Reply With QuoteLegally access your garage from someone else land? That will be a can of worms, especially if the land owner turns up and secures his/her land.
Hi all, time to pick the brains of the tz collective!!
We have a large rear garden which we don't really use so I'm looking to build a garage for my toys etc. The garage looks fairly straightforward within permitted development but obviously I will need access via the rear of the garden,ok so behind my garden is wasteland/unregistered land/common land we are not sure which?
I have contacted the local council who say it's not theirs even though they occasionally maintain it!! Our next step is land registry...
So the road behind finishes about 20ft from our boundary so we would need to drive across this piece of land in to our back garden, what I'm trying to ascertain is what access we need to ensure that we legally access the new garage?
If anyone has any experience or information that would be helpful, its looking like the land will be most likely designated as unregistered!!!
Many thanks for sticking with me if you got this far!!!!
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Legally access your garage from someone else land? That will be a can of worms, especially if the land owner turns up and secures his/her land.
As above!!
But you've already set out the next logical step anyway..........
See what they say before doing anything, you'll then have some information on which to make a decision.Our next step is land registry...
This is a very common situation and the likelihood is that it will still be unregistered 100 years from now.
You are taking a chance but the odds are way in your favour of not coming a cropper.
And of course after a while you would establish a right to use it, take legal advice.
If there's no land registry maybe hedge your bets a bit - make an access and establish use before you build a garage.
When you come to sell your house, I imagine access to the garage will be a huge problem if the buyer's solicitor picks up on it.
You're not kidding.Originally Posted by hogthrob
Plainly, if when you come to do that, you can demonstrate that you've been regularly driving over the route between your garden and the highway for at least 20 years, openly & without asking or receiving anyone's say-so, that would be very helpful to your cause. You might already be able to demonstrate this?
Similarly, if one of your neighbours has been treating the land in question as if they own it, they could possibly register their 'prescriptive' ownership of it and then cleanly grant you the necessary right of way.
When it comes to any action on these sorts of thing, do use a solicitor who specialises in the work. It's much the better course to get any applications right first time.
Thanks for all the replies, we cannot currently show that we have historical access by vehicle but we have a back gate which has been used for 20 years or more by people on foot... I definitely want the access issue set in stone before proceeding ,as for crossing someone else's land I have a feeling that its going to come back as unregistered land so hopefully will be able to register a right of access and carry on??
Just wondered if anyone had done something similar..
Cheers
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IANAL, but I believe that "unregistered land" just means that it hasn't been sold since the requirement to register with the Land Registry came into force. It does NOT mean that nobody owns it.
The rules on Adverse Possession have been tightened over the last few years, so unless you can prove that you have had exclusive access to the land for a number of years - and the owner is given a chance to object - you are unlikely to be able to claim this.
Worst case, you could wake up one morning and find that the owner of the land has build a wall on the boundary of their property, just in front of your garage, and your car could never be removed. Best case, when you come to sell the house, you'll have a world of pain with the buyer's solicitors.
Definitely one to get good quality professional advice, and not go by what a bunch of strangers on an internet watch forum have said :-)
Obviously I wouldn't proceed unless I have cast iron assurance that my access will be granted and stay granted, to be honest the piece of land is very insignificant by itself but it is a very small portion of large open space between housing developments and streets which I would assume to be common land? Its strange the council are saying they don't own it as I've said they sporadically maintain the land ie cutting grass/hedges trees etc which is why I approached them first...
I'm not expecting people on the internet to answer the problem for me and definitely wouldn't proceed because some blokes on a watch forum said it will be fine
I was naively hoping that someone may have had a similar problem and could give me some pointers!!!
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No advice I'm afraid but its an interesting question. How many neighbours back gates open on to the "common" area? Is it just a path or a lane?
It is only my back gate as all the other houses face onto the street, basically I live on the street behind but my garden runs parallel with the last house on the street behind me , my neighbor behind me his drive is onto the street then its about 15-20 ft of waste land which runs along his front boundary until you reach the rear boundary of my garden, Hope this makes sense? It does to me but maybe I'm not explaining it very well!!!
The kerb is already dropped for access to his drive, the waste land in question is about 15 ft wide at this point between 2 garden boundaries ie my neighbor behind and the house opposite him on the street!
Basically I want to drive 15-20 ft along his front boundary and then turn into my garden..
Clear as mud
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Perhaps if you take a screenshot of google maps it will be easier for us to visualize the thing.It is only my back gate as all the other houses face onto the street, basically I live on the street behind but my garden runs parallel with the last house on the street behind me , my neighbor behind me his drive is onto the street then its about 15-20 ft of waste land which runs along his front boundary until you reach the rear boundary of my garden, Hope this makes sense? It does to me but maybe I'm not explaining it very well!!!
The kerb is already dropped for access to his drive, the waste land in question is about 15 ft wide at this point between 2 garden boundaries ie my neighbor behind and the house opposite him on the street!
Basically I want to drive 15-20 ft along his front boundary and then turn into my garden..
Clear as mud
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Last edited by barbosas; 23rd April 2019 at 16:41.
We had a similar problem there was some waste ground at the back of our road and it was used as a nature reserve no one new who owned it till the council stopped maintaing it to save money turned out it was owned by jelsons who built the housing estate.
So spend some money and get someone who knows what they are talking about to sort it out for you
It can be a nightmare. I wouldn't mind betting that when your houses were built the land owner at the time incorporated random strips behind the properties. A plan from google maps would be helpful here.
Happened away my mother's house - strips of land left by the developer who had since gone out of business.
When those happens the land becomes crown property. A price was agreed to purchase tbe land from the crown estate... then you need to deal with change of use with the council, confirm highway agency access rights and other utility access rights and only then can you apply for a dropped curb.
You then need planning permission to put some hard standing down.
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My in-laws had something similar happen behind their house. Next door decided to knock down the wall at the end of the garden and claim the strip behind their house and behind my in-laws' house. As far as I'm aware it was all legal when they sold the house a couple of years ago, though I'm not sure what they did (if anything) to make it such.
I had a friend do this too, as everyone else seemed to have done it along his street he did it before the house behind claimed it and put some decking and fencing on it. He told me if nobody objects within three years it’s incorporated into his land? I have no idea if this is right but it’s been longer than three years and nobody has said anything?
Gaz
I'm sure I could just do it and everything will be fine but I don't want to spend thousands building a garage that I can't use,knowing my luck someone will complain and ruin it so I need the access iron clad before I start..
Thanks for all the replies the council say the land is not theirs and possibly freehold? But my wife is in the process of dealing with the land registry to hopefully clear the matter up and hopefully lawfully gain access..
I'll update this thread later if and when we get anywhere!!!! If it doesn't drive me mad first
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For Adverse Possession, it's more like 20 years I think, and you also need to notify the land's owner, at which point they which they have a right to object. The law in this area has been tightened up significantly in recent years.
Is this what was colloquially known as "squatter's rights"? I seem to recall that people used to say that if you used it as yours for 7 years, it became yours. Didn't seem right to me at the time.
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