Removing an item from your deeds

Jakie123Jakie123

I have an old private right of way/easement across my back garden which I'm now looking to remove. On my deeds it states the following:

The land tinted pink on on the filed plan has the following rights granted by but is subject to the following rights reserved by a Dee of Partition dated x April 1957 made between (1) Person x and (2) Person y:-

Together with a right of foot and wheelbarrow way over the paths coloured yellow on the side plan hereto annexed Except and Reserving owners and occupiers for the the being of the said adjoining messuage known as 'Santa Isabel (which I think is what the property next door to me used to be called) aforesaid a right of way with or without motor cars and other vehicles over the road coloured green on the said plan and a right of foot and wheelbarrow way over the path coloured brown thereon

These rights are no longer used and have been fenced off shut for at least 10 years. How would I go about trying to remove this? Is it possible for me to apply on my own or would I have to use a solicitor?

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks

Mojisola

Jakie123Jakie123 wrote: »

I have an old private right of way/easement across my back garden which I'm now looking to remove. On my deeds it states the following:

The land tinted pink on on the filed plan has the following rights granted by but is subject to the following rights reserved by a Dee of Partition dated x April 1957 made between (1) Person x and (2) Person y:-

Together with a right of foot and wheelbarrow way over the paths coloured yellow on the side plan hereto annexed Except and Reserving owners and occupiers for the the being of the said adjoining messuage known as 'Santa Isabel (which I think is what the property next door to me used to be called) aforesaid a right of way with or without motor cars and other vehicles over the road coloured green on the said plan and a right of foot and wheelbarrow way over the path coloured brown thereon

These rights are no longer used and have been fenced off shut for at least 10 years. How would I go about trying to remove this? Is it possible for me to apply on my own or would I have to use a solicitor?

A right of way doesn't get extinguished through lack of use.

You would have get the agreement of the owner of the other property and pay for both sets of deeds to be altered if they are willing to give up the right of way.

Jakie123Jakie123

The adjacent property was bought by builders and converted to three flats. Presume this doesn't make any difference?

AdrianC

Jakie123Jakie123 wrote: »

The adjacent property was bought by builders and converted to three flats. Presume this doesn't make any difference?

Only that it would be the freeholder you'd need to deal with, at a minimum.
If any of the flat leases included access to the RoW, then you'd need to deal with those leaseholders, too.

Or you could ignore it, and hope nobody questions your barricading of their RoW.

moneyistooshorttomention

Mojisola wrote: »

A right of way doesn't get extinguished through lack of use.

You would have get the agreement of the owner of the other property and pay for both sets of deeds to be altered if they are willing to give up the right of way.

....and pay them compensation for losing the right of way as well. I dont suppose they would give it up for nothing.

eddddy

It might be better not to raise the topic and leave things as they are.

The neighbouring freeholder may not be aware of the RoW. If you make them aware that they're allowed to drive cars across your back garden - they might start thinking about making it an access for car parking for the flats.

moneyistooshorttomention

Jakie123Jakie123 wrote: »

The adjacent property was bought by builders and converted to three flats. Presume this doesn't make any difference?

I must admit that, in your circumstances, I would keep quiet about that right of way and hope they never realised.

I can appreciate there is rather a difference between:

a. One household having ROW and that was at a time when households probably only had one car for the household

and

b. Three households having ROW and it may well be that they are 2 car households.

Six cars potentially (or more) instead of one.

Add that if one of those householders got up to something they shouldnt (eg parking on the ROW) then it would be harder to deal with than if one household did - eg having to establish just which household was responsible for that in the first place.

Davesnave

Rights of way don't die; they must be extinguished by a deed agreed with the person or persons who would benefit from them. So, the best course here may be to stay silent.

This RoW may or may not be of potential use to others and, obviously, if it's the latter, the blocking of it is unlikely to be challenged.