Building a gate and fence, legal issue

SmashedAvacado

I am not sure what your neighbour is objecting to because it appears that you have a right over their bit of road, but from what you are saying, i am not sure that they have or need a right over yours. Have i got that right?

In relation to your bit, the objectors woudl be the neighbors the other side who presumably have a right but from what you are saying they have blocked their ability to use it.

You woudl have a right to drive over the bit your neighbour has with a car, and then park on your own land that is not part of the road, and you could use that as leverage with your neighbour - ie you ask them to either reinstate the road so you can get a car to your rear or otherwise we all agree something different. It would be better to get all of the neighbours with rights over the road to agree to whatever you are doing as "defunct" is not a legal term and it takes a long time for rights like this to become abandoned in law - so a neighbour buying further down the road could require each owner to unblock their bit of the road unless you formally agree and document a surrender of the relevant rights.

Toblerone123

Thanks everyone, to answer some of your questions, the road is not owned by the council (I know that for sure) and it seems everyone has claimed the road at the end of their garden over the years so each house owns a bit of it.
SmashedAvacado - you are correct and i'm not sure what they are objecting to either. We have dominant easement estate.
From what I can gather would I be right in saying that I can put a fence up as it is my property and my boundary. It's best to leave a gate in, in case a house further up from mine ever wants the access back (as they have only given up the access by abandonment and not legally). A gate wouldn't be deemed as unreasonable interference then, as I couldn't get my car through their garden anyway?
If my neighbour (who is the servient estate) does decide to take it legal, he would have to reinstate the easement and make the 'road' accessible to me by car?

SmashedAvacado

Your angry neighbour doesnt need to use your bit of the road - but yes - he might not have a right to use your bit of the land / road in any event, because that is not needed for access to his property

the people that have the right to "take it legal" are the neighbours on the other side who could ask you and your neighbour to make the road accessible. If they do that you might argue it has been abandoned, but youd need to know how long the blocked off bits had been blocked off. are we talking a long time - eg 20 years?

Toblerone123

So he wouldn't even have the right to take it legal then?
The neighbours on the other side have had it blocked off for maybe 10 years or more. I don't believe they ever would want access again, but the gate I put in my fence would allow then access if they did.

Toblerone123

No they don't have gates, but I don't want to block it off completely and abandon my access, especially because he is been so unreasonable with me. I had previously discussed with him putting up a fence with no gate but he wasn't happy with that either. Plus as pointed out previously in the thread a house further up from me might want to reinstate their access in future, although its not likely.

Mojisola

Toblerone123 wrote: »

So he wouldn't even have the right to take it legal then?

The neighbours on the other side have had it blocked off for maybe 10 years or more.

What do his deeds say?

Is there a clause giving him a ROW across the other gardens?

Toblerone123

Not as far as I know and he has never mentioned this. He simply states that our other neighbours have blocked their access off but haven't done it properly and it should be done legally.
I'm not really sure what a ROW is if i'm honest?

Mojisola

Toblerone123 wrote: »

In my deeds, it states: to go pass and repass with or without horses carts carriages and motor cars along over and upon the road'.

It also shows that the part of the 'road' at the end of our garden also belongs to us, so it is our land.

Toblerone123 wrote: »

I'm not really sure what a ROW is if i'm honest?

That clause creates a Right Of Way for other people across your land.

You obviously have the right to cross his land but his deeds may not include any rights because his is the first property - his land is the servient tenement and "is burdened with an easement that benefits neighbouring land."

The dominant tenement "is the land that benefits from an easement that burdens neighbouring land."

Your property is both dominant (over his land) and servient (the other neighbours have access over your land).

http://www.boundary-problems.co.uk/boundary-problems/glossary.html#Servient%20Tenement

elsien

bouicca21 wrote: »

One of the reasons these back lanes get closed off is that they make ideal access for burglars. Also the bin men (I feel compelled to add bin women, though have rarely seen one) don't used them anymore. The police often advise blocking them off..

Just to add that whatever the police may advise some of them tend to struggle with aspects of criminal law, let alone civil, so I wouldn't be taking their word on that.