Rights of way law on a house

discat11

Agree -you need to make your position crystal clear and in writing if you go ahead with the sale.
Might it be worth simply selling the strip of land to the neighbour?

caprikid1

3M Square ? Taking liberties ?


I suspect there has just been a neighbourly discussion and everyone was happy. I thank god you are not moving next to me , you sound like the neighbour from hell. "Taking Liberties " !!!!!!.

zaax

Run away. ROW's are a nightmare, and can last for decades. Either the vendor corrects it or move on.

Mojisola

tomodo99 wrote: »

Because the access road is not very wide , he would have had to build his garage further back thus taking up more of his own land so that he had room to turn in.

That's what everyone else on the street has done. the garage is built right up to the access road ( the edge of his boundary ) with the door facing to the side over my land. Takes up about 3 metres square or so

caprikid1 wrote: »

I suspect there has just been a neighbourly discussion and everyone was happy. I thank god you are not moving next to me , you sound like the neighbour from hell. "Taking Liberties " !!!!!!.

You'd rather live next door to a neighbour who has preserved his own garden by building his garage so that he has to use next door's garden instead?

Davesnave

Mojisola wrote: »

You'd rather live next door to a neighbour who has preserved his own garden by building his garage so that he has to use next door's garden instead?

This is what I was concerned about.

However, none of us knows about the relationship between these two neighbours, or exactly when and how this arrangement came about, so I was keeping an open mind. People who get on well do each other favours....and sometimes regret it!

As an aside:
My next door neighbour drives over my front garden. Where they drive is about 25m from my house, but until around 2001 it was only about 5m from the windows. Goodness knows why, but they agreed to move the access and no paperwork followed. The result is that they can no longer reach their own garage! The paperwork is there now. I insisted on it before purchase.

moneyistooshorttomention

Getting the vendor to sort things out prior to purchase does have the virtue of being able to truthfully say "I haven't had any dispute". There might very well have BEEN a dispute - but its the previous owner who had it and not OP.

I still cant get my head round how on earth some neighbours can have the mindset that its okay for them to use someone else's property.

The thing that astonishes me most about it is that one obviously assumes that if one is doing the neighbour a favour (however much it isn't by choice) that the neighbour will do favours back. "Give and take". But every time I've tried to work out what my awful neighbours were giving back to previous owner of my house in response for what they were "taking" I've drawn a blank. It all seemed to be just one way. Previous owner gave and they took.

Vectis

Having owned a previous property with a RoW across our land, my advice would be to walk away. You may think everything is fine now but in the future it may not be, especially in the circumstances you describe where the neighbour has stupidly built their garage so that they have to drive across your land to access it.

Neighbours who have this attitude (why didn't they build their garage further back on their own land so that they could turn in?) are only going to cause other problems in the future. You can almost guarantee this.

Walk away, now. Other properties without these problems are available. Honestly, you're just setting yourself up for hassle in the future if you go through with it.

princeofpounds

Agree with Vectis.


We don't know yet whether there is truly a ROW.


Normally it would be in the deeds of either property if there was. It's possible one exists through long term use. Perhaps one has been legally established in documents that are not recorded in the deeds yet.


However, it's possible that there is no ROW. If the neighbour has been using the access 'under license' (i.e. with explicit permission of the owner) then one would not have been established even through long term use. Or it might have been used without permission but not for long enough to claim the right exists.


But if there is no ROW, then you are faced with what kind of person the neighbour is. They might be someone who is prepared to bully and lie their way to gain access. Or they might have been given permission but will now be disappointed or even angry it will be withdrawn.


The only situation I would consider proceeding in is if evidence of a ROW was found (so you know the neighbour has been acting properly in all respects) AND you are happy with it existing.

Dan-Dan

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Thats just what you need when moving into a house, an immediate legal dispute with the neighbour !

Standard Money response sadly

TBagpuss

get the sellers to sort it before you go ahead.
The neighbours may well have (or be in a position to seek) prescriptive rights. If the sellers sort it by granting a formal RoW or by selling the relavant 3m2 to the neighbours you can then decide whether theet, in your view, reduces the value of the property and if so you can negotiate a different price.