Right of way covenant

loanranger_4

We have seen a property we really like which a right of way covenant over next doors land. The property next door has a drive onto the main road, the property we are interested in has a right of way covenant for entry into and out of the premises using this drive (i.e there is no other way to get to the main road on foot or by car).

Having read some of the aticles on this board about avoiding houses with right of way covenants, but this was when they had access through the back garden, however what if the covenant is your *ONLY* means of access to your property and you would be land locked without it ?

The vendor's solictor and the estate agent assure me that this is pretty common and there is nothing to worry about ? Should I be worried?

sarah1

Well Loanranger, i think the best looked into really closely.
If you were ever to have a fall out with your neighbours (which i hope you don't) i think they could make this really awkward for you if they wanted to.It's not just your neighbour that you have to look at, What if they sell and you don't get on with the new people???. And you say that the vendors' solicitor and estate agent say's it's ok, they do not have to live there. Do they? You will have to live with this not them.
Another thing which is probably furthest from your mind is when you come to sell, 'your' buyer will have this quandry. It's always going to be like this.
My advice is think very hard do you think this is something that you want to live with for say 10years ?????

loanranger_4

Sarah1 many thanks for your feedback

What infuriates me is that estate agent marketed the property as 'you own half the drive', however when I checked this out I found that the property next door owned the whole drive !

Our concern with the property would center around potential neighbourly disputes, or they might sell to a developer or even construct a wall between the two properties ! This would severely affect the value of the property we have seen. I'm going to ask the vendor to confirm that there have been no neighbourly disputes since they have lived there.

But with this issue being one of the ones on the foremost on our minds I assume this will continue as long as we live there!

I would assume that in such situations is there a mark down for the property?