Maintenance of property boundaries?

KaratePigeon

Hello,
We bought and moved into our house about 6 months ago, it's an end terrace. There is, like I assume with most terrace houses, a walkway around the side of our house to allow our neighbours access to their back gardens. The thing is, the path is poorly defined, we have a low wall around our garden, but the other side of the 'access path' is all overgrown hedgerow/brambles.

We aren't really sure where the line of our property is, it wasn't that clear from the deeds and when we asked the people we bought the house from they didn't know either. It just says something about it's our responsiblity to keep the access clear. I don't know if it's just this time of year but lately we are really struggling to keep the foliage cut back! We are a working family with young children, i.e. very little spare time or spare money, so finding it really hard to keep on top of, and not possible to pay someone to do it. There's a lot of stingy nettles and thorns too which my toddler keeps catching herself on

So who owns the bit of land, is it the council? Is there any chance they would be sympathetic, or even obliged to cut it back? If not, are we allowed to cut it down so that it won't grow back (not sure how we'd do that though?) I'm not sure how bothered the neighbours are, it's rare that anyone uses the path but they occasionally do.

Similarly, the pavement outside the front of our house is really badly uneven - it's like brick paving but has sunk in random places so is actually quite dangerous as a trip hazard - is it likely to be our responsiblity to maintain it?

Thanks for any advice

Hintza

I doubt it will be the council. Is it bothering you? If not I would be inclined to let you neighbours sort it out, it is after all their access. If it was me and I felt I had to do something then a decent set of shears and some weedkiller a two or three times a year. Try to keep on top of it and it shouldn't become a marathon.

Mojisola

KaratePigeon wrote: »

Hello,
We bought and moved into our house about 6 months ago, it's an end terrace. There is, like I assume with most terrace houses, a walkway around the side of our house to allow our neighbours access to their back gardens. The thing is, the path is poorly defined, we have a low wall around our garden, but the other side of the 'access path' is all overgrown hedgerow/brambles.

This kind of arrangement is usually a right of way across land you own - is there anything on your deeds or the neighbours' deeds about a ROW?

If it is a ROW then your neighbours have rights - one of them is for their use of the ROW not to be impeded. Overgrowth of plants would count so it may be your duty to keep it clear.

If it is a ROW, your solicitor should have made this clear to you before you agreed to buy the property.

notrouble

The starting point is your Title deeds, and those of your neighbours.

Ideally this would establish who owns the access path, and who has Right Of Way along it. It may well also establish who has responsibility for maintenance.

However, it is possible this is not clearly stated (especially if the prooerty is old and the rights extand back decades or more).

But I assume you are only referring to the part of the access path beside/behind your property? The path then presumaby continues behind each house in the terrace, with each owner being responsible for their 'section'?

In which case surely the easiest solution is to get together with the neighbours and employ a contractor once a month (or every few months) to cut back the growth and share the bill?

Pavement is (normally) the council responsibility. Go online and their website will probobly have a page for reporting dodgy pavements!

keystone

This ^^

Cheers

KaratePigeon

Thanks everyone, the overgrown section is only alongside our house at the side, at the back there is helpfully a fence which keeps the path clear. The neighbours haven't complained but I'm sure at some point they will want to use it.

The houses are about 30 years old so the deeds aren't too ancient, just poor photocopies of the diagrams which are meant to show your boundaries.

I will ring the council about the pavement and mention the trees at the same time.

cootuk

If the overgrown stuff has roots on the path then clear it, maybe use a total weedkiller to knock it back to keep it under control.
If it's growing from an adjoining property and falling over the path, then that owner should clear the overhang, or you cut it and return the cuttings to them.
I would be wary of creating a little haven where teens can congregate and drink lager etc though.

jfdi

What's on the other side of the path? (the one down the side).

If the bushes technically line that side of the path, like your low wall does your side, then surely the land/house owner that side is responsible for clearance?

KaratePigeon

The other side is just a sloping grass field, this does get maintained as I see people coming to mow the grass, I assume this is council?

there is about 20 feet of trees/bushes etc between the side of our garden and the field.