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Hello. I hope someone may be able to help please. We live in a row of 4 Victorian cottages and, as is typical, each neighbour has a Right Of Way across a designated area at the back of the houses, to enable cottages 3 & 2 to be able to get from the front of their houses to the back.
Our house and number 1 are in the end, so the Right of Way includes our driveways.
Before we moved in approx 13 years ago our direct neighbour - number 3 - built an extension, which covers approx 60 % of the rights of way. The vendors of our house at the time wanted to erect a fence and gate between number 4 and number 3 so they could have some privacy, and number 3 said this was ok as long as a. They out the gate beyond the Right Of Way area and b. they erect the fence approx 3 Traci to their land (therefore giving number 3 this extra land) otherwise number 3 would not be able to get out of their extension back door and h to their garden. This was a verbal agreement and no amendment was made to the deeds.
When we moved in 13 years ago everything was ok. After about a year we realised from another neighbour that two of the outbuildings in garden of number 3 were actually ours, but because of the way the fence had been erected it felt awkward to go into our neighbours garden so we do not use them.
The owners of houses 2 & 1 use the Right of Way at the other end and the owner of number 3 comes though our drive and garden. Everything has been fine all these years up until about a year ago. Our neighbour at number 3 became a self employed builder and started using the ROW daily to load and unload building materials. This became annoying as he would have to travel across the lawn, beyond of ROW area.
My question is, can I close that gate and put a new gate and right of way access into the actual right of way area? This would be closed to both houses at the rear and would mean the neighbour would then have a path to use rather than the lawn. The gate would be situated opposite his back door, with enough of a walkway to still be able to use the gate and to reach his back garden, even though in theory he has caused an obstruction to our right of way with his extension. We want to be good neighbours and not cause him any issues but we also want a bit of privacy back and to not have our lawn traipsed over every day when in effect half of the route he currently takes is not even part of the right of way.
I hope this makes sense and would appreciate any advice. Sorry for the long winded story as I suppose in essence we are asking if we can move a ROW gate back into the actual ROW area.
Our house and number 1 are in the end, so the Right of Way includes our driveways.
Before we moved in approx 13 years ago our direct neighbour - number 3 - built an extension, which covers approx 60 % of the rights of way. The vendors of our house at the time wanted to erect a fence and gate between number 4 and number 3 so they could have some privacy, and number 3 said this was ok as long as a. They out the gate beyond the Right Of Way area and b. they erect the fence approx 3 Traci to their land (therefore giving number 3 this extra land) otherwise number 3 would not be able to get out of their extension back door and h to their garden. This was a verbal agreement and no amendment was made to the deeds.
When we moved in 13 years ago everything was ok. After about a year we realised from another neighbour that two of the outbuildings in garden of number 3 were actually ours, but because of the way the fence had been erected it felt awkward to go into our neighbours garden so we do not use them.
The owners of houses 2 & 1 use the Right of Way at the other end and the owner of number 3 comes though our drive and garden. Everything has been fine all these years up until about a year ago. Our neighbour at number 3 became a self employed builder and started using the ROW daily to load and unload building materials. This became annoying as he would have to travel across the lawn, beyond of ROW area.
My question is, can I close that gate and put a new gate and right of way access into the actual right of way area? This would be closed to both houses at the rear and would mean the neighbour would then have a path to use rather than the lawn. The gate would be situated opposite his back door, with enough of a walkway to still be able to use the gate and to reach his back garden, even though in theory he has caused an obstruction to our right of way with his extension. We want to be good neighbours and not cause him any issues but we also want a bit of privacy back and to not have our lawn traipsed over every day when in effect half of the route he currently takes is not even part of the right of way.
I hope this makes sense and would appreciate any advice. Sorry for the long winded story as I suppose in essence we are asking if we can move a ROW gate back into the actual ROW area.