House planning on shared laneway

KarlD

Hi all,

Hope someone can help or is in the know with shared laneways.

I own some land at the end of a shared laneway. The laneway is owned by a neighbour, however i have Right of Way the whole way up and down the lane aswel as the right to maintain it (relay stones, maintain fencing both sides etc. On the deeds on the laneway it is for agricultural purposes.

What are my rights to possibly build in my land that is access via this laneway? Or does anyone know if a planning application would be halted due to the agricultural purposes?

If an standard house can not be passed due to the above, is there an option to build a farm house? (same as normal domestic house with conditions that it must be near the original farm buildings) as the laneway in question also contains farm sheds which i own.

Davesnave

If your deeds say that the lane is to provide access for agricultural purposes, that's what it's for. Using it to access/build a new residence, farmhouse or not, could not be construed as agriculture.

The local authority would probably not be interested in the detail in your rights of access for the purposes determining planning permission, but the highways department would be bound to examine whether the access is suitable and meets their criteria for new builds.

There is of course no reason why the owner of the land could not extend your rights to include access to a house, once the planning for that had been determined favourably. However, as your piece of agricultural land would then have multiplied in value ten fold or more, you should expect that person to want a share of your good fortune!

PS If you are thinking of building an agriculturally tied dwelling where there is no house at present, the local authority may grant you permission to erect a mobile home or similar in the first instance. Then, they often wait for a few years for your business to prove its viability before considering whether to grant full PP for a permanent dwelling.

KarlD

Many thanks for the reply Dave. To be honest the laneway has been around a long time (1920s). And because it is solid stoned, with fences both sides, i really don't see why it can be refused to extend explicit right of way other than stubborness. With that in mind, are there any options if the owner refuses without any reason?

andy.m_2

Yes, keep increasing your financial offer until they agree.

Strapped

KarlD wrote: »

Many thanks for the reply Dave. To be honest the laneway has been around a long time (1920s). And because it is solid stoned, with fences both sides, i really don't see why it can be refused to extend explicit right of way other than stubborness. With that in mind, are there any options if the owner refuses without any reason?

Speak to your neighbour and offer him £££s. You're unlikely to get it for free. (Although having said that, we have two houses behind us where the "top" house has a ROW across the "bottom" house's drive, explicitly for access to a domestic dwelling only, and they run a business from the top house, with lorries passing daily, and the bottom house has never been able to stop them, despite their best efforts!)

KarlD

This may sound stupid, but what IF they refused anyway? Even if I gave them a good offer and they didn't want it. Tough luck?

Davesnave

KarlD wrote: »

This may sound stupid, but what IF they refused anyway? Even if I gave them a good offer and they didn't want it. Tough luck?

Depends. If they had the knowledge and/or the money, they could probably serve you with an injunction for breaking the terms of your access agreement. This might prove costly if you ignored it. Once the courts are involved, the main winners will be the lawyers, of course.

And then there are the country ways of righting perceived wrongs....but I'm not going there! :rotfl: