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Getting permission to open access to land and to drive through private road
afm_2
Posts: 698 Forumite
Hello!
I am in need of advice regarding permission to open access to our land and to drive through a private road. I would really appreciate any help.
So this is the plan of the area concerned (please ignore the red marking as it was in the original image and couldn't get rid of it):
The blue dot shows our house, the yellow dot shows the area we want to access by car, and the green path shows the area of the private road that we would need to cross to gain access to our land.
There are hawthorn trees all the way between our land and all the adjacent houses. These trees can be removed if both sides agree that they can be removed.
We don't need planing permission to open this access as it is through private land. The road is owned by 5 households. So the advice I need is regarding how to approach these households and how to get the right of way through this road. Should I go through a solicitor or something? Should I go and speak directly to them (I'm not very good approaching people in these situations).
These households won't gain anything from letting us use their road. We know that some of them want to remove these hawthorn trees and they can only do that if we agree. We wouldn't like the trees to be cut down because they protect our fence from high winds (which can be VERY strong) and give us some privacy. However, if we had their permission to access through that side, we would obviously agree to them being removed.
We know they will approach us soon regarding the removal of the trees and we would like to offer then a fair exchange but we don't want to sound like we are "blackmailing" them. Regarding the remaining households, we are lost as what to offer them as an exchange for their agreement to give us right of way. Any ideas of how we should do this? Thank you for any help!
I am in need of advice regarding permission to open access to our land and to drive through a private road. I would really appreciate any help.
So this is the plan of the area concerned (please ignore the red marking as it was in the original image and couldn't get rid of it):
The blue dot shows our house, the yellow dot shows the area we want to access by car, and the green path shows the area of the private road that we would need to cross to gain access to our land.
There are hawthorn trees all the way between our land and all the adjacent houses. These trees can be removed if both sides agree that they can be removed.
We don't need planing permission to open this access as it is through private land. The road is owned by 5 households. So the advice I need is regarding how to approach these households and how to get the right of way through this road. Should I go through a solicitor or something? Should I go and speak directly to them (I'm not very good approaching people in these situations).
These households won't gain anything from letting us use their road. We know that some of them want to remove these hawthorn trees and they can only do that if we agree. We wouldn't like the trees to be cut down because they protect our fence from high winds (which can be VERY strong) and give us some privacy. However, if we had their permission to access through that side, we would obviously agree to them being removed.
We know they will approach us soon regarding the removal of the trees and we would like to offer then a fair exchange but we don't want to sound like we are "blackmailing" them. Regarding the remaining households, we are lost as what to offer them as an exchange for their agreement to give us right of way. Any ideas of how we should do this? Thank you for any help!
Goal: Win a car (or cash to buy one 
)! -- Haha goal from when I was a student. Never actually won this but got a good job instead.
What I achieved:
Car paid in full straightaway.
Two properties fully paid. Wohhoooo!
)! -- Haha goal from when I was a student. Never actually won this but got a good job instead.What I achieved:
Car paid in full straightaway.
Two properties fully paid. Wohhoooo!
0
Comments
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Write to them first asking for access without offering anything? You never know they might all agree without issue. Stranger things have happened!
In all likelihood one or more will agree but ask you to do something with the tress - then you're more or less where you expected to be.
As for permanent right of access, you might want to just get a solicitor's advice as I think that will need to be registered in deeds for future residents and to stop someone moving into one of the five houses later on and then denying you access.0 -
If I was one of the five I'd be looking for you to join in with the maintenance of the road and possibly more depending the the benefit to you that allowing access would bring.0
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Thank you both for your help. Some of them can gain from giving us access (with the trees out there will be much more space on their side).
Is anyone out there that knows what kind of legal stuff would have to be done? Thanks!Goal: Win a car (or cash to buy one)! -- Haha goal from when I was a student. Never actually won this but got a good job instead.
What I achieved:
Car paid in full straightaway.
Two properties fully paid. Wohhoooo!0 -
obviously you need proper legal advice but I'd be guessing the new right of access would need to be written into the deeds of all the houses concerned.
If any of the houses have mortgages you'll need the consent of the mortgage company too plus you'll need to pay all their legal costs.
I looked into something similar about ten years ago and the legal costs for three houses were expected to be £5k so probably double that now0 -
I looked into something similar about ten years ago and the legal costs for three houses were expected to be £5k so probably double that now
Wow! That much? It isn't worth it then. With that money I can buy some land to get access through the front. Thanks for letting me know that.Goal: Win a car (or cash to buy one)! -- Haha goal from when I was a student. Never actually won this but got a good job instead.
What I achieved:
Car paid in full straightaway.
Two properties fully paid. Wohhoooo!0 -
You need to check with a Solicitor and also check with Highways.0
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You need to check with a Solicitor and also check with Highways.
I've checked with the council and they say that, as it is a private road, there are no restrictions apart from getting permission from the households that own the road.Goal: Win a car (or cash to buy one)! -- Haha goal from when I was a student. Never actually won this but got a good job instead.
What I achieved:
Car paid in full straightaway.
Two properties fully paid. Wohhoooo!0 -
Having read this my issue if I were a co owner of the land would not necessarily be over your use of it to get to your property...but over the maintainence of the area.
I live on an unadopted road that it owned by 4 houses and historically it was granted that we must offer the right of passage over for other vechiles in the area who want to get to houses that have been built at a later stage around us....over the years quite a community has built up and our road now has to allow the passage of trafic for up to 100 houses.
This is all very well but our small piece of road is starting to take the strain of vechiles passing over it,and whilst permission was granted to allow access over no provison was ever made for the road maintanence....and its very possible that myself and the 3 other households will need to cover this.....
I would therefore suggest that if you do wish to cross their land that some provision for the forward maintanence is also obtainedfrugal October...£41.82 of £40 food shopping spend for the 2 of us!
2017 toiletries challenge 179 out 145 in ...£18.64 spend0 -
Having read this my issue if I were a co owner of the land would not necessarily be over your use of it to get to your property...but over the maintainence of the area.
I live on an unadopted road that it owned by 4 houses and historically it was granted that we must offer the right of passage over for other vechiles in the area who want to get to houses that have been built at a later stage around us....over the years quite a community has built up and our road now has to allow the passage of trafic for up to 100 houses.
This is all very well but our small piece of road is starting to take the strain of vechiles passing over it,and whilst permission was granted to allow access over no provison was ever made for the road maintanence....and its very possible that myself and the 3 other households will need to cover this.....
I would therefore suggest that if you do wish to cross their land that some provision for the forward maintanence is also obtained
Why don't you get it adopted by the highways agency? I'm not sure about the costs of making it "adoptable" but maybe it's worth it.
Regarding our case, no other property would use it for access as this road ends right up against our land. We wouldn't use it much because our main access is on the other side; this would be for occasional access or, if we end up having more than one car, for parking one car. We would be happy to help with maintenance as long as it was taken into account that these 5 households would use it much more than us (eg, our visitors wouldn't use it but theirs would and most households take at least 2 cars through it daily).
Say that instead of getting access through that road, we bought a bit of land from our next door neighbour (in the picture, the one situated above our house) so that a car could enter the front garden. Do we need to change the deeds? Or is it just a case of agreeing between ourselves on what the boundaries are (as title plans only show general position of the boundaries) and maybe getting some sort of legal document stating that both parties agree on the boundary? Sorry to be pain! I'm just lost as what would be the best option.Goal: Win a car (or cash to buy one)! -- Haha goal from when I was a student. Never actually won this but got a good job instead.
What I achieved:
Car paid in full straightaway.
Two properties fully paid. Wohhoooo!0 -
The adoption of the road is something that needs to be agreed by all the houses....and even though there are only a few involved...we can not come to an agreement that everyone is happy about.
You touch on a point that has been a contentious issue for at least one of our neighbours and thats over the fact that you would only want to pay a smaller portion of the maintanence of the area because you see that you wouldnt use it as much as the others.....in our situation we have a similar sticking point of one housholer not owning a car,hence not wanting to pay anything,therefore increasing the burden on the other owners....
Unless everyone is willing to share costs evenly then I think you will find it difficult to agree who pays what portion for maintainence
We have looked into having our road adopted...however again at least one neighbour is against it...therefore its not an option at present...
Its a very tricky situation you are in...although Im sure you think its a perfectly reasonable request you go to your neighbours with..im willing to bet that at least one of them will raise an objection
Flustrating....frugal October...£41.82 of £40 food shopping spend for the 2 of us!
2017 toiletries challenge 179 out 145 in ...£18.64 spend0
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