Farmer causing damage

Trevenzie

I live down an old private lane, there are around 10 houses/cottages.  We each own the strip of lane by our house.

A local farmer has right of way down the lane.  He has never contributed to the upkeep of the lane which has caused some annoyance as his vehicles cause the vast majority of the damage.

Recently however, things have become much worse.  The lane is a very narrow gravel track with hedgerow on one side, cottages on the other.  The size of the tractors coming down the lane has been steadily increasing over the years, and this winter the farmer purchased brand new John Deere monsters.  The tractors are taring the lane up, damaging walls and fences, digging out the tiny verge and into the hedgerows forcibly widening the track, and causing large potholes to form.

Now I acknowledge that he has right of way, nothing can be done about that, however, the sheer size of the vehicles is causing serious issues now.

There used to be a stone gateway that delineated the width of the lane, that was knocked down a few years ago (before I moved in).  The cottages that front on to the lane put concrete bollards outside their front walls in an attempt to stop the tractors basically driving up against their house walls, but they also keep getting knocked.

Is there anything we can do, or is this a case of "he has right of way, tough"? 

I stopped one of the tractor drivers last week (turned out to be a kid of around 18) and complained, he laughed and basically said "nothing we can do" then drove off.

davidmcn

Unless there's something in the deeds specifically restricting the size of vehicles, I doubt there's much you can do. If a farm has a right of vehicular access then I'd expect that to include tractors. 

shaun_from_Africa

If anyone actually witnesses the tractor causing physical damage to a wall or fence then stop them and ask for their insurance details.
If they fail to stop or fail to provide the information, contact the local police and inform them of what has happened.

The_Rainmaker

Assuming the tractor travels on the public highway the maximum width will be around 2.55m.

We own a lane that takes farm traffic and two people have right of access, what they seem to forget when they are whining is their deeds state that it is a farm track and that is the standard that it needs ti be maintained at.............not the smooth tarmac surface they seem to expect. 

unholyangel

What exactly do the deeds state? 

I seem to recall a case in the last few years where they had changed the property to park their vehicle on it but as the deeds only gave them a right of way and did not expressly give them a vehicular right of way, they basically couldn't use the neighbours land to access their newly designed parking spot. 

I mean theoretically if the deeds don't state dimensions of the right of way then you could put up a gate thats too narrow to get his vehicle through. But I'd caution to take legal advice first. 

unholyangel

Oh, also.....the fences etc.....he could be liable for that even if he does have a vehicular right of way. We all have right of way on public highways - doesn't entitle us to damage peoples fences or even grass verges as we're exercising that right! 

Trevenzie

The_Rainmaker said:

Assuming the tractor travels on the public highway the maximum width will be around 2.55m.

We own a lane that takes farm traffic and two people have right of access, what they seem to forget when they are whining is their deeds state that it is a farm track and that is the standard that it needs ti be maintained at.............not the smooth tarmac surface they seem to expect. 

It's not tarmac, it's gravel - therefore we have fairly low standards.  However, it's getting to the point where we are having to add gravel to it every month to stop our cars getting damaged.

The lane is very old and the houses have been there for a long time, it's not a bunch of newbuilds dumped on a field a farmer sold off, so the lane is restricted in width by how it has been used historically.

I'll have to measure the lane - honestly, I have seen this particular tractor coming down the road into the village and it takes up more than half of the road (keep in mind these are rural roads though, not standard dual lane roads). 

Another part of the problem I believe is that it is always pulling a trailer - this new muck spreader is also much larger than the ones they used in the past, as he turns corners it moves more. taking chunks of of hedges and verges whereas the older equipment never did.

Like I said, I get that it's a right of way, and in the past we've had no qualms about it beyond annoyance that we are the ones footing the bill when they are doing all of the damage - but the damage is now becoming excessive.

POPPYOSCAR

Do you have legal cover with your house insurance?

If so I would get them involved.

If not all the neigbours need to band together and get legal advice.

Just because they have right of way does not mean they can do what they like and cause damage etc.

The_Rainmaker

The farmer is just going about his business.  Cut the hedges tighter etc.

You will like it even less when he sells off the land for housing which may be his only option if access is restricted.

shaun_from_Africa

The_Rainmaker said:

The farmer is just going about his business.  Cut the hedges tighter etc.

What about the damage to the fences and walls?
"just going about his business" doesn't give him any right to cause damage to another person's property.

warby68

Probably stating the obvious but have you complained to the farmer or whoever is in charge and asked for more care to be taken. Sometimes the simplest solutions. can be best, some possibility that the boss isn't aware of what the drivers are actually doing. Admittedly only a small chance, but you never know. 
If no improvement, I'd go with witnessing and insurance claims for the actual damage to 'encourage' more care.
I doubt there is much you can actually do about the harder wear on the road surface though.