Changing a right of way

G_M

So you own the 'path' behind your house?

And (presumably) your neighbour owns the path behind their house?

And beyond them, the path becomes a road (or vehicular access of some sort) presumaby owned in sections by the other various home-owners?

So if you and your neighbour agree to pave 'your' respective paths, and all the neighbours in the line agree to permit the pedestrian ROW to be upgraded to vehicular (ie they say, yes, you can drive your car over our bit of road), then there's no problem.

EachPenny

xmillyx wrote: »

Thank you so much all for your comments. After purchasing the LR map as suggested I'm pretty sure that we own the path beyond our front fence and therefore do have access rights to the house on that path...

Those rights will only be on foot though - what you'll need to do is to get the neighbours between you and the road to agree to providing the additional right of vehicular access, and likewise you'll need to grant access rights to the neighbour(s) who will need to pass over your land to get to their property.

Norman Castle is right - speak to the neighbours to find out what (if anything) they have done and find out if they would be willing to let you do the same. The only problem might be if they are doing what they are doing informally (aka possibly unlawfully) then they might not be happy about you getting the council involved... which I'll come back to in a second.

Before going any further though, do the plans give any idea how wide the strip of land is? Is it wide enough to drive a vehicle over? If you don't have enough width would it be possible to move your fence back to gain the extra needed?

So, going back to the point about council involvement. I have a feeling you may need to apply for planning consent to make this 'road'. This is because it is not a hardstanding as such, it is a means of access for your neighbour involving them crossing your land, and both of you crossing your neighbour's land in order to get to the road. If it were a simple driveway/hardstanding then it may be permitted development (provided you follow the rules wheelz linked to). But I think a planning officer having a bad day might argue that what you need to do falls outside the scope of PD.

So that's why you may need to tread carefully - if your neighbours needed permission and didn't get it, then you contacting the council might start an unfortunate chain of events. The key thing then will be how long the neighbours have had their 'road' and whether it is past the length of time the council can take enforcement action (assuming they haven't obtained any necessary permission).

I think at this stage G_M might suggest cups of tea and cake with all the neighbours together, to see if you can all agree a way forward.

G_M

EachPenny wrote: »

I think at this stage G_M might suggest cups of tea and cake with all the neighbours together, to see if you can all agree a way forward.

Oops!

I was at Patisserie Valerie this afternoon, so I'm kind-of all caked out so forgot to suggeest this.

But yes - good idea!

xmillyx

Hi all - after doing some land registry digging I!!!8217;ve found out that the council own the path to/from the properties... However we are one of the only properties to own a slice of the access. Bizarre!

I will have a diplomatic chat with my neighbours at some point and see where we can go from there. Thank you all for your help.

xmillyx

In the deeds for the council owned road states that:

The passageways, accessways and parking areas are subject to rights of way.

Which I!!!8217;m assuming is a good sign?

xmillyx

Actually I did a bit more digging and it!!!8217;s not in fact the council that own it... but a charitable housing trust.. the plot thickens..