Advice on parking rights on an unadopted land

Deastons

I used to live on an unadopted road. The houses all agreed to club together and get a company to resurface the road and, on the day, a random car had parked on the road meaning they couldn't carry out the work.

We phoned the police, they arrived and that's when we learnt there was literally nothing we could do - as the road was unadopted, no-one could stop them parking there. We could have moved the car but if we damaged it, we could have been done for criminal damage. The police wouldn't even give us their details to ask them to move it.

For us to have adopted the road, we would have had to have control of the road (ie a gate with a lock) and had exclusive, unchallenged use of it for a significant time (six years I believe) to then put in a request to adopt it.

Warwick_Hunt

Deastons wrote: »

I used to live on an unadopted road. The houses all agreed to club together and get a company to resurface the road and, on the day, a random car had parked on the road meaning they couldn't carry out the work.

We phoned the police, they arrived and that's when we learnt there was literally nothing we could do - as the road was unadopted, no-one could stop them parking there. We could have moved the car but if we damaged it, we could have been done for criminal damage. The police wouldn't even give us their details to ask them to move it.

For us to have adopted the road, we would have had to have control of the road (ie a gate with a lock) and had exclusive, unchallenged use of it for a significant time (six years I believe) to then put in a request to adopt it.

Quite right too.

AdrianC

Jenn_0014 wrote: »

We planned on buying the small bit of land adjacent to a road and tarmac to fit more cars in. We contacted everyone we could and no one is listed as ever having owned the bit of land.

Which doesn't mean that it's not owned by anybody. Just that the LR don't have a record of who owns it.

So my partner and i spent the most part of the spring clearing all the trees, bushes and mud and we arranged tarmacing and lining and now there are 6 spaces.

Hmm...

2 years on with no problems. We now have new renters downstairs, who have 3 cars but are aware that we did all the work and paid for the tarmac and new neighbours across from them who we think , think the parking has always been there and it belongs to them. We also have hairdressers underneath the block next door who have increased their opening hours and now use our parkiing!!

They have just as much right to use it as you do.

This has meant I can never get a space and at the front of our flat, you can only stay for 2 hours.

That makes no difference as to whether you can park on this unknown other person's land - and whether you can extend your preferences to others.

I presume you were aware of the parking situation for the three years before you started to squat upon this land?

As others have said, you have not - yet - taken the most basic steps towards establishing ownership through adverse possession.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adverse-possession-of-1-unregistered-land-and-2-registered-land/practice-guide-5-adverse-possession-of-1-unregistered-and-2-registered-land-where-a-right-to-be-registered-was-acquired-before-13-october-2003 describes the situation - the title is slightly confusingly worded as the 2003 cut-off date only applies to registered land.

Deastons wrote: »

as the road was unadopted, no-one could stop them parking there.

Not quite true. The landowner has the exact same rights as they do on any other land they own - they can't clamp or tow anywhere else, either. Whether it's registered or not makes no difference, apart from not providing an easy, centralised way to determine who the landowner is.

System

Wouldn't it be funny if the person who actually owns the land turned up one day with a JCB, ripped up all the tarmac and put up a fence with the OP's car and all the cars of those other selfish entitled morons who decided to steal this land?

Jenn, it isn't your land. You don't own it. You don't get to decide who parks on it, the person or company who actually own that land do. You most certainly don't have the right to tarmac it and if I were you I wouldn't go around telling people you had otherwise you may one day find yourself landed with the bill for removing that tarmac from the person who actually owns the land.