Who owns the pavement?

[TheOrigRights]

I live in a terrace, in a small development.
The houses are 2 sides of a square, with car parking near each house and the rest of the square being the pavement and gravel.

I need some repairs to the pavement directly outside my house and am trying to find out who is responsible for this.
It's not Highways.

The title deed for one of the houses shows that the pavement and gravel bit 'belong' to her property. I am trying to find out what exactly this means in practice.
I have lived here a long time and a previous occupant of that house rallied us all to raise £ for new pea shingle.
It's definitely something to do with that property, but the occupant is unwilling to find out more.

I would be quite happy to just get on and fix the pavement myself, but if it's not my responsibility it may come back and bite me if I move or problems arise with it.

Can anyone advise what I can do?

I agree with @SolasAnla tread carefully. I can't remember the details now but there has been cases of people having to pay rental for access where land in front was owned by someone else. Try Googling. And stay friendly with your neighbour!

OP the docs are likely to be filed at the land registry. You should be able to download them from there so you don't need to ask your neighbour. Do you still have the solicitors report from when you bought your home? All this should be explained in there, possibly with copies of the docs.

@ellenpartridge

SolasAnla presumably if the neighbour does own the access land the OPs deeds will contain the relevant access easements. It's pretty unlikely to be a ransom strip.

OP you should download the title deeds and relevant docs for both yourself and your neighbour. Read through and hopefully you will be able to work out what the situation is.

If the neighbour owns the pavement it's likely there will also be maintenance covenants of some description and there may be an obligation to pay towards it. You need to read the docs. There's not a lot we can tell you without sight of the documents.

It's possible that it is an accidentally a ransom strip

The OP is not aware of what is in their deed it's vital that the OP figures that out first.

Likely history the homes were built from a green field when a builder had 1 title.
The field was broken up into plots of land.
Each property consists of 2 separate plots 1 house and 1 carspace.
I would expect 2 separate folio numbers for 2 separate deed titles as the plots were broken out of the original field.

The neighbour property looks like one single plot with 1 house, 1 carspace and 1 section with a number of visitor carspace pavement and road/turning area.

It's possible that the section with number of visitor carspace pavement and road/turning area should have been titled over to the LA to become public property but this was not done, so it's an accidental ransom strip.

If the intent was the neighbour was to keep the land the OP's solicitor should have insisted on documenting access and maintenance of that section of private land but the OP appears to be unaware of that.

The OP needs to check from their legal position themselves as the neighbour has made it clear that they don't want to be involved.

If it's all the neighbour land she could dig out the visitor spaces and paint rude messages on the pavement🤷🏼‍♀️

To echo several other posters, just get your and their title register from the land registry. You need the register as well as the plan.

When you say it’s not highways, what do you mean exactly? My understanding Re roads and pavements in housing developments is that there are two options (1) the local authority have adopted them and so are responsible (unsure if you have already checked with them and that’s what you mean by highways and (2) they haven’t been adopted which mean the residents are responsible. If the roads/pavements are not adopted then I think you probably need to have a solicitor check the titles and advise on liability.

Try reporting it on this website -

www.fixmystreet.com/

I've used it a number of times for various things, including potholes in the pavement directly outside my drive (was there before I moved in). They were sorted and fixed within the week.

Thanks all.
I have got most of the basic docs from the online Land Registry portal (Title and Plan for both mine and neighbour's house), but it looks like I need to dig a bit deeper.

Eugh....I hate all this stuff.

@Fleur405

When you say it’s not highways, what do you mean exactly? My understanding Re roads and pavements in housing developments is that there are two options (1) the local authority have adopted them and so are responsible (unsure if you have already checked with them and that’s what you mean by highways and (2) they haven’t been adopted which mean the residents are responsible. If the roads/pavements are not adopted then I think you probably need to have a solicitor check the titles and advise on liability.

With 1) One problem is that LA will insist that public access land in residential areas are built and finished to a fixed standard. Landscaping, public drainage, a public lighting must be installed and roads paved etc. before they take it.

This ensures that every new new buyer pay a % for the initial infrastructure as part of the purchase price.

To avoid running costs landscaping, public lighting and paving are usually the last things to be done.

However if a builder goes bust part way through the development the unfinished homes are finished and sold and money is used to pay for past debts.
The only asset left in the company is the access land but its not brought up to standard. LA won't accept the land and the homeowners have no legal right to get planning to carry out the works.

LA will should have a bond to cover the risk of unfinished estates but the last bust proved that that is not always the case.

@SolasAnla
FYI I understood your number blocks perfectly

What advice did you get from your solicitor when you bought your house? This is a very unusual situation and you should have had full disclosure of ownership, rights of way etc. We own the pavement immediately outside our house and other land that two neighbours have a right of way over and this was made completely clear to us together with the land registry documents.

@Timeforwinterclothes

What advice did you get from your solicitor when you bought your house? This is a very unusual situation and you should have had full disclosure of ownership, rights of way etc. We own the pavement immediately outside our house and other land that two neighbours have a right of way over and this was made completely clear to us together with the land registry documents.

Heaven knows - it was 1995 and I was not as wise I am now!

I need some repairs to the pavement directly outside my house and am trying to find out who is responsible for this.

Are you trying to get your neighbour to pay, or just get permission? If the road is unadopted and your neighbour the owner, then frankly what's in it for her to pay for repairs?

@Hereward1332

I need some repairs to the pavement directly outside my house and am trying to find out who is responsible for this.

Are you trying to get your neighbour to pay, or just get permission? If the road is unadopted and your neighbour the owner, then frankly what's in it for her to pay for repairs?

My OP states "I would be quite happy to just get on and fix the pavement myself, but if it's not my responsibility it may come back and bite me if I move or problems arise with it."

Does that answer your question?

It does annoy me when people don't read threads properly and come on just to have a dig.

[quote JollyJoon]@SolasAnla
FYI I understood your number blocks perfectly[/quote]
@JollyJoon

Thanks😀

we live in a col de sac
while 3 of the houses technically own strips of the driveway access is free to all & we jointly have responsibility for upkeep - this is mentioned on the deeds
this will be mentioned on the deeds - do you have the full deeds for your property - op?
As pp has says get deeds off of Land Reg cost about £3

Yes I have the Deeds - both mine and my neighbours.

Why oh why don't the people who write these things use language that people can understand easily?

I am an educated person trying to read e.g.

"IT IS HEREBY AGREED AND DECLARED by and between the parties hereto that the Purchasers shall not be entitled or become entitled to any right of light or air or other easements or rights in respect of the
whole of the property hereby conveyed or any building or buildings for the time being erected thereon or on some part thereof over and against the retained land of the Vendor which would or might prejudice or restrict or interfere with the free use of the retained land by the Vendor or his successors in title thereof for building or for any other purpose and enjoyment actually had by the Purchasers or their successors in title as aforesaid shall be deemed to be had or enjoyed by the express permission of the Vendor and his successors in title and not as of right."

It's a single sentence. Yeah, I get it's legal talk, but if you work in a profession where lay people need to understand what you're doing, you need to use words those people can understand.

nb I know this is nothing to do with what I'm asking, I'm just annoyed!

IT IS HEREBY AGREED
that the Purchasers shall
not
be entitled any right in respect of the (sold) property or (its) building
(and)
against the (unsold) land which would interfere with the free use of the retained land by the Vendor
(and)
enjoyment had by the Purchasers
shall be had by the express permission of the Vendor and not as of right.

Cuts down to who ever has the original land deed has a veto over any changes you would make to the property if they feel it would impact their property or how they could use their property in the future.