Neighbour wants to buy easement garden access from us - advice pls

[lifeohlife1]

Our house is going on the market this week. My neighbour has seen the for sale board and has put a note through the door asking to buy our easement access from us and the cost of a deeds change, prior to any sale, as she is nervous of 'strangers' walking across her garden.

We have always been on good terms - she is a lovely woman in her mid 70s - all her adult children live close by and support/help her lots.

We are a mid terrace, she is the end of the row semi - we have a gate to her garden which gives us access across her garden and out her side gate into the street.

To note - we have been in the property 10 years and have used the easement maybe 3 times - once to fit new furniture into our patio doors and crucially one time, when i locked myself out and my 18 month old was alone and i was able to run round and through her side gate and then into my open patio doors.

For what it is worth - what has irritated me over the years is that the side gate is locked (we don't have a key) and so we haven't had full access (a breach of the easement, if one was to get petty) which could have been very stressful in an emergency (it was a total fluke it was open the day i needed emergency access - v unusual) and she has blocked her side of the gate with a heavy bench, which did stress me out with 2 young children - again, thinking of fire or the like. For an easy life, we didn't query/push any of these issues.

Even if we wanted to sell her the easement - a deed change is likely to take months and therefore may disrupt any potential house sale.

What other implications should i be aware of - is it common for terraces to have zero side/back access? I think it is useful for both of the reasons we used it above. The estate agent says you can offer it to buyers as an option to sell it once the sale completes, I think it may just complicate things and if i was a buyer, i would worry about annoying a new neighbour by saying no.

Any help or advice on this would be really useful, thanks.

does your neighbour on your otherside have the same access or do they have easement to the other side of them?

A sort of middle ground could be to move the access to the end of the gardens meaning that people arent walking past windows etc. She could screen or fence off this bit if she is worried about security. I have done a little diagram. I have assumed red is the current access so proposed is in green.

Lack of access for bins, garden waste, bikes, window cleaner, big furniture/appliances, muddy dogs/children, emergency access such as front door jammed, etc etc is worth quite a lot and I would get advice on how much it would devalue the house by PLUS compensation for the fact that you will decrease your pool of interested buyers and potentially lengthen the time you are on the market.

My Dad's house had such an easement. Without it any sort of work on the back of the house would have been virtually impossible.

If you sell, I think it might reduce the price of your place BUT you'd have the cash for surrendering it and the lack of access would be the next guy's problem.

I would say no and thank her for discussing the easement which as she knows means that you are allowed access at all times even if rarely used . You would be grateful if she ensures that the bench is removed and the gate is unlocked as per the terms of your easement .

I wouldn't buy your house if I couldn't have rear access, especially one that did until recently previously have access. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would think this so its whether or not you want to reduce the pool of buyers.

I would say no and I also wouldn’t buy the house if you sold it and it transpire the house was being sold without it. Can we have a diagram? 😂

All these people saying that they would say no, doesn’t it depend on how much it is worth to her? Everyone has a price. £5k, £10k, 20k……?

I'd say no: I would to be able to access the garden without going through the house. She is being very cheeky to block it off.

IME most terraces have side or rear access.

ETA, we once pulled out of a house sale where there were proposed changes to the easement. We saw the true colours of the neighbours...

It would be a no from me. We're looking at houses and immediately rule out any without access to the garden. I don't want to have to be taking my wet/muddy bike through the house to get it to the shed etc....

No. It will take too long, too much agro for too little money and any potential buyer for your property may think they are being short changed. We once had easement access over our neighbours garden and only used it once in 6 years. The gate was permanently locked but access is something you arrange in advance for something necessary, it's not generally a normal right of way so your neighbour shouldn't really be too concerned.

As she had failed to allow you the access, then definitely a no.

It may also reduce the value of your property, cost you time and money in selling it. All to benefit one person, which is not you.

I’d say no, and tell her that going forward the gate needs to be unlocked and access clear of any obstruction for viewings.

I fully agree.

If the easement is at the front or middle of the garden, I would consider negotiating it to the back. If she paid all the related expenses and paid you for the inconvenience, it might not be a huge thing. That way she could just fence off the pathway and have some security.

Just say no problem, she can buy the whole property from you at market value, make whatever changes she likes to the legal side, then put it back on the market afterwards!

I would do exactly this.
I am mid terrace and was in process of changing this with a neighbour (whose garden I have access over) until they died unexpectedly and house is now in probate.

on our deeds we can lock gate so long as house next to me has a key to the gate (house who I have to provide access to). I would be worried like your neighbour is about people suddenly starting to use the access more frequently. It does also state in the deeds that they cannot ride bicycles / motorbikes over the easement, cannot "excessively use" the access, and are liable for 50% of the maintenance of the access. My neighbours children used to go through and leave gate wide open which would then leave my garden unsecured. Hence we locked it and they now have a key (and children no longer there).

Be careful. You have to declare if you’re in any disputes with neighbours

You may also be asked whether the access is kept clear/unlocked at all times and have to disclose that no, it isn't!

Rather intrigued by this thread....a pp mentioned London. I can't remember any houses in the areas I lived in with rear access. If people did expensive renovations, houses now worth millions, everything would come in and out through the front door, never mind the ordinary stuff like rubbish.

It's virtually unheard of in and around London but quite common in other parts of the country.

I wouldn't sell it . There are many houses like this in my city and people expect to have access to the road through the back door.
She must have known when she moved in that neighbours would have that access. And people moving in will expect it.
She has been very lucky that you have been extended patient and not pushed it. It's common where I live doe people who live in terraces like this to use their back doors as their main entrance to their house which means frequently going through neighbours back gardens

But that money is no good if it makes the house more difficult to sell which I think it probably would

I unfortunately wouldn't agree to this and I also wouldn't mention the lock on the gate in the sellers pack, unless you have had negative words on her using the lock.

I'm firmly in the no camp. I wouldn't buy a house without outside access to my garden - I don't want to be lugging all my garden supplies or garden waste through my house.

I would say no.
It may impact saleability of your house. It will improve saleabilty of her house.
She won't want to pay you for the correct amount of money.

Nope.
Very dodgy of her to block access all these years!
She obviously knows new neighbours are unlikely to be so charitable and will need to use the access they are entitled to.

Can she put up a second fence in her garden therefore creating a passageway and giving her privacy/security without impinging on other people's right to access?