Possible Neighbour Dispute - Boundary Issue

dickibobboy

Good Evening.

We live on a main road with no parking at any time. Not a problem as we have an access road behind the houses where we all have parking at the rear of our gardens. The access road is also shared with another road running in parallel(ish) and they also have drives/garages available to them from this road/track.

On the access road in front of each driveway is an area to pull forward to be able to get on the driveways of each house, if this wasn’t there it would be just a cars width road with no room to monuver onto our drives.

The garden/house opposite our drive has recently sold and the new neighbour had a moan (out of the blue i should add) and he’ll be establishing the boundaries to his property which is fair enough.

Upon checking his title plan it does indeed show that the boundary goes right up to the acesss strip however at present it’s further up so there was turning access to get into the garage he owns that is there. It’s not clearly marked in any way to ever show that the land was belonging to any property apart from it being at the end of his garden, the land there and the rest of the access road is just rough track.

If he was to now put up a fence right to the end of what is shown on his title plan it would then block access fully for parking on our drive way and very tricky access for my next door neighbour.

I’m all for marking out your land and making use out of it however we’ve been here for the last 17 years with the way it is and from what i can see it’s has been like that for many years before that.

We have legal cover on the home insurance so could make use of it if and when the time comes but does anyone think we’ve got any argument at all to stop him fencing right to the end?

pc1271

I thought there was some rule about routes which have been in general use for a number of years become a right of way. I'd definitely try and get some legal advice so you're armed, citizen's advice or your insurance might be able to offer free legal advice.

davidmcn

You haven't told us what your own titles say? Just because he owns the land doesn't mean you don't have a right to cross it.

dickibobboy

Just had a read through our title plan and one of another property a few houses down and the title shows our access on the plan but does not mention anything regarding the access road or any ROW down there.

Technically he wouldn!!!8217;t be blocking us access to our garden or property but our access to have vehicles on there. We could drive right next to our garden but not have the ability to get on there.

Davesnave

dickibobboy wrote: »

Just had a read through our title plan and one of another property a few houses down and the title shows our access on the plan but does not mention anything regarding the access road or any ROW down there.

Technically he wouldn!!!8217;t be blocking us access to our garden or property but our access to have vehicles on there. We could drive right next to our garden but not have the ability to get on there.

The details about access won't be on the plan, they'll be in the title register:

https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-property-and-land/search-the-register

However if people have been driving along the access track for 20+ years, they may also have created an easement by prescription which would prevent anyone from blocking it.

Cakeguts

We have a house in a private road. The owners of all the houses own the road to the middle at the width of their house. So the rectangular plot of the house includes the part of the road and pavement in front of the house. This doesn't give the owner of those houses the right to make their section of the road into a front garden and fence it off because others have a ROW over it.

If anyone further down your access road has access to their garage from this road that doesn't mean that they can only access if they drive down the bit that people on one side own. An access road can be owned by up to the middle by the people on each side of it but that doesn't mean they can fence that bit off.

dickibobboy

By the looks of it we could do with getting some legal stuff in without him knowing for if and when he does decide to put something up.



We've only been at the house since 2001 so not a fully 20 years & Google Earth only goes back to 2001 also.


Some neighbours have been here many years before us however the ones that do use the bit of land for the ability to turn into their own land are all under 20 years (but that doesn't mean the previous neighbours didn't use it for access).