Possession of strip of land?

[Dizzyh]

I was wondering if someone may be able to advise please. We live in a detached house and have a pathway that runs down the side of the house, through a gate and into our back garden. The other side of the pathway is our neighbours driveway and garage. Looking at the houses from the front, you would think from the landscaping and the fact the the boundary fence is to the right of the path that the pathway bordering the neighbours driveway (path on ‘our side’ of the fence) belonged to our property, but it is actually our neighbours land that we have right of way over. It’s unclear from the original deeds what the purpose of the right of way was (built circa 1900), and we have lived in the house for 12 years and have had sole use of the pathway - our neighbours have no reason to use it as it just goes into our back garden. I’ve tried to upload a sketch to show, but I get an error saying I don’t have authorisation to upload it. Half of the pathway (a few metres) is in the front garden then when it reaches our house we have a gate that has always been locked with only us having the key - the previous owners also had a locked gate here. The path then continues past the gate a long the side of our house towards back garden for another few metres. My question being that as we have solely used it, do we have any way to claim any right to own the land, rather than just have right of way over it? We don’t get on with our neighbours as he has been harassing us and although he has never said anything about the strip of land being his, I don’t like the thought that it’s his land so effectively he could come down the side of our house at any time :-( He has no reason to as the pathway serves no purpose for him, but he could if he wanted to. Any help or suggestions much appreciated :-)

[des8]

As far as i can see there is nothing you can do about it, except perhaps negotiate with him to purchase the strip of land.

As you have a Right of Way over the land you cannot claim adverse possession

[Dizzyh]

Thank you - I really appreciate your response. I did wonder if this would be the case, but it’s good to know where we stand.

Funny enough I posted as I’d seen him leaning over his driveway fence looking down the side of his garage through to our garden and it made me uneasy - and lo and behold an hour later I had a letter through the letterbox asking for access to repair the metal fence that he says we have’s ‘cut’ that runs down the side of his garage. We’ve had this about 3 times now - a joint has popped out where the ground has moved over the past 20 years it’s been there and he’s convinced we’ve cut it and every now and then we get solicitors letters demanding we pay for repairs....Even the police have said it’s not been cut but he just won’t accept it. I guess it’s that time again, lol! I don’t think he’d sell the strip of land unfortunately so perhaps it’s time for us to consider moving.

thank you so much for taking the time to respond and provide advice .