Is granting "Right of way" equivalent to adjusting boundaries of the property?

getmore4less

You would have to ask the developer and the council what is meant by those terms.

Maverickon

Hello All,
Here is an update on my post. 
1) The developer says the neighbour needs to be given access to the parking space as well as it unallocated space and this is as per the planning permission
2) I found out that when the driveway is made shared, all the residents in the development and any visitors ; in other words the public will get access to this parking space. So I will be responsible to maintain a driveway and parking space that public can use free of cost. This will greatly reduce the value of my property. 
3) The developer is not willing to change the unallocated parking space as it will breach their planning permission. They said they approached the council who rejected their proposal. This contradicts one of their emails where it says council doesnt want to intervene as this is private land. I said I am not willing to sign the deed of rectification unless this is fixed. I purchased the land which came with no restrictions on it.
4) I approached the solicitor who acted when I purchased the property. As I said in my initial post, this firm was proposed by the developer and they have also acted for the neighbour. The solicitor sent a letter on my stand to the developer. The developer is now blaming the solicitor that they should have checked the documents before hand. This has become a blame game between them.
5) The solicitor is now asking me to contact the council to sort this out. 
I am lost here. I am suffering because of a mistake someone else did. Moreover it is the neighbour who needs the right of way and his deed is faulty. I am ready to provide access under the condition that they change the status of the unallocated space. 
I dont know what to do now. Any suggestion is appreciated.

princeofpounds

Well, at the moment it doesn't seem anything has changed. You have not agreed to the deed and there is no planning enforcement, so as far as you are concerned it is still your land and unencumbered. Remind me, are you restricting physical access?

IF the local authority decides to enforce planning obligations, then they may be able to force you to open it up. IF that happens, you may well be able to claim against the developer and/or your solicitor (for not disclosing or realising there was a planning obligation). A bit more detail in the link below as to how the system of planning obligations work.

https://prettys.co.uk/articles/house-purchasers-liability-for-planning-obligations

What you need to do is get hold of the planning agreement and verify what it actually says. Then, if I were you, I would just wait. The developer or neighbour can't really do much now, I think, so it's over to the council. They may care - the lobbying from the neighbour and developer may wake them up - but they may not think it important enough to pursue. If 4 years goes past, then you are immune from enforcement. I am not sure I would poke the bear with a stick by contacting the council at this stage - the status quo suits you fine.

At most you might want to consult with a solicitor who is familiar with planning and conveyancing litigation, in case this all moves on to planning enforcement.

Changing the status of the unallocated space is possibly not something they can agree to under the same planning agreement. Plus, you should be asking for much more compensation than merely that to agree; you will be suffering a real loss. I do hope you have not compromised you position by conceding anything, as I told you not to a long time ago.

Let's see what others think.

Maverickon

@princeofpounds
I have not restricted any physical access. The neighbour use the driveway to access their parking space/garage.

>>If 4 years goes past, then you are immune from enforcement. I am not sure I would poke the bear with a stick by contacting the council at this stage - the status quo suits you fine
I was not aware of this ; I think I may have jumped the gun when I contacted council 2 weeks back.

davidmcn

Maverickon said:

I will be responsible to maintain a driveway and parking space that public can use free of cost. This will greatly reduce the value of my property. 

I don't think it will, really. And you're a member of the public, so can use the parking space.

Maverickon

@davidmcn
but I will be responsible for maintaining the driveway and the parking space. Isn't that a burden?

princeofpounds

Maverickon said:

@davidmcn
but I will be responsible for maintaining the driveway and the parking space. Isn't that a burden?

It is. But I think the 'greatly' is the only part davidmcn is addressing. It is a real loss, but it is not going to be huge in % terms. 

Titus_Wadd

Just bumping this to see whether the OP had made any progress.  I hope they took independent legal advice and left the developer and neighbour to spend their money in their own legal arguments. Ofcourse, it may be too soon for any real change, but I'd be interested to hear more.