dispute over back road

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Mon 20 Jan 2003 23:03
dispute over back road - space
We live in terrace housing and the council and a private landlord are building posh new houses on the back of the houses. They are putting a road in, but not for the terraces to use, although with a little compromise it could be. Do you know of any legal rights that mean the terraces could use the road? Any help gratefully appreciated. please post before Monday when residents are attending the planning meeting at the council. Also the land they are building on is old allotments next to a park, in case we have any environmental or common land case.
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Mon 20 Jan 2003 23:11
dispute over back road - Tim
space,
email me on tkg5@hotmail.com and I'll try and help.

Tim
Town Planner - for my sins!
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Tue 21 Jan 2003 09:31
dispute over back road - volvoman
Please keep us posted on these events. There is potential for almost exactly the same situation nearby and I'd be very interested to find out more. Thanks in anticipation.
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Tue 21 Jan 2003 12:24
dispute over back road - DavidHM
This is not legal advice, but my understanding is that there is no automatic right for you to use the road, assuming that it remains private property.

What you may have is what is known as an easement to use the land at the back of your houses. This will be personal to the land and should be registered at the land registry, and shown on the deeds of your house.

In that case, the act of building a road or other improvement wouldn't extinguish the easement. The other possibility is that the land has been used in an uninterrupted fashion by you or your predecessors in title as an access way for at least 20 years (I could get the land law textbooks out and be more precise) and this would give you an easement over the land.

On the other hand, if it used to be a fairly pointless field and now it would just be more convenient for you to use the road instead, there's not much chance I'm afraid.
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Tue 21 Jan 2003 18:19
dispute over back road - Pugugly {P}
Agree with the above....Depends on the level of poshness here, there may be access control on the lane which might prove to be adifficulty.

What I would suggest is a planning objection from the residents of the terrace.
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Tue 21 Jan 2003 19:23
dispute over back road - DavidHM
We need more information and it will be difficult to get anything concrete by Monday, but having reread the question the allotments might be subject to a restrictive covenant preventing them from building or developing the land. This covenant would be in your favour and they might be forced to buy you out of it.

What exactly is your objective? Is it to save the allotments, or get use of the road? What steps have you taken so far?

And, as ever, no legal advice from me, no liability and just musings on the problem.
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Wed 22 Jan 2003 14:08
dispute over back road - Flat in Fifth
On a similar topic anyone know what happened to those houses in Swansea?

The developer did not sign over to the residents or the council a one foot strip across the frontage of each house. Some years later came back and demanded a large sum for residents to have the right to cross this strip.

Sorry to go off at a tangent but this thread reminded me.
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Wed 22 Jan 2003 15:02
dispute over back road - RichL
I have dim recollections of the Rights of Way laws, but I think you may be right.
Someone who'd probably know a lot about this sort of thing would be your local 4x4 club, who often have this sort of issue over rights and road use when green laning.
Some of the bigger clubs have appointed 'Rights of Way' officers.
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