Buying neighbour out of vehicular right of way across back garden - any experiences or advice?

[FannyPriceless]

We are looking at buying a house which is perfect except for one problem - the garden is split in two by a vehicle right of way leading to the neighbours' houses.

We want to know if it would be possible to negotiate a change to the titles, in effect to 'buy' the right of way back off the neighbours.

I appreciate that this would be complex, but just want to know if anyone has done it or attempted it, and get some advice on where to start / how to go about it.

The situation is, it's a standalone row of five Edwardian terraces on the edge of a village. The one we are looking at is the right hand end. A driveway goes around the end of the terrace, across 'our' back garden, and leads to the immediate neighbour, then on to the next. The third one apparently has pedestrian right of way.

Would we just approach the neighbours and ask them if they would be willing to discuss this? Would we offer to pay a certain amount towards legal fees for the title changes, as well as a lump sum? We were thinking something like £10,000? Who can give advice on this?

Probably best to talk to the Land Registry initially, as you may be able to register the land in your name, but not necessarily remove the right of way, even if your neighbours agree to it, which may mean subsequent neighbours could challenge it. Here's the number 0844 892 1111.

Could the driveway be moved to the very bottom of your garden and then you put a fence up between it and your boundary, allowing access but not having it cutting across your property iyswim?

Thanks for the number Maggie. I will call. Do I need details of the titles before I speak to them?

What I really want is to see the title so I know what I'm actually dealing with. Is there any way to do that myself or do I have to pay a solicitor to do a search?

And to answer your question, moving the driveway would rather ruin the loveliness of the garden. It is a very long garden which backs on to open fields. I'm not sure which is the worse position for it. Either is pretty bad and doesn't give us the garden we want.

They Land Reg should be able to reference it from the address/postcode. You can go online and buy a copy of title/s for any property - think they're in the region of £6 each which will state what the rights of way etc are.

We registered a piece of land and it cost around £150 in solicitor's and land reg fees. It still has a right of way on it, but because the right was abandoned around 40 years ago, then it is very unlikely that anyone contesting it would succeed, according to the legal advice we were given.

Wow! Maggie thank you so much! I had no idea I could buy the title on line. Have just downloaded it and we are now working our way through the various rights described. It was £4 for the title and £4 for the plan.