Easement problem

Norman_Castle

Proving ownership is the key. I would pay the £400 and expect to stay there for a while.

I would also mark your territory. Metal spikes with wire between them will do.

rosyw

So - you own the path,which gives rear access to your property, simples - but a fence up!
Just because the path is shown on his plans doesn't mean he owns it, anyone can apply for permission to build - even if they don't own the land! A friend had a similar problem recently, luckily she was home at the time the people developing the site behind her house were about to remove some trees - HER trees on HER land! work was halted while deeds were checked etc., a meeting with the developers soon had the matter sorted, the trees and the land they are on will be fenced off at the developers expense, matter closed.

Davesnave

glentoran99 wrote: »

I don't understand this part, If the path is yours then there is no need to tell your buyer otherwise surely?

One has to declare any disputes, even late in the day. Otherwise, the problem might come back with teeth and bite one on the bum.

AnotherUserName

Absolutely, when moving house nowadays one has to declare 'everything', even anything that detracted from your enjoyment of living there. If there is a dog barking in the area and you don't declare it, you can be sued by the buyer. If you do declare it then the barking dog has probably wiped £10k off the value of your house. Same for noisy neighbours, parties, or anything else.
If you even think that you might sell one day, the best thing to do is report barking dogs etc to the council, and get the problem eradicated before going to market. Under the Data Protection Act the council will not reveal the nature of any complaints without a court order, so any complaints made are not revealed. I was told this by the council when I had a problem at the last place I lived in.
In my case, I openly declared the new build next door at the outset, and that the builder may be interested in negotiating a shared pathway, which was indeed the situation when I made the statement. If it had been left that way they would probably have completed the purchase. The builder is not the sharpest tool in the shed, so sent the email claiming the path completely. The buyer disappeared, the whole chain collapsed (one of whom had signed up to buy a new build) and we were all left with financial loss.
The people that I was buying from who had committed to their new build purchase even offered to pay for easement insurance and a property warranty on my sale, but even that didn't work.

jellie

Do you have legal cover with your house insurance?

AnotherUserName

House legal cover, as I discovered, is not quite what it seems. Within the small print is a paragraph that innocently states that protection of my property is my responsibility. Reading this one would assume that quite rightly, I am responsible for physically protecting my property. When I contacted the insurance company for legal assistance they pointed to this and told me that what it really means is that I cannot use the cover to sue anyone else. In my case they basically told me that the cover did not apply. I am guessing that a lot of people don't discover this until they try and use it.
Coughing up £400+vat, so £500, to get a statement from a surveyor that will only state what is in the deeds, but that does not grant me any magical powers to get rid of the spurious claim, would be money down the drain. He can carry on doing this regardless. I need to establish a cast iron way to get rid of his claim.

Rosieandjim

Can you confirm that if you pay the 400 pound you would then have proof that the path belongs to you alone and not shared with your other neighbour.


It is a bit confusing can you post a picture of how this path sits between you and your neighbour?

loveka

Ok, so this is really a boundary dispute? He has no easement over the path?

I have been where you are with a boundary dispute. Sadly, the one who digs their heels in , and has the deepest pockets wins. Our new neighbour insisted he owned an 8inch strip of our back garden. He had absolutely no proof, the g arden was fenced off. The fence had been there, defining our garden, for 25 years. Still he insisted the land was his. A complete utter nightmare ensued. Our solicitor told us to give in, even though we were in the right, because there was no guarantee that a court would award costs.
House insurance wouldn't help because the value of the land was less than the potential legal fees to retain it.

So, he got his land, destroyed our garden in the process, and now we are moving from the house we love because we can't bear living near him.

We will have to declare the dispute. Our buyer might drop out because of it- although we are hoping not, as the new boundary is now a solid wall of his extension.

We were advised to try to sort it out with him without going to court, which we did. Basically, the law allows bullying in this way.

Cakeguts

What I don't understand is if the path is entirely on your plot why isn't it fenced off from his plot. How did he know it was there? Lots of people have paths going down the side of their houses but they tend to be behind garden fences if they are entirely on their own land. As long as the people who do have the right to use can even if they don't want to there shouldn't be anyway that someone else can just decide that they have the right if it appears to be a garden path.

AnotherUserName

@Loveka. Sadly your story is all too common. The UK Boundary Law is an absolute minefield. I have been studying it for 8 months, and in doing so came across all of the issues that people such as yourself face. The biggest mistake that people make is that a fence defines a boundary. Quite simply it doesn't define anything at all. They assume that the Land Registry plans that can be downloaded show where boundaries are. They don't, they are General Boundaries, they are only an indication of where a boundary 'might' be.
I have read through Crown Court cases, and case law. Some people have spent hundreds of thousands on Boundary claims and defence.
There are sites on the web that provide details of what can be taken into consideration by a court when deciding where a boundary lies. These include hedges, walls, trees, paths etc. Eg A physical object.
The Land registry does not, and will not, play any part in deciding where a boundary lies, they only record what is presented to them. Anyone can dispute anything at any time, apart from a Defined Boundary.
The evidence that I have is fortunately backed up from numerous sources, however, having read up on the issues, nothing, nothing at all, decides where a boundary iies. The decision, in the event of a dispute is either a judge in court at a boundary tribunal, or an agreement between neighbours, that is then cast in stone via a Defined Boundary, lodged at the Land Registry. That route requires surveys etc.
You are correct, Boundary Law encourages bullying, and blackmail. It is unique in UK Legislation in that respect.