Right of Access

jessicad789

Hello,

We are looking to buy an end of terrace property and have noticed that the property has a gate (told by agent that this is only to allow neighbours to put the bins out via the back gardens), except we've been to 2 viewings now and both times we have seen the neighbour walk through the garden just to get to his garage which is near the property on the main road.

We decided to request the title deeds to check this out and have done research on right of ways (ROW) to see if we are allowed to fence of the ROW. The deeds contain the following wording which isn't clear:

A. Property section:
With a right of access to and from the subjects in this Title along with the adjacent proprietors by the entrance on the west boundary tinted blue on the Title Plan.

There are no comments made in section D. Burdens.

Q1 - is a ROW the same as a right of access?
Q2 - Can we put a fence around the right of access?
Q3 - Could we remove the access they have all together and put a fence where the gate is?

Person_one

If you remove the access how will your neighbours get their bins in and out? The wording seems pretty clear to me, your neighbours can go to and from their houses through your garden via the bit of the boundary that's marked blue on the plan. You could put a gate up, but your neighbours would have to be able to open it and get through still.

Its really common for terraced houses to have common access like this. If its not something you can live with you might want to look for a different kind of property or a terraced with an alley at the back for bins/access.

smallholdingsister

Be very wary. If the right of way is not very restrictive and you live next to someone with untreated mental health issues as I did, the neighbour can use it all day every day and there will be nothing you can do.

G_M

jessicad789 wrote: »

Hello,



Q1 - is a ROW the same as a right of access?
Q2 - Can we put a fence around the right of access?
Q3 - Could we remove the access they have all together and put a fence where the gate is?

Q1 - broadly yes, but in both cases you have to read the precise wording. You have quoted a brief resume held on the Title which is a quote from another document
Q2 - No
Q3 - No

bobobski

Are you asking whether you may interfere with someone else's legal rights? Clearly no...

PasturesNew

The ROW that exists, as you put it "to put his bins out", is a ROW that exists for probably any purpose the neighbour (and their visitors) choose to use it for, so long as it is of the type of activity in the documents. That is: it's not for putting the bins out, it's for getting from his back garden to the roadway, to visit the chip van, get to/from his garage, put his bins in/out, remove his garden rubbish out, receive visitors to his back garden/door.

A ROW is rarely for a defined purpose (putting the bins out), but for a type of action "on foot".

At best you'd be able to prohibit him riding his motorbike up the back alley if he decided to buy one and park it in his garden .... as it's a "motor vehicle", although you'd look churlish if he was always pushing it there/back.

If, say, you put a fence instead of a gate there ... he'd be perfectly within his rights to remove your fence... and if you did it again, he could legitimately climb over using a step ladder ..... because he has that RIGHT in writing.

When you say "fence it off" - it's unclear what you mean. If, say, the gate was 20' from your back window and he trots along the bottom of your garden, there's nothing to stop you putting up a fence so you can't see him doing it, but you cannot fence it in any way that prohibits him from using it. He has the RIGHT to use it - and to use that specific route.

jessicad789

Thank you all for your comments, i didn't expect a response so quickly!

The gate is next to the house, so when he walks by its inches from the slightly elevated kitchen window. By fence off I mean fence off the garden so he can still get by the house but if we're in the garden he cannot see us?

We went direct to the scottish land registry as the owner has no documentation and this is the wording we received:

Date of First Registration: 04/04/2012
Date Title Sheet updated
to: 09/03/2015 Hectarage Code: 0
Real Right: OWNERSHIP
Together with a right in common with the other and adjacent
proprietors to the drains chimneys stalks, gables, soil, water and other pipes and other
services so far as those are common and mutual to the subjects in this Title and the
other and adjacent subjects; Together also with a right of access to and from the
subjects in this Title along with the adjacent proprietors by the entrance on the west
boundary tinted blue on the Title Plan.

I can't add a picture but its an end of terrace with access from a gate and path nearest the house.

Should i be worried about the lack of wording?

Davesnave

smallholdingsister wrote: »

Be very wary. If the right of way is not very restrictive and you live next to someone with untreated mental health issues as I did, the neighbour can use it all day every day and there will be nothing you can do.

Or they can do what someone in our little town does and sign-up their garden as part of the Open Gardens for charity.

Then you can 'enjoy' several hundred nosy people traipsing through on one Sunday in August every year!:rotfl:

jessicad789

We really love the house and we don't mind the access. We are just wanting to do more research on what we are allowed and not allowed to do to make the house/garden more private and secure.

Our thoughts were to fence off the garden (not the path) and put a lock on the gate by the road (key provided to neighbours).

G_M

jessicad789 wrote: »

Our thoughts were to fence off the garden (not the path) and put a lock on the gate by the road (key provided to neighbours).

As explained, you can do what you like on your own land, so yes, put up a fence round your garden for privacy privided it is inside the area of the ROW. And provided it does not obstruct the ROW.

A lock is a possibility but do not do this unless you first get the agreement of all those with a ROW. One or more of them might, of course, object - eg if they have children and do not want to have to give each child a key, which they might lose, but without which they'd be unable to get in via the ROW.

Hedgehog99

Toxic when it comes to selling. Unless there's an amazing USP about the house that you really want, I'd avoid it.