Prescriptive Easements

Jeepers_Creepers

"The house is on the edge of a small village in northern England and it backs onto a farm track and the old main road (A67) runs underneath the garden, the new replacement bypass is about 50 yards to the North and runs parallel.

The house has always (to our knowledge) had a gate from the back garden onto what would have been the verge for the old A67"

Is this 'old' A67 still in use, even for local traffic?

Brackenfield

I would go back to land registry website and there is a section where you draw a box around the area you want the title for and they do a manual search, though it does cost more.

We did it recently to find who owns the field beside our garden, it cost £36, though I think they quoted us £75. Took a couple of days and got a copy of the title showing the owner and burdens relating to neighbouring properties and the full plot map.... well worth the fee!

scaredofdebt

Jeepers_Creepers said:

"The house is on the edge of a small village in northern England and it backs onto a farm track and the old main road (A67) runs underneath the garden, the new replacement bypass is about 50 yards to the North and runs parallel.

The house has always (to our knowledge) had a gate from the back garden onto what would have been the verge for the old A67"

Is this 'old' A67 still in use, even for local traffic?

Yes it is used to get access to the ~6 houses/farmhouses down the back and there are also 4/5 holiday homes that require this road for access.
We have found out the road (at least the bit we have access to) is an adopted highway but still not sure who actually owns it.  My understanding is adopted highways allow public access.

scaredofdebt

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Good move with the CCTV. Does it record sound, and would it pick up a conversation at that gate? If not, have your phone recording too during any exchange.

Get sorted in your head what you will say, and stick to it - don't be led astray by any bizarre of manipulative claim he might make. Let him rant if he wants, and then calmly but firmly remind him of the facts; "We've (or whoevs) used this gate for the 47 years we've lived here. There's been a gate there all that time." "Blocking it is a criminal act". etc.

It does record sound but I can't get it close enough to the gate for that to be likely, pictures will be OK but it's about 6 metres away, I may try to site it closer but it needs wifi which might be a problem, I will play around with that.
I've found somewhere up a tree to site it so it will be hard to see and high enough so you'd need a ladder in our garden to tamper with it, not that I'm paranoid or anything!  It also uploads images/video to the cloud in case it does go "missing".
Planning to install it today and get the gateway cleared again.

Eldi_Dos

You could get copies of the Public Utilities that supply yours and nearby properties, showing the way they supply yours and neighbouring properties. If they enter your property via verge that gate opens onto proves your case. Orginal PU prints will go back many years to when services where first connected to your property. You would only be interested in services that entered underground ,services that arrived via poles would not really prove anything helpful.

scaredofdebt

OK so a few developments, mainly positive.

CCTV is up and working, it keeps recording my wife gardening and sends me a text everytime she's in that part of the garden.
We have taken down the planks that were nailed AND screwed to the gate, the logs have been moved into our garden, to date (3 days) no further attempts to block the gate.

The council have replied to my email and confirm the land is an adopted highway including the verges and PUBLIC HAVE ACCESS RIGHTS.  They also state any attempt to gain the land by "adverse possession" will fail.

They've also helped me find out who owns the farm track that runs down the back of the garden and it isn't owned by the man in question, in fact we know who owns it via a friend of a friend.

Hopefully this is the end of it, time will tell, thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

Davesnave

Sounds like a result. Well done for keeping a cool head.

princeofpounds

Great to hear, and thanks for the follow-up. Let's hope it stays quite from here on.

scaredofdebt

We had a visit today from the gentleman in question, unfortunately he spoke to a builder who was doing some work on the house and I wasn't made aware until after the event.

He was asking what the house number was and who lived here - the gentleman was being followed by another car.

I've reported this under the existing crime reference number.