Grass Verge

joe427

If there is a grass verge between the front of the house, and the main highway. The boundary plans show the boundary stops at the front of the house (not on the grass verge) with a dotted line showing a public footpath running across in front of the house but before the verge. Planning permission (from the local council) was then granted to construct a driveway across the grass verge (and public footpath) to the front of the property, but the boundary still does not include the new driveway.

Who do you think would own the drive way?

anselld

Just because you have tarmacked part of the public footpath does not mean you own it. As stated in you post, the boundary has not changed.

foxwales

The owner of the property owns the land the driveway sits upon up to the boundary, thereafter the land is public.

Just because the drive sits upon public land beyond the boundary, does not absolve the owner of the property the responsibility to maintain and repair the driveway; this does not change the boundary of the property.

G_M

foxwales wrote: »

The owner of the property owns the land the driveway sits upon up to the boundary, thereafter the land is public.

???? Just because the owner got planning permission does not make the land his.

I'm a little unclear of the set-up:

The boundary "stops at the front of the house". So you open the front door and step out, onto land you do not own (ie the public footpath acrodd the grass verge? Correct?

And the drive is just on the grass verge, but leading nowhere. ie you cannot drive the car across the verge onto your own land (since there is no land belonging to the property between the house and the verge - no front garden)?

The driveway is still owned by whoever owned it before (when it was a grass verge. The local authority?

foxwales

G_M wrote: »

???? Just because the owner got planning permission does not make the land his.

I'm a little unclear of the set-up:

The boundary "stops at the front of the house". So you open the front door and step out, onto land you do not own (ie the public footpath acrodd the grass verge? Correct?

And the drive is just on the grass verge, but leading nowhere. ie you cannot drive the car across the verge onto your own land (since there is no land belonging to the property between the house and the verge - no front garden)?

The driveway is still owned by whoever owned it before (when it was a grass verge. The local authority?

I think you either lost your ability to understand or your reading glasses.

G_M

foxwales wrote: »

I think you either lost your ability to understand or your reading glasses.

Quite likely. Maybe both.

But I still can't really visualise the set up. Think I'll move on...

monty-doggy

Sounds like my mums house she has a front garden and a gated drive, but between the road and her drive there is a grass verge, which part of it has been concreted to extend the driveway to the road, leaving a square of grass either side. My mum doesn't own the land but she maintains it, including mowing the grass and general maintenance.

If it's the lead up to your home why wouldn't you maintain it?

joe427

foxwales wrote: »

I think you either lost your ability to understand or your reading glasses.

:rotfl: very good

Thanks for the answers. So we got:

House
Small front Garden
Boundary stops
Small public footpath (shown as a dotted line on boundary plan)
Grass verge
Small public footpath
Highway

So from highway to where boundary stops, is 52 foot. This area, the public footpaths and grass verge has been replaced by tarmac creating a "cross over" to the front of the property, aka a driveway. The driveway cost £x thousand pounds to put in tarmac, and the property owners think they own it. Yet its not on boundary plans, the local searches did not know who owned it and the solicitor raised it as an enquiry to request paperwork which the owner does not have. So we are now looking at indemnity insurance to cover ourselves.

DTDfanBoy

joe427 wrote: »

So we are now looking at indemnity insurance to cover ourselves.

Imdemnity from what ?


The vast majority of the population who has a driveway doesn't own the land under all of it, what's the problem.


I think you'll find that the highway actually stops at your boundary BTW

G_M

DTDfanBoy wrote: »

Imdemnity from what ?


The vast majority of the population who has a driveway doesn't own the land under all of it, what's the problem.


I think you'll find that the highway actually stops at your boundary BTW

Quite.

There are 10s of 000s of properties (the vast majority!) where in order to get from the road to the house it is necessary to walk and/or drive across a public pavement and/or verge.

The home owner does not own the pavement/verge.

Debt_Free_Chick

joe427 wrote: »

:rotfl: very good

Thanks for the answers. So we got:

House
Small front Garden
Boundary stops
Small public footpath (shown as a dotted line on boundary plan)
Grass verge
Small public footpath
Highway

So from highway to where boundary stops, is 52 foot. This area, the public footpaths and grass verge has been replaced by tarmac creating a "cross over" to the front of the property, aka a driveway. The driveway cost £x thousand pounds to put in tarmac, and the property owners think they own it. Yet its not on boundary plans, the local searches did not know who owned it and the solicitor raised it as an enquiry to request paperwork which the owner does not have. So we are now looking at indemnity insurance to cover ourselves.

Here's how the setup appears to me.

The seller only owns that part of the driveway which is on his land. The driveway has been built on his land and then also across the public footpaths and verge.

It's likely that the footpaths & verge are "owned" by Highways. My next port of call would be the Highways department of the County Council to confirm this.

Of course, this is just speculation on my part based on my understanding of the situation, but if you talk to Highways it will either confirm or eliminate this.