Adverse Possession

Section62

user1977 said:

canaldumidi said:

Land can be both owned by one person (eg Bryant Homes) and adopted as highway by another (eg the council highways dept).

True, though I'm not sure what you do if the council claim that grass within your garden fence is in fact an adopted road verge!

If the council are right.... then you move your fence, or wait for the council to do it.

Although again, it doesn't have to be 'road' to be highway - a strip of land like the OP's could have been retained for future widening works, or might have highway drainage in it.  Another possibility is the land was adopted as highway to allow the wall to be maintained as it looks like it may have a retaining function (difficult to tell from the picture).

Since Bryant homes do seem to own it, and the council want it, the odds of the OP having a sucessful AP claim look slim.

It might be better to ask whether it would be possible to get a licence to use it as garden - that way the OP could continue to use it as is, and the highway authority won't start worrying about a potential land grab.

maria_lucia

I already use it as garden and have for 24 years! 

The wall was built by Bryant’s and they also planted the trees and shrubs. If they wanted to widen the road the dry stone wall trees and shrubs would have to be removed???? 

Not sure they would ever do this. 

There are no drains or anything to be accessed in this area and it’s not a retaining wall. 

maria_lucia

There is no fence it’s a dry stone wall! 

maria_lucia

The council don’t want this land but they are saying that it is owned by Bryant’s and is adopted highway 

Section62

maria_lucia said:

There are no drains or anything to be accessed in this area and it’s not a retaining wall. 

'Drains' as in pipes under the ground - you won't see them, or necessarily know they are there unless there is a problem.  But highway drainage is one reason why strips of land away from a road are adopted as highway.

Is the ground level on the other side of the wall not higher?  Like I said, very difficult to tell from the picture.

maria_lucia said:

The council don’t want this land but they are saying that it is owned by Bryant’s and is adopted highway 

The council are saying the land is adopted highway - therefore they want it.  If they didn't want it they wouldn't claim highway rights and/or would make a stopping up order to remove the rights.

srgrech

Hi Maria, how did you get on with this?  I am in the process of buying a property was due to complete in a couple of week.  However we discovered last week that around 50 % of the front garden is owned by the developer (1960s) and also it appears the land forms part of the adopted highway.

lincroft1710

srgrech said:

Hi Maria, how did you get on with this?  I am in the process of buying a property was due to complete in a couple of week.  However we discovered last week that around 50 % of the front garden is owned by the developer (1960s) and also it appears the land forms part of the adopted highway.

Maria hasn't logged on to MSE for 10 months, so you probably won't get an answer