Access rights

tiernsee

We are looking at a property which is down a little lane off a residential road. We like it a lot but have found out that the last sale fell through because of access issues. Wondered if anyone had any experience of this, I thought if you had a property you had to legally have the right to access it (it is freehold).

Ive gone back to the seller and asked for more details, and they have advised that they previously had rights to use the lane but these ran out some years ago and they didnt realise until they came to move but they have carried on accessing it for many years after this date. It is with their solictors to sort.

I hadnt come across this before and wondered if there was any advice from the forum. Aren't there any automatic rights of access after a certain number of years of unfettered access? I have told them that we would not be able to progress until this issue is sorted so I suppose I will just have to wait and see what happens!

Thanks

G_M

There may be automatic rght of access after x years, but of course if the person who owns the lane disputes this, denies access, and/or demands a payment for access, you could end up (as a last resort) having to use the courts to resolve the dispute.

Far better to get the acess clarified from the start. As it will depend on various specific circumstances, we cannot advise in regard to your particular case.

If you are using a conveyancer, he/she will advise you.

If you are doing the conveyancing yourself, I suggest this is the time to stop, and bring in a professional.

PasturesNew

There is no right to access. To get from the road to the house somebody will own the land and some people will have access across that route, by foot and/or on car - and it'll all be written down somewhere ... and if it's not then there is no access.

You can find out who owns the land and try to get that access, but that's something the owners should really do if they want to sell it.

You need to be up front with the owners and say "This is an issue - can you let me know what the situation is"

Cakeguts

This will have to be sorted out by the seller so until they do that no one will want to buy this property because they can't get to it.

You don't get automatic access to a property just because you have bought it. If you buy a property that is completely landlocked and has no access rights that is your problem.

There may not be a quick and simple solution to this problem but the seller can't give access rights to you if he doesn't have any himself.

Might be a good idea to look for a different property. The seller in this case needs to get his access problem sorted out before he tries to sell his house.

G_M

For more, see

http://www.inbrief.co.uk/land-law/right-to-roam/

http://www.trethowans.com/site/library/legalnews/houses_with_no_legal_access_defective_common_land_searches

moneyistooshorttomention

G_M wrote: »

For more, see

http://www.inbrief.co.uk/land-law/right-to-roam/

http://www.trethowans.com/site/library/legalnews/houses_with_no_legal_access_defective_common_land_searches

Your second link doesnt work G_M.

loveka

It sounds like the owners of the property have a right of way, if it has been used for a certain amount of years- I think it's 12 but check.

A right of way doesn't have to be written down to exist. I have such a right of way- not documented anywhere but has been being used for over 100 years!

The garden law forum will help.

3mph

We bought an old farmhouse which had a track about 200m long across National Trust Land. When we sold it we had to get statements from the previous owner to show that they and of course us had used it without challenge. When we bought it our solicitor had not done this and I was not aware of the problem then. When we sold some years later our buyer had had this problem of access with a previous house so they were red hot to get it all sorted before buying.

Since the previous owner, who we bought it from was a retired High Court Judge, then there wasn't any queries.

tom9980

These issues are notoriously complex.

My in laws own an old mill house built roughly 1800 it served the local farms who all had various track's to the property.

The property itself is landlocked and approx 1 mile from public roads with various farms owning the land all around it.

There are maps 150 years old with tracks marked on it in various directions.

They have used one route for 30 years and the owner before them used that same route for 40+ years. This route is approx 50% stone the middle section is literally a field, it probably once had some stone and was used by horse and cart. I suspect it was ploughed in during the war.

The owner of the land doesn't dispute right of access but refuses to allow them to reinstate a road/track despite map evidence suggesting it was definitely a track.

There is no evidence of the track or right of way on the property deeds.

The deeds for other properties are not registered on the Land registry.

The loss of value without defined access is a six figure sum.

Going to court is costly and the solicitor (a specialist) suggests the outcome is uncertain.

Basically these types of properties are a big headache in this case the solution is to spend 60-100k purchasing land and constructing a new road in another direction.

G_M

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Your second link doesnt work G_M.

Thanks - sorry.

Anyone interested can find it (and further links) by using their favourate search engine. That's all I did!

ProDave

This bit puzzles me "they previously had rights to use the lane but these ran out some years ago"

That is most unusual.

Did they have a right of access for a defined time and that time has run out? never heard of that one.

Did they have right of access subject to paying a proportion of the maintenance and didn't pay so the right of access was withdrawn?

You need to start with what right of access used to exist, and find out why it no longer exists.