areas. I hope this gives some more information. Thanks for taking time to reply.

Fire_Fox

Welcome to MSE!

When you purchased the property any right of way you have over others property or any right of way others have over your property should have been explained to you - what documentation do you still have from the time? If you aren't sure you are going to need a solicitor to cast an eye over your deeds, posting one bit here is not going to get you a definitive answer.

Debt_Free_Chick

suz10 wrote: »

There is nothing else mentioned about access in the title deeds. The garden was simply split half and half, right and left of the house. I have access to my house and garden through a gate at the front of the building

It's difficult to picture the layout, but if you have access to your garden, why do you need access for the windowcleaner over the neighbour's garden?

suz10

My house is surrounded by entirely by its own garden grounds which date back to when the house was still one property. When it was split into two properties, a fence was erected which divides one side of the garden from the other. This means that I can only get half way round the garden on ground level and likewise for my neighbour. He can only get half way round without either of us asking for permission to enter on to the other half of the gardens. Nothing was ever mentioned about access rights when the properties were sold because they both belonged to the education department of the local council and had been reserved for incoming teachers. It was only when dear Mrs T brought in the right to buy council houses that this became possible. I know this must sound very strange, but it's a very small village that I live in and there was a shortage of both teachers and accommodation many years ago so the council bought this very large house and split it into two flats. Again, many thanks for advice so far.

Debt_Free_Chick

OK -so your property runs the entire width of the rear of the house, but you only own one side of the garden. So half your windows look out on to the neighbour's garden and the window cleaner can't get to them. Is that it?

zzzLazyDaisy

When did you buy the property? If it is within the past 20 years (possibly longer) your deeds would have been registered at the land registry. So if you are looking at the old 'title deeds' they are now only of historical value.

The legal position is set out in the land registry documents, so your first step is to obtain a copy from the solicitor who dealt with your conveyancing or from the land registry (apologies if this is what you have already done).

If the deeds do not contain an easement giving right of way over your property, or rights of way over a neighbouring property, then there are no such rights, and you will have to make amicable arrangements, or not, as you choose.

The exception is access to neighbouring land for the purpose of essential maintenance but I doubt that a window cleaner would be classed as essential maintenance.

Hopefully Richard Webster will be along soon (or you could try pm'ing him) as he is very knowledegable about these things.

Richard_Webster

separated into one ground floor flat and one upper villa by the regional council

My title deeds say that it is disponed to me all subjects....

"Disponed" not an English legal expression. Don't know of any Regional Councils in England... Does this mean the property is in Scotland? If so I can't comment.

(I just wish MSE would have a separate property board for Scotland so we don't get this kind of confusion. I keep on about it but nobody seems to take any notice.)

G_M

Seperate forums for property rental and puchase too. They are totally different topics, with totally different issues.

zzzLazyDaisy

Hmmmm....

So maybe the first question in every thread should always be

'is this property in Scotland or E&W'

Similar problems crop up in the family and relationships board as the laws re property are also different when a relationship breaks down.