Can we extend garden into alleyway behind our house?

josh_j

Hi,

I have an alleyway behind my house which I would like to extend my garden into.

We are second owners of the house and when purchasing the previous owners said that they had already checked land registry and we owned the alleyway. They had always locked the gates that lead into our garden and we have continued to for the past 4 years.

Now I would like to take down the panels which will be a relatively easy job and block the gappy fancing for more privacy.

I just wanted to check I am in my right with some other threads about right of way, land ownership etc.

I'm a new user so can't post links. Please add http:// in front of these:
i.ibb.co/Kjqqnq7/Alleyway.png
i.ibb.co/qd3GGbW/LandReg2.png
i.ibb.co/gSPdQgQ/LandReg.png

The land registry red line looks like it extends beyond my garden, looks like I actually own the fence behind No. 19. I have done my best at showing garden access, the red block is the alleyway in question.
The house with the garden behind mine does not have parking in the same area that I have so this shouldn't be ROW. As far as I can tell they have no designated parking (maybe one of the garages under the town house two doors up, not pictured).
They park on the sidewalk in front of their house.

Any opinions or suggestions on what else I can check would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Josh

Aylesbury_Duck

The second image is a little confusing and the third is too poor to be useful I'm afraid. From your own diagram I infer that there is possibly a right of way for number 21 and the property behind 20 and 21. I don't think anyone here is going to be able to give you a definitive answer so the sensible approach is to get proper advice before proceeding, otherwise you might find you have to reinstate whatever changes you make if someone objects.

You can't rely on whatever the previous owners said, you need to check this properly.

josh_j

There are no other gates into a back garden within the section highlighted red. No 21 and No 88 (the house behind) do not have parking spaces in the same area as I do. The alleyway is and has always been gated, and the gates are always locked behind me so never been accessed.

If there were no gates this wouldn't be a question, it's would be a shared walk-through, but I have to open two gates to my back garden and seems like a strange decision by the developer, maybe they aren't allowed to have multiple entrances into the garden for safety. I would block one anyway.

josh_j

What is the proper method of checking, would it be the company that built on the land or the council?

unforeseen

Get the deeds for the other houses and find out what they say, if anything, about use of the alley and the portion at the back of your garden.

Also don't accept the previous owner's word but check your deeds yourself to ascertain ownership and possibly any rights for others.

Mistral001

You might own the alleyway, but that does not necessarily mean that you can fence it off and do whatever you like with it. Others could have an easement or right of way over the land, which means that you cannot prevent them from going through the land.

phill99

You need to read the deeds of the other houses as well as your own. There may well be covenants in your deeds granting adjacent landowners access via the path. My gut feeling is that although you may own the path (in red on your plan), it may well be that you have to give a right of access to immediately adjacent land owners. Just because there are no access gates from No.88 into the alleyway, doesn't men that he doesn't have the right to put a gate in his fence. Previous owners of your house may have locked the gates, but actually probably shouldn't have done so and no body has challenged it.