Supply to oil tank

[homesweethome]

I live in a lovely predominantly stone built village. Our houses are all built in a jumble, a land registry nightmare.
There seems to be a new regulation about stopping the delivery of oil through terraced houses. This is making life difficult and winter has arrived!
What are we supposed to do? Not everyone has a kind neighbour who permits the pipe across their land as apparently that is some form of un-legal access?

 

[fernicarry]

I sympathise, my access is over a former farm track that is on my neighbour's title. How that came to be when all the ordnance survey maps since my house was built show the track clearly running into my property is unknown. Although I do have a right in my title allowing me to use it and a burden in theirs to not obstruct it, they like t be ****s about it from time to time, calling it their "driveway". It got to the point a few weeks back where I was discussing legal steps with my lawyer but I managed to talk them down.

So you could check your neighbouring titles to see if there are any rights of access that might help you. You can buy copies of registered titles online. You might also be able to make a case for a prescriptive right. My lawyer did mention that but you need to evidence 20 years of uncontested use so its a bit of a long shot.

Not sure if delivering through the property is a regulation as such or just the policy of individual suppliers. Maybe try another supplier if there is one? My local suppliers seem to be quite keen to get my business, I just got another postcard through the door offering me a discount.

 

[homesweethome]

Thank you for replying I do hope something can be worked out. With that and other potential access problems I think I should find a solicitor who can do this legally
The wording of access is not clear and old fashioned and doesn't take into account the steps going down the very sloped garden.
Many thanks.

 

[a twig]

The 20 years bit doesn’t mean necessarily 20 years by you, you can include usage from previous owners of the property as well

Following the ruling in Welford v Graham [2017] UKUT 297 (TCC), applicants claiming a prescriptive right can rely on the presumption of use as of right by their predecessor in title, absent evidence to the contrary. In this case, the applicants sought to register the benefit of an easement (a right of way) over an adjoining yard to their workshop.

From this useful article: https://thesolicitorsgroup.co.uk/news/2022/prescriptive-easements-an-update

Interestingly, you are not the first member of this parish to have had this issue - 2008!

Elderly neighbours denied fuel oil delivery -health & safety

Any suggestions. Elderly neighbours live in listed mid terrace, garden at the back with oil tank. Double fronted house but only one room deep. Original Stone flags in hallway. In the past the oil pipe was laid through the hall and filled up the tank at the back. This happened for other...

www.periodproperty.co.uk

 

[a twig]

Apparently you are supposed to be able to see the filling point and the gauge at the same time in order for it to be safe, but I couldn’t find anything legislative about it.

I suspect that with insurance prices etc going up companies just don’t want to take the risk of leaks, spills, damage etc. Maybe ring around alternative suppliers to see if a different company would be prepared to do it?

Why a delivery person couldn’t just have a wireless video monitor so they could see the gauge from wherever they are I have no idea.

Worst case you can get a remote feeder pipe installed at the front of the house that runs underneath the house to the tank but I dread to think how much that would cost

 

[a twig]

Or if there is a handy river nearby - a bit of community action!

Village hydro plant produces first gigawatt hour : Yorkshire Dales National Park

Things to see and do, stories, advice, and information from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority

www.yorkshiredales.org.uk

 

[fernicarry]

Why a delivery person couldn’t just have a wireless video monitor so they could see the gauge from wherever they are I have no idea.

Noticed my drivers now have a yellow hand held thing which I assume they use to remotely control the delivery. The driver generally hangs around at the tank end of proceedings.

I didn't even have a gauge on my tank until relatively recently...

 

[homesweethome]

Thank you for replying I do hope something can be worked out. With that and other potential access problems I think I should find a solicitor who can do this legally
The wording of access is not clear and old fashioned and doesn't take into account the steps going down the very sloped garden.
Many thanks.

Well in this village all sorts of interesting ways to fill oil tanks have become the norm. The terraced row along the main street backs the graveyard. The tanker man flings his hose across the pavement, up over the church wall from the road, drags it across the graves, and flings it across the higher next stone wall to get it into the terraced house yard and then he walks round the roads and through the house into the tiny yard and connects the hose to the tank and then goes back round the roads to turn the supply on. Etc... hummm

 

[homesweethome]

Actually I should have added my terraced neighbour gets her tank filled from the Back Lane, across my garden through the geese enclosure, right through her stone shed into her garden where her tank is. Mine is relatively simple to fill if you don't count passing the geese, going down some steps to a lower garden, and finding the tank behind a shed!

 

[mardinor]

my terraced neighbour gets her tank filled from the Back Lane

I miss Penners

 

[aockenden]

Wait, the pipe is just temporary while some big oil tanker truck refills your household storage tank right? It's nothing permanently installed? And you're saying your neighbors won't allow the pipe to temporarily lay across their land so that you can get the oil needed to heat your house?

 

[homesweethome]

This is a problem for a near neighbour and as I soon have to divide my plot it may be an issue for me or the people I sell the other half to. I wouldn't want to give legal rights incase they get a batch of builders in and call it maintenance or vital supplies and wreck my garden in the process so I d like to know where to draw the line legally. Is filling an oil tank/delivering logs/solidfuel access the same as the "man and wheelbarrow" or "pedestrian" or "vehicular" or just "egress" ???

 

[homesweethome]

Presumably the "man and wheelbarrow" although its never been used in 45 yrs I've been here as there is no gate, could be translated nowadays as permission to bring council bins across my land as apposed to cars?

 

[fernicarry]

If you are splitting your own plot then you will have some control over how the easement over the land you retain is worded i.e. your obligation to the new owner. The easement will be a specifically marked area on the title plot (in my experience of looking at Scottish titles), so the new owners can't run rampant anywhere in your garden but you would have to allow them to freely exercise their rights once granted so accept that you lose exclusive use of that area. At the end of the day a land-locked plot isn't worth nearly as much as one with access if that's your motivation for splitting.

My title is 160 years old and whilst the wording is familiar to my lawyer ("free ish", two words...), she hummed and hawed a great deal relating it to examples of current day usage. She finally conceded that the oil tanker stopping on the access track to make a delivery probably was in the spirit of the wording but that me leaving my bins at the bottom of the track for collection (there is no pavement on our side of the road) probably wasn't. Like I say we kissed and made up so I didn't take it any further.

Probably best to have a chat with your lawyer if its keeping you awake at night.

 

[homesweethome]

Thanks, looks as if the old wording may be interpretted several ways. If any vehicle could get in to supply anything it would have to be a small car only and then it would completely block my own way in and that would be a pain as there's no parking on the one track lane . I am tempted to accept making the rear of the terraced property closed off even if it reduces its value , just so I don't have any hassle in the future.