Indemnity insurance for blocked right of way

lindsay2610

Hi Everyone,

We're currently selling our house which has a right of way access along the side to the house at the back of our property. Although it's on the deeds, the rear garden is walled and has been so for nearly 60 years so it has never been used.

We didn't worry when we bought it, as we figured if it hadn't been used in all that time it was unlikely to be. But our buyer is asking us to take indemnity insurance out in case that changes in the future.

Any advice on whether we should take this out, the implications and whether there's another way around this?

Many thanks in advance!

anselld

Well the other way round it is that the buyer takes out the policy if they are worried about it.

caeler

Did you advertise the property with rear access? If yes, then I think you should pay for the indemnity to make sure your buyer can make use of said access but if you didn't then suggest they pay for it as anselld suggests. Depending on costs you might risk losing your buyer.

G_M

caeler wrote: »

Did you advertise the property with rear access? If yes, then I think you should pay for the indemnity to make sure your buyer can make use of said access but if you didn't then suggest they pay for it as anselld suggests. Depending on costs you might risk losing your buyer.

Think you are missing the point. As I understand it this is not about rear access for the owner, it is access across the owner's land by others.


OP -who is the beneficiaryof the ROW? Is it a generalpublic ROW? Or ROW for owners of neighbours? (eg a rear path for use by owners of hoses in the terrace).

Inother words, what is the likelihood of someone actually demanding you knock down the wall and allow them to walk across.....

as anselld says, either

* you pay for insurance or
* the buyer pays forinsurance or
* the buyer walks away and you find another or
* the buyer does as you did, takes a pragmatic approach and accepts that after 60 years no one is going touse the ROW

lindsay2610

Thanks for the replies. It's a right of way for the property at the rear, which is a huge house with in/out driveway and open aspect to the river. There would be absolutely no benefit to them demanding access as it's pedestrian access only, unless they were desperate to save two minutes walk. But it's the neighbour's wall which is blocking their access, not ours.

lindsay2610

I should clarify that...the house which has right of way is the house that the wall blocking said access belongs to...

G_M

So...

* Big House A has a pedestrian ROW across your land?
* Big House A built a wall, blocking their own ROW? 60 years ago?
* Big House A has not used their ROW for 60 years?
* Big House A has no clear reason to ever want to use the ROW?

:rotfl:

But let's just suppose (in the never-never-land of our minds) that :

* you bought indemnity insurance
* these buyers bought your house
* one year later, the owners of Big House A decided they wanted to use the ROW for pedestrian access

What exactly would the claim against the insurance be?...??
* The cost of removing the wall to allow access? No. The wall belongs to Big House A so they would haveto remove it, at their own cost.
* compensation for your buyers for having people walk across their land? No. Insurance does not work like that. There has to be a quantifiable financial loss.
* Just conceivably, they could claim for a loss in value of the property when they sell, as a result of having the occassional neighbour walk across this bit of their land, but Idoubt the insuers would pay out......

This is solicitors, insurance companies (and possibly mortgage lenders) gone mad.

Having said all that, you may find it is easier/cheaper to pay (£150?) for this pointless insurance than to lose your sale......