Right of Way, Property Access

MyCod74

Currently going through a dispute with my neighbour over access to a property that used to belong to my mother, the house is an old railway station house, the old station yard situated in front of the house was a caravan park, from the mid 50s through to the mid 80s, the land was then sold off as building plots in the early 90's.

The access road to the station house goes through the property of one of the plots, the owner of the plot didn't build on it until 2017, and finally moved in around 2019. Now that we have put the house on the market, his solicitor contacted our solicitor asking what right the person who purchases the property has to use the access road, as it goes through his clients property.

The access road has been used for over 60 years by our family and never been challenged. The problem I'm having is with our solicitor, I'm getting the impression he his trying to drag out this dispute, in order to make as much money as possible. He advised us NOT to approach our neighbour and discuss it with them, we have handed over 60 years worth of photographic evidence to our solicitor, but he say's he also requires as many testimonials as possible, at £300 each. Surely the photographs would carry enough weight, that and section 31 of the Highways act? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

Section62

MyCod74 said:

Currently going through a dispute with my neighbour over access to a property that used to belong to my mother, the house is an old railway station house, the old station yard situated in front of the house was a caravan park, from the mid 50s through to the mid 80s, the land was then sold off as building plots in the early 90's.

The access road to the station house goes through the property of one of the plots, the owner of the plot didn't build on it until 2017, and finally moved in around 2019. Now that we have put the house on the market, his solicitor contacted our solicitor asking what right the person who purchases the property has to use the access road, as it goes through his clients property.

The access road has been used for over 60 years by our family and never been challenged. The problem I'm having is with our solicitor, I'm getting the impression he his trying to drag out this dispute, in order to make as much money as possible. He advised us NOT to approach our neighbour and discuss it with them, we have handed over 60 years worth of photographic evidence to our solicitor, but he say's he also requires as many testimonials as possible, at £300 each. Surely the photographs would carry enough weight, that and section 31 of the Highways act? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

Highways Act S31 only applies where the public have been using the way, and the intention is for the way to become a highway maintainable at public expense (aka public highway).  Presumably the public haven't been using the access for any reason other than acessing the properties - i.e. it isn't a road which leads to another road?

What do your deeds say about access?  Has your solicitor actually checked this?  When the station house was first sold away from BR(?) it would have been normal for the buyer to be granted access rights over any land retained by BR (or sold to others).  If that didn't happen then you'll need to claim the right via one of the statutory reasons... that is when having the evidence would be important.

MyCod74

Section62 said:

MyCod74 said:

Currently going through a dispute with my neighbour over access to a property that used to belong to my mother, the house is an old railway station house, the old station yard situated in front of the house was a caravan park, from the mid 50s through to the mid 80s, the land was then sold off as building plots in the early 90's.

The access road to the station house goes through the property of one of the plots, the owner of the plot didn't build on it until 2017, and finally moved in around 2019. Now that we have put the house on the market, his solicitor contacted our solicitor asking what right the person who purchases the property has to use the access road, as it goes through his clients property.

The access road has been used for over 60 years by our family and never been challenged. The problem I'm having is with our solicitor, I'm getting the impression he his trying to drag out this dispute, in order to make as much money as possible. He advised us NOT to approach our neighbour and discuss it with them, we have handed over 60 years worth of photographic evidence to our solicitor, but he say's he also requires as many testimonials as possible, at £300 each. Surely the photographs would carry enough weight, that and section 31 of the Highways act? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

Highways Act S31 only applies where the public have been using the way, and the intention is for the way to become a highway maintainable at public expense (aka public highway).  Presumably the public haven't been using the access for any reason other than acessing the properties - i.e. it isn't a road which leads to another road?

What do your deeds say about access?  Has your solicitor actually checked this?  When the station house was first sold away from BR(?) it would have been normal for the buyer to be granted access rights over any land retained by BR (or sold to others).  If that didn't happen then you'll need to claim the right via one of the statutory reasons... that is when having the evidence would be important.

He say's there's nothing in the deeds with regards to the access to the property. However I've looked at the title plans from 1964, and the 25 meters of of access road to the property are shaded blue, which as far as I've gathered indicates a right of way. I'm guessing the title plans aren't enough in order to end this dispute, or I'm sure my solicitor would have put them forward.

Bookworm225

MyCod74 said:

Section62 said:

MyCod74 said:

Currently going through a dispute with my neighbour over access to a property that used to belong to my mother, the house is an old railway station house, the old station yard situated in front of the house was a caravan park, from the mid 50s through to the mid 80s, the land was then sold off as building plots in the early 90's.

The access road to the station house goes through the property of one of the plots, the owner of the plot didn't build on it until 2017, and finally moved in around 2019. Now that we have put the house on the market, his solicitor contacted our solicitor asking what right the person who purchases the property has to use the access road, as it goes through his clients property.

The access road has been used for over 60 years by our family and never been challenged. The problem I'm having is with our solicitor, I'm getting the impression he his trying to drag out this dispute, in order to make as much money as possible. He advised us NOT to approach our neighbour and discuss it with them, we have handed over 60 years worth of photographic evidence to our solicitor, but he say's he also requires as many testimonials as possible, at £300 each. Surely the photographs would carry enough weight, that and section 31 of the Highways act? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

Highways Act S31 only applies where the public have been using the way, and the intention is for the way to become a highway maintainable at public expense (aka public highway).  Presumably the public haven't been using the access for any reason other than acessing the properties - i.e. it isn't a road which leads to another road?

What do your deeds say about access?  Has your solicitor actually checked this?  When the station house was first sold away from BR(?) it would have been normal for the buyer to be granted access rights over any land retained by BR (or sold to others).  If that didn't happen then you'll need to claim the right via one of the statutory reasons... that is when having the evidence would be important.

He say's there's nothing in the deeds with regards to the access to the property. However I've looked at the title plans from 1964, and the 25 meters of of access road to the property are shaded blue, which as far as I've gathered indicates a right of way. I'm guessing the title plans aren't enough in order to end this dispute, or I'm sure my solicitor would have put them forward.

sadly it is normally words which confer rights, not diagrams. Without wording explaining the "blue" you don't have strong evidence at this stage.

Section62

MyCod74 said:

Section62 said:

MyCod74 said:

Currently going through a dispute with my neighbour over access to a property that used to belong to my mother, the house is an old railway station house, the old station yard situated in front of the house was a caravan park, from the mid 50s through to the mid 80s, the land was then sold off as building plots in the early 90's.

The access road to the station house goes through the property of one of the plots, the owner of the plot didn't build on it until 2017, and finally moved in around 2019. Now that we have put the house on the market, his solicitor contacted our solicitor asking what right the person who purchases the property has to use the access road, as it goes through his clients property.

The access road has been used for over 60 years by our family and never been challenged. The problem I'm having is with our solicitor, I'm getting the impression he his trying to drag out this dispute, in order to make as much money as possible. He advised us NOT to approach our neighbour and discuss it with them, we have handed over 60 years worth of photographic evidence to our solicitor, but he say's he also requires as many testimonials as possible, at £300 each. Surely the photographs would carry enough weight, that and section 31 of the Highways act? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

Highways Act S31 only applies where the public have been using the way, and the intention is for the way to become a highway maintainable at public expense (aka public highway).  Presumably the public haven't been using the access for any reason other than acessing the properties - i.e. it isn't a road which leads to another road?

What do your deeds say about access?  Has your solicitor actually checked this?  When the station house was first sold away from BR(?) it would have been normal for the buyer to be granted access rights over any land retained by BR (or sold to others).  If that didn't happen then you'll need to claim the right via one of the statutory reasons... that is when having the evidence would be important.

He say's there's nothing in the deeds with regards to the access to the property. However I've looked at the title plans from 1964, and the 25 meters of of access road to the property are shaded blue, which as far as I've gathered indicates a right of way. I'm guessing the title plans aren't enough in order to end this dispute, or I'm sure my solicitor would have put them forward.

It is possible the solicitor has overlooked the obvious, or misunderstood the plans.  The shaded area probably means something, but you need to see the words to know exactly what.

Also worth getting the deeds/plans for the other properties on the road, including the one raising a fuss.  In normal circumstances you'd expect to see something in the deeds of the properties/land the RoW passes over which says they have a responsibility to allow the RoW to be used etc.