compulsory purchase order stopping access to the rear of my property

JaiShreeKrishna

Hi,
I live on a council estate which is being regenerated. The close I live on is relatively new built 30 years ago (terraced houses) so is not being touched, but the tower blocks behind me are being knocked down.

My rear garden leads on to a road which has been really useful over the years as its much easier to get large furniture into my house through the rear entrance or remove waste from the garden etc...

They plan to remove the road and rear access and build a school. As I live in terraced house this I believe will effect the price of my property as it will only be able to accessed from the front.

Any advice on what my next steps should be? How do I claim compensation? And how do I determine what the value of the compensation should be?

Any help will be greatly appreciated

Cheers,

Dharms

Slithery

JaiShreeKrishna wrote: »

My rear garden leads on to a road

What exactly do you mean by this?
Is there a gate/drive or is it just not fenced off?
Do you have a legal right of access in the first place?
What did the legal paperwork have to say about your right of way when you purchased?

tizerbelle

Do you have a right of way recorded in your deeds to use the road and access it from your back garden? Or did you just think "ooh that's handy I'll stick a gate in for convenience"?

JaiShreeKrishna

Thanks Slithery and tizerbelle. The council built all our terrace houses (30 years ago) with fences at the back including a rear gate so we could access the rear road.

We have driveways at the front, so the rear is additional access for every house on my road built by the council. I purchased my property from the council many years ago.

I will check the deeds to see if the right of access was recorded.

G_M

I don't see why a specific right of access onto the road would be recorded. Or required.

If the property boundary adjoins the public highway then ipso fact there is a ROA.

Of course, if there is a pavement between the property and the highway, then vehicular access would be dependant on a dropped curb, but I don't think this is what the OP is referring to.

As for compensaion, I have zero knowledge, but a 3 second google found:


https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/compulsory-purchase-and-compensation-booklet-1-procedure

Robin9

Is this rear road actually a road - maintained by the local authority - or more of a track ?

Bossypants

Robin9 wrote: »

Is this rear road actually a road - maintained by the local authority - or more of a track ?

This was my first thought. My grandmother had a terraced house backing onto council land, and there had been a track down the back of the gardens since time immemorial, immensely useful to the residents for bins, gardening, etc. Until one day, the council decided to do something else with their land, and that was that, no more track. It caused uproar in the houses, of course, but it was private land and they had no right of way, so in the end it was tough cookies for them.

da_rule

Firstly, if the road to the rear is highway maintainable at public expense then it will need to be stopped up before they can build on it. Members of the public can object to this, but it may mean going to the Magistrates Court when the application is heard and being able to produce evidence that the requirements to stop up a highway under the Highways Act have not been met.

A land owner who suffers a devaluation in their land because of the use of neighbouring land for public works or the execution (construction) of public works on neighbouring land may be entitled to compensation.

You could have a claim but you would have a fair few hoops to jump through. Firstly, you would have to prove you had a right in the first place. This could be problematic if the road at back is public highway (regardless of whether it is maintained at public expense or not) as you cannot acquire a right by prescription (in the same way that you cannot adversely possess it). You would then have to prove that the construction of the school constituted an execution of public works. In the current days of academies and private funding this can be troublesome.

Have a read of this: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/571453/booklet4.pdf

You need to check your deeds to see if you have an express right to use the road at the back, as this would be the right they are interfering with.

You may also need to get some relatively specialist legal advice to assist with making the claim. The cost of this advice would probably not be recoverable so you would need to work out whether financially it is worth it.

AdrianC

JaiShreeKrishna wrote: »

I live on a council estate which is being regenerated.

But you own your house, having bought it either off the council directly or off whoever bought it via RtB?

The close I live on is relatively new built 30 years ago (terraced houses) so is not being touched, but the tower blocks behind me are being knocked down.

My rear garden leads on to a road which has been really useful over the years as its much easier to get large furniture into my house through the rear entrance or remove waste from the garden etc...

They plan to remove the road and rear access and build a school. As I live in terraced house this I believe will effect the price of my property as it will only be able to accessed from the front.

Any advice on what my next steps should be? How do I claim compensation? And how do I determine what the value of the compensation should be?

You aren't due any.
There is quite simply never any "right" to "compo" for change in property value due to development around you, especially not for something as trivial as minor changes to secondary access to your property.

If anything, the removal of the tower blocks will be a positive change to the area, and may even increase your property value - but I'll bet you wouldn't fancy the flipside of "compo" - giving a percentage of that to the local authority, would you...?

robatwork

You could consider your compo as the increase in house value from now living next to a school, rather than tower blocks.

martindow

If the rear gates have been used by the OP and their neighbours for 30 years won't a right of way been established to continue using the track? Can the LA easily prevent this access?



According to this 20 years use is needed


https://www.wrighthassall.co.uk/knowledge/legal-articles/2014/03/14/claiming-right-way-prescription/