Private right of way and the building work nightmare neighbor!?

[yumiami]

Hi, we are trying to build a house on a plot of land which our neighbor has a right a way to their back garden.

It is not a public right of way, it is "private right of way" and it is clearly specified in their deeds and it is for vehicle and foot access. some parts of the right of way about 3m and some parts 2.5m wide.
We are building a house avoiding a right of way area.

The neighbors house is topical Victorian terrace, and the garden is about 4.5m wide 6m long. We believe they are not using the right of way access at all. But the neighbor claims they need to use it to move their garden equipment and bikes etc.

The neighbor claims we cannot temporarily block or obstruct the right of way, even for very short intervals in order to carry out our building work.

Is this correct in the legal sense ?

And they say once our builder put wheelbarrow on the right of way their solicitor would be writing us a letter!

If anyone knows any court case similar to this, please let me know.

We are sure this neighbor will try everything they could to stop our building, but we would like to know how much our building work would be interrupted with this right of way....... and how possible is it to build a house....

I would be grateful for any help on this issue.

Thanks very much.

I don't exactly know, but police, council, environmental officers, etc have been involved over the years and I believe there was some sort of legal order issued. Frankly i have kept well away from the whole issue as it is a small village and I need to get involved like I need a smack in the mouth (and I've stuck to cats!). What I do know is that I was 24 hours from exchange when my buyer pulled out citing neighbours dispute and impeded right of access. I initially assumed I was being played on the price, but it was a complete reverse that took out the chain.

Voodoobooboo, sorry to hear your situation.

But our neighbor has bins in the front garden, and currently not using the ROW for 10 years.

So we are kind of annoyed they are using their right to just trying to stop our building going up....

We rather give money to charity instead of wasting on Solicitors/Surveyor.

[actually we will suggest this to our neighbor!]

Another conveyancing solicitor, and I'm sorry, but I second Peppermint. It's a potentially very messy situation. You need to stick with proper legal advice. Good luck.

I rented a tiny terrace that had a right of access through the garden. The garden was very small, and I had a washing line up. It was quite high, you just had to slightly duck your head to go under.

Our neighbour decided to use her garden and backdoor as her main entrance, so was constantly back and forth. She decided her right of access trumped the washing line and decided to cut it in half every time it was accidentally left across :/

The person who had lived there previously had neighbours who had a large pushchair, and they decided she had to move all her shrubs and pots to give them easy access with the pram, rather than, you know - use their sodding front door.

The most useful piece of advice a solicitor has ever given me is "Don't buy a problem".

Look at it this way - there is absolutely no reason for the neighbours to be helpful about this. They're going to be living next to a building site for a year, they risk losing a valuable asset to their house and there are a whole bunch of uncertain factors which could negatively impact on their enjoyment of their home. Why would they cooperate? They've already been very clear with you about this. And then even if you do push it through, would you really want to live next door to people?

If I were you I would get out while I still can.

You've been given excellent advice on this thread and you've also been given examples of what can happen with a ROW dispute. Money spent with a solicitor in this type of situation is never wasted and will be of much more use to you than donating to charity.

A PP asked about problems showing up when you do a search of an adjacent property. There are lots of council and planning documents online as well as community council minutes, etc. Every time we consider purchasing a property (as well as going through the deeds in great detail) we do an extensive internet search of the address and the adjacent addresses for planning applications, failed applications, local news, community council minutes, etc. We also talk to the adjacent owners if possible and give the local planners a call. It's amazing what you can find out and we've walked away from more than one purchase because our research has shown a long-running dispute or planning issue. We do all of that before we'd even consider putting in an offer for a property.

We are seek professional advise form either solicitor or barrister specialize in the property law. will let you know once we have more info.

btw we have found RICS offer interesting service.

www.rics.org/uk/join/member-accreditations-list/dispute-resolution-service/neighbour-disputes-service/

also we will make sure we take some self build insurance which cover the legal expense.

many thanks for the comments!

Iseenyou we have been to a few open viewings but have never made a purchase! I actually love researching properties. It's amazing how much detail you can find about previous owners, etc.

Yumiami that's good news about going to a solicitor. I hope it all works out for the best.

You also have to consider the impact on you

Let's say you agree for eg restricted access during building works.

How are you going to feel sittingf in your beautiful new house/garden when your neighbours (current or new) decide to regularly exercise their right to vehicle access.

If you are planning to sell, how will this access impact your sale price?

Sorry OP but I think you're the nightmare neighbour. You're planning to go ahead on the basis that your neighbour won't be able to stop it, you'll just have to pay a bit of compensation . You're happy to force your neighbour to sue you so long as you get to do what you want. Is this really how you want to start a relationship with the people you will be living alongside (and seeing every day as they traipse through your garden)?

to be honest, OP, if i were your neighbour and realised you hadn't taken proper legal advice from the outset about something as fundamental as a right of way, it would make me wonder what else you were winging it on - planning permission? a proper architect? reliable builders? structural engineers? All things which could have major impact on my (hypothetical!) home, and living conditions.