A
Anonymous
Guest
I asked one of the many highly paid lawyers I work with abouy who owns pavment vaults - and he knew!
There is a presumption in English law that a freeholder who owns a property that abuts a highway that the also own the soil into the middle of the road. Doesnt need to be on your title - unless its actually owned by somebody else, its yours. The highway and its substructure belongs to the highway authority, but not the fundament. If the LA is planning to build a tunnel under your house (and acquire the rights to do so from you via CPO usually), they also have to acquire the rights from you to build it under the road. When they were building the Eurotunnel link, they forget to do so and had to do a second round of CPOs...
however, due to an argument between the freeman of the City of London and the Crown during the restoration of the monarchy in the 17th C, this isnt true within the City of London, where both the City and the Crown claim title to the roads, the ground beneath and the air above!
There is a presumption in English law that a freeholder who owns a property that abuts a highway that the also own the soil into the middle of the road. Doesnt need to be on your title - unless its actually owned by somebody else, its yours. The highway and its substructure belongs to the highway authority, but not the fundament. If the LA is planning to build a tunnel under your house (and acquire the rights to do so from you via CPO usually), they also have to acquire the rights from you to build it under the road. When they were building the Eurotunnel link, they forget to do so and had to do a second round of CPOs...
however, due to an argument between the freeman of the City of London and the Crown during the restoration of the monarchy in the 17th C, this isnt true within the City of London, where both the City and the Crown claim title to the roads, the ground beneath and the air above!