Neighbour & land query

dwill1503

We own a property that is second to last on a row of terraces. When we bought the house, there was access through the bottom of the next door neighbours garden into ours (there was an old gate in place. As we had young children, we told the neighbours we would be replacing the gate & panel with just one fence panel.

Two years ago we moved out of the property and changed it to buy-to-let but at around the same time - the neighbours erected a shed infront of the fence panel - they didn't approach us to ask if it was ok or as to our intentions in the future. We moved out and didn't say anything.

We are now about to sell the house so we need to know whether we ask them to remove the shed (reallisticly we wouldn't want to do this) or do we get the deeds changed (at their cost) but would this effect the house price? Or do we just make them aware we are going to sell the house and that the new owners may wish to have access back.

Thank you

Dr._Shoe

It all depends on whether you have a legal right of access (right of way) or whether the neighbour allowed access to your previous owners as a matter of courtesy. As the access was only to your property and not to all of them then I doubt you have any rights at all and it was just a courtesy. If this is the case you do not ask them to remove the shed nor do you ask them to pay to change your deeds!

If the former then they should not have erected the shed in the first place, if the latter then you cannot do anything other than to ask them if they would be kind enough to restore the courtesy if they didn't mind, please.

I'm thinking (so I'm likely to be wrong LOL!) that it should say on your deeds if you have a right of way across your neighbour's garden. Speak to your neighbour, they may have sited the shed with the idea that they may, at some time in the future, be asked to move it. Failing that they may be prepared to allow access at another point along the fenceline. If you have a good relationship with them and they're easy going you shouldn't have a problem. I am guessing at your tone and the way you were debating whether to ask (demand?) that they move the shed or pay to have your deeeds altered that you have a small degree of animosity or you simply do not know them.

I doubt it will have any bearing whatsoever on the house price because terrace house owners generally expect not to have access to the rear of the property

System

I would think that removing the gate and replacing it with a fixed panel could be considered as you abandoning your right of way, especially as you took no action when the shed was erected.

moneyistooshorttomention

!!!!!! wrote: »

I would think that removing the gate and replacing it with a fixed panel could be considered as you abandoning your right of way, especially as you took no action when the shed was erected.

I certainly think it would have been entirely reasonable of the neighbours to assume that the fact you had blocked your own "right of way" like that meant you had given it up and act accordingly (ie do what I pleased in my own back garden).

You've obviously managed fine without taking access over someone else's garden for all this time and, if you try and enforce any "rights" you have (if there are any to be enforced) then you could have a neighbourhood dispute on your hands (thus making it harder to sell your house).

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Rolandtheroadie

Whats the arrangements at the other end of the terrace between second last and last house?

Round here theres some blocks of 4. The middle 2 houses can cross through their neighbours garden for access.

That'll be set in stone.

If theres no others in the terrace with gates to a neighbour, I'd assume it was a personal arrangement at some point in time.

I'd leave it as is and say nothing.

dwill1503

Thank you all. The access is marked as a footpath on the deeds to our house. There was a footpath originally through their garden. We are happy not to mention anything but it will no doubt be discovered by the buyer & their surveyor.

We told the neighbours we were erecting the fence & did say that we might want the gate back when the children were older. In hindsight we realise we should have said something when the shed went up.

Davesnave

Some of the advice others have given above is wrong. A right of way is not normally extinguished by non-use.

Besides the footpath on the plan, what does the written part of your title documents say about the access?

If you have a right of way recorded in the title, then your choice to close the fence for a while, doesn't alter that one jot.

As to whether the lack of a rear entrance will lower the value of the property, I have a suspicion that it might, most people preferring to have one for convenience.

However, there is also a school of thought which sees a rear access as a security risk, and whether this is imaginary or real, it can affect people's behaviour. The best of both worlds is probably an access through someone else's overlooked garden, such as you may have, terminating in a hard-to-climb 6' gate.

Afterthought:

If your title says there's an access, and your neighbour has plonked a shed on it, prospective purchasers may draw certain conclusions about the neighbour and your relationship with them. They might even make a restoration of the access a condition of purchase. I would.

moneyistooshorttomention

The thing about making "restoration of access" a condition of purchase is that:

a. It would be so much easier for OP to sell to someone else who wasn't saying that, so any would-be purchaser who tried to insist on that might find their bid for the house rejected in favour of an "easier" buyer.

b. There would certainly be a battle with the neighbour if an attempt were made to "restore access" and that battle could go as far potentially as engagement of solicitors/going to court/etc to settle it. Not a good idea to take on that hassle and potential expense. If the neighbours were going to happily go along with relocating their shed, then they wouldn't have put it there in the first place.

If you see the neighbours making sure they have an outside tap and hosepipe, then be prepared for them (coincidentally of course....) deciding to use that hosepipe to water the garden just when anyone tried to use any "restored access".

Some people would prefer not to have back access, due to those security risks. I tend to be one of them and it was certainly one of the compromises on buying my last house that I had to put up with having a back gate with access to a lane (that other people could - and did - walk up too). It was a compromise on my current house to know its physically possible for strangers to easily walk into my garden if they choose to and I'm having to make it plain its my garden (but that won't deter any burglars having a spree locally unfortunately if they decide to trespass).

Seronera

I also think you are now required to declare the right of access to a potential purchaser as you have unintentionally made it a potential source of dispute by blocking it.

Im afraid your correct course of action is to ask your solicitor to write to your neighbour politely informing them they have blocked an established right of way and that it has to be restored. The new owners may sue you if they find you have left them a ticking time bomb and not drawn their attention to the blocked right of way, which is theirs by right. I know I would be pretty upset if I bought a house with a blocked right of access and had not been informed of it by the seller.

I live in a similarly delicate situation in a terrace of four 1880 houses, and the golden rule is that you never give up rights of way or allow them to be impeded. We all understand and respect the rights of others and so far these rights have been understood and accepted

Your decision to erect a fence does not eliminate the right of way and your neighbour is trying it on. I strongly advise you not to get involved personally, but leave it to your selling solicitor to sort out diplomatically and legally. You have to inform your solicitor.

I personally think you need to restore the gate. If there are security concerns the put a lock on it unless others have a right of way over your property. In our case all owners have a right of way round the terrace of four. It cannot be blocked

moneyistooshorttomention

Another way of looking at that would be to tell prospective purchasers that there used to be "right of access" (assuming that is LEGALLY the case, rather than just having been a favour granted), but that you yourself blocked it up.

Then tell them that, technically-speaking, that "right of access" still exists and ask them whether they want you to attempt to restore it or no, rather than just getting on and upsetting the neighbours when next owner might not even require it.

Times have changed since many of these houses were built. Back when they were built people didn't have the expectation that "A back garden is private...end of" that most of us have these days and were probably not so concerned (if concerned at all) at the thought of finding strangers in their garden. These days most of us don't expect that.

Dan-Dan

No one is going to give up these rights , at least , they shouldnt if they want to keep maximum value of their property intact