Boundary dispute with new builder.

tashmartin

Hi all,
Purchased a house 7 years ago, which was the first phase of a 2 phase development, 36 houses in total, 12 are currently built. The original owners of the land sold the land to a house developer who is currently starting work on the remaining 24 houses.
All the houses have gardens front and back, with either side or back entrance access.
Mine and my neighbours gardens have a back gate, which on our deeds show the gates lead out to the road via a narrow accessway, alongside a new houses driveway. The builder is insistent that we will be losing our access as their architect has said that this is on the new houses land, despite my deeds showing otherwise. Can anyone advise? I really don't want to lose the access as my understanding (and the deeds) clearly state that access is to be shared between the 3 houses. Thanks.

Sachs

Copy and paste what's said about it in your deeds and perhaps we can give a useful opinion.

tashmartin

It says dotted lines indicate shared access between plots 34, 35 &29. The access on the deeds image shows dotted lines from my gate to the main road.

AnotherJoe

You'll need to get a solicitor involved, you need to stop it before they get something built that makes it more difficult to fix.

Davesnave

tashmartin wrote: »

It says dotted lines indicate shared access between plots 34, 35 &29. The access on the deeds image shows dotted lines from my gate to the main road.

You are still paraphrasing, or what you are quoting isn't a title document (deeds.)

Matters like rights of way are written into title documents in legal language, so unless you quote exactly what is written, redacting anything that identifies the property, no one here can offer much useful advice.

robatwork

Echo post #2 - let's see the deeds

Boundaries
These are often the most complicated disputes. The first key point to remember is the Land Registry plan does
not determine your boundary. It is only a general indication of the boundary (known as the general boundaries
rule). Any report or letter that seeks to rely on the Land Registry plan is a bit of a ‘chocolate fireguard’.
Instead you need to rely on the deed where your land was first split off from the land around it. So on an estate of houses, this will
often be the first transfer around the time the house was built, when it was first divided from the other building plots.

from https://www.stephensons.co.uk/cms/document/How_to_Deal_with_Neighbour_Disputes.pdf

tashmartin

Sorry for the delay I've been in work.
It states "The rights for the transferee and all other persons who may have hereafter the like right: To use any private driveway, Private Footpath or Shared Access which serves the Property."
As mentioned above, my deeds show its shared access for bins etc. Also the solicitor pack mentioned the house had rear access.
The new developer said that his architect has viewed the site and has decided that the shared walkway will be in the garden of the new plot. In my eyes it runs alongside. All advice is gratefully received, myself and my neighbour have a meeting with him on Tuesday and I'll be arranging a solicitors appointment asap.

davidmcn

tashmartin wrote: »

It states "The rights for the transferee and all other persons who may have hereafter the like right: To use any private driveway, Private Footpath or Shared Access which serves the Property."

Are "Shared Access" and "Private Footpath" defined elsewhere? Bit odd if it doesn't actually tie it up with something marked on the title plan.

xylophone

All advice is gratefully received, myself and my neighbour have a meeting with him on Tuesday and I'll be arranging a solicitors appointment asap.

Might it be better for you to take your solicitor's advice before having any conversations with the builder/his architect?

tashmartin

Shared Access is defined as " The shared access as shown and identified in the plan coloured pink.
Private Footpath is defined as "Means the private Footpath as shown and identified on the plan".
Theres only shared access on my plans for the 3 houses.
My main question is if it's on myself and the neighbours title deeds, can the builder block our access?

davidmcn

tashmartin wrote: »

My main question is if it's on myself and the neighbours title deeds, can the builder block our access?

No, that's the whole point of it being in your title. And it will (or ought to be) indicated in the builders' title too. Possibly just a c0ck-up by whoever at their end is meant to be checking these things. Speak to your solicitor first though just in case you've misunderstood anything.