Shared right of way - neighbours & negotiating maintenan

[Jayne]

We have bought an end terrace cottage circa 1800 to renovate - its in a row of 5 which are at 90 degrees to the road - ours is furthest from the road. Running in front of the cottages is a right of way which finishes at our cottage - all cottages have pedestrian access only along this right of way whilst we are the only ones with a vehicular right of way on our deeds. This track/path/'road' is in poor condtion and needs upgrading if a car is to run up and down it.

The problem of course is that neighbours are not willing to contribute. The track has been allowed to deteriorate and is also badly overgrown with brambles and self seeded trees. The 1st two cottage tho' listed have been empty for several decades and are now boarded up. Another one is rented out. Its obviously to our benefit to get this right of way reinstated as a road yet our neighbours only require a footpath and are quite happy to make do with the mixture of old boken flags, old bricks and patches of tarmac with all its overgrown vegitation which they have at the moment.

Of course life is much simpler when its your own path/driveway then you can do what you want but here we cross over others peoples land to get from our cottage to the road. Anybody else been in a similar situation?
Who pays for what? Do you pay for the section of path/road which is only crossing your own land? Can I make you chop down your overgrown trees/shrubs/brambles which are blocking my route up the path or shall I just cut them myself (and give the trimmings back to you of course!).

Cheers

 

[Nemesis]

I can try to answer - but I think you may be better posting this on the http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk site forum! You need though to look in your deeds and see what the wording is. It may help. I suspect that if you want the road made passable by a vehicle for your own benefit you will have to pay.

With regard to the empty buildings - please contact David Plaisant at SAVE

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org o207 253 3500

and ask for them to be placed on the Buildings at Risk Register.

That way it may be possible for a would be buyer to be sought. Much better for everyone than having them decaying.

 

[Lime]

How about a Land Rover?

 

[NT]

Cutting brambles only multiplies them, need to poison them with glyphosate

NT

 

[middi]

Jayne, you said that on your deeds it is specified that you are the only owner with that right of way.

If I was in your shoes I would exercise my right and clear whatever is necessary and repair existing carriageway to get the car to my front door.

If I was in your neighbours shoes and didn't need to use the drive I would definetely not pay anything towards repairs, as just a wild pathway to my front door would be very nice thank you.

On the other hand, after you have paid to have a nice "rural" driveway constructed I may be tempted to use it.

It looks that if you want special rights of access which you are entitled to then you have to pay for them yourself.

 

[Pford75]

I'm not an expert personally, but my father is a solicitor dealing in coveyancing and dealt with a similar (but not identical) situation on our house.

Given that you have a ROW, I'm assuming that someone else 'owns' the access-way. The other alternatives are that it is commonly held land or part of the public highway.

Public Highway - Probably the most unlikely, but if this is highway, the local authority have a duty to maintain
Commonly held - The most problematic since you would have to deal with multiple parties and may be 'held' by the empty properties and tracking down the owners can be tricky
Single ownership - Sometimes (as in our case) the accessway is 'owned' by one party with covenants granted to the other houses in the terrace. In this instance, you can insist on the 'owner' undertaking work to ensure your ROW is not restricted eg. trimming vegetation. The bad news.....ROW makes no reference to type of access (vehicles, horse & cart etc.) so you cannot request works to the surface, since you do still have a ROW (unless it is truly impassable).

NB - You cannot trim vegetation unless it crosses your boundary (which in this case it doesn't)....and you definately cannot poison it.

Finally, you don't say whether you park on your land or at the end of the accessway - be warned that a ROW or a right of access is very different to a right to park. If things get legal and you currently park on the accessway (which is not owned by you), you could find that the other party objects and prevents you from parking. If however you rely on this accessway to reach parking on your land, this will strengthen your case.

I would suggest you engage a solicitor :wink:

 

[Jayne]

Folks - Thanks for all the replies - very helpful.

Yes we have had to engage the services of a solicitor! One family own the 1st 3 (boarded up) cottages. The 4th is rented out whilst we own the 5th. The path/track in front of these terrace cottages is commonly held. Each cottage owns that bit in front of it. Discussions with the solicitor and examination of deeds and old conveyances reveal that our cottage is the only one with a vehicular right of way up and down this track. We have a derilict garage and many signed statements to verify that cars/tractors/coal wagon/horse & carts have used this track to come down to our cottage from the road over many years.

I have contacted Buildings at Risk register following Nemesis's suggestion. (Didn't know about gardenlaw.co.uk either - very helpful).
The 3 boarded up cottages (2 of which are listed) have been in the same family since 1927. They have been empty for several decades now and have had urgent works notices served on them in the past to make them weather tight. When asked, the owners claim to be renovating them when time and money allow. Quite clearly they are not. Its a great great shame that people can treat listed properties like this. Whilst they may be more or less weather tight they are in a very sad state and trees have been allowed to self seed and become well established less than 1 metre in front of them. The pointing has all bit disappeared. Clearly this is not good for these buildings. Whilst I will pursue things with the Buildings at Risk people is there anything I can do with the local council to get them to review this situation? Or maybe their powers? Many thanks.