Neighbour who has a private right of way is parking and leaving their things there

gun_raider

Hi guys

 

I have recently purchased a maisonette. I am a cofreeholder and me and downstairs own the freehold to the entire property and the surrounding land as per the title plan.

 

The property has land attached to it which the neighbour next door has a right of way over. Their title states

 

"The land has the benefit of a right of way over the land tinted brown on the title plan" (This was drafted in 1955)

 

I cannot see anything about vehicular access on the title so I am assuming he has a right of way of walking through it and that's pretty much it.

Now there are a couple of problems here

 

1) He has set up a storage container box and he has left his motorbike and other bikes on the land. I talked to the other cofreeholder and she said that he never asked for permission to do so and she was surprised to see it there.

2) His nanny parks there 3-4 days of the week blocking the way during business hours

 

It took around a year for me to get the keys to the property and I was told that the woman who I purchased it off of was bedridden for a couple of years before passing away. The other cofreeholder has been renting her maisonette out for years. So, it looks to me like he just took advantage of this hoping no-one would notice.

 

Now am I right in assuming that you cannot interfere with a right of way (i.e. set up a storage container on the land) and that you may pass along a right of as long as you do not stop and linger there.

 

I just wanted to get your opinions guys.

 

What is the best course of action for me to take here? I was thinking of getting my solicitor to write a letter up highlighting the issues at hand.

 

 

eddddy

If you send a solicitor's letter, realistically I think most people would class that as a "Dispute or Complaint".

So you'd need to declare it when you sell your maisonette. It might put buyers off, if you're essentially declaring that there is a difficult neighbour, so you had to get your solicitor involved.

It might be better if you could have a discussion with your neighbour to see if you can find a way of resolving this.  You wouldn't have to declare a 'discussion', when you sell.

user1977

gun_raider said:

I was thinking of getting my solicitor to write a letter up highlighting the issues at hand.

Why go straight to lawyers? Why not just talk to him about it?

gun_raider

eddddy said:

If you send a solicitor's letter, realistically I think most people would class that as a "Dispute or Complaint".

So you'd need to declare it when you sell your maisonette. It might put buyers off, if you're essentially declaring that there is a difficult neighbour, so you had to get your solicitor involved.

It might be better if you could have a discussion with your neighbour to see if you can find a way of resolving this.  You wouldn't have to declare a 'discussion', when you sell.

Ok I think I phrased it wrognly. I was going to get my solicitors opinion first to assure me of my assumptions with regards to the right of way and then get a letter written if need be. I'm asking here to do a sanity check before spending money with the solicitors.

I wasn't aware that there would be a "discussion" declaration when selling if we had a dispute, thanks.

gun_raider

user1977 said:

gun_raider said:

I was thinking of getting my solicitor to write a letter up highlighting the issues at hand.

Why go straight to lawyers? Why not just talk to him about it?

New neighbourhood. Don't know if they're reasonable people.

user1977

gun_raider said:

user1977 said:

gun_raider said:

I was thinking of getting my solicitor to write a letter up highlighting the issues at hand.

Why go straight to lawyers? Why not just talk to him about it?

New neighbourhood. Don't know if they're reasonable people.

You don't normally first communicate with new neighbours via your lawyers though, do you?

theoretica

It has taken you a year to get a key to the land?  So up until now while he has been using something he doesn't have a legal right to he hasn't actually been inconveniencing anyone.  My suggestions would be for you to work out what you want to do with this land, and actually carry it through - it may go down better if you actually have a use for the land rather than you aren't using it and don't want him to either.  Or you could offer to let him keep the store there in return for the odd bottle of wine...

What does your title say about the right of way?

gun_raider

theoretica said:

What does your title say about the right of way?

The land hatched blue on the filed plan is subject to rights of way.

gun_raider

theoretica said:

 it may go down better if you actually have a use for the land rather than you aren't using it and don't want him to either.

Also, I use the land to access my garden from the back. I'm not doing this to be petty, it is an incovenience to me.

canaldumidi

You canot assume the ROW is pedestrian only. It could include vehicular. But be that as it may, it's a ROW ie access via that land - it does not give a right to park on it or leave 'container boxes' etc on the land. That much is clear -at least from the limited information you have provided.

For a more precise opinion, someone would need to look at the documents, and plans, fully.

You are wise to get some supporting opinion initially (albeit from a load of amateurs on the internet!), but then a discussion with the neighbour is best.

Over tea and cake?

If you can resolve the matter amicably, perhaps with some compromise, that's far better than going legal.

kazwookie

Go round and talk to the bloke, about the issue.

Once you know his opinion of using this land, then you can sort out what you want to do about it.