Bollards across private road

[OliveAdaVowles]

I live in a private road, a cul-de-sac. My deeds, from 1923, show that I own up to the halfway line of the road on my frontage, even though the land registry plan does not show this. The hotel at the cul-de-sac, where the road widens, has a similar land registry plan showing just the ownership of building and gardens. The land registry cannot supply the hotel deeds (1920 onwards) and the owner won't cooperate. The new owner of the hotel has built bollards to stop residents in the road from entering the road outside his hotel in order to turn round. I told the new owner of the hotel that he couldn't do this but he just said "Show me where this is written down?"
What shall I do?

[PAWS]

Re: Bollards across private road

This is very interesting. No idea myself but just giving it a bump to see if any of the clever beagles can help.:bump2:

[des8]

Re: Bollards across private road

It doesn't have to be written down:
"An easement may also be created by prescription. This happens when someone carries out an act (that is capable of being an easement) repeatedly, openly and without the (potentially servient) landowner's permission for a period of at least twenty years.
If a parcel of land is sold together with an expressly granted easement then that parcel becomes the dominant tenement that has rights over neighhbouring land. At the same time, if the vendor of that same parcel of land reserves a right over the land being sold then it is also a servient tenement burdened with the rights reserved for the vendor's retained land.
If there is a doubt as to whether or not an easement exists then the law tends to favour the existence of the easement. As the Law of Property Act 1925 puts it:

"62.(1) A conveyance of land shall be deemed to include and shall ... operate to convey, with the land, all ... liberties, privileges, easements, rights, and advantages whatsoever, appertaining or reputed to appertain to the land, or any part thereof, or, at the time of the conveyance ... enjoyed with or reputed or known as ... appurtenant to the land or any part thereof. "

An easement cannot be created as a result of an illegal act. Thus the driving of motor vehicles across common land does not create a private right of way.
An easement is very difficult to extinguish and should be thought of as existing forever. The land of the servient tenement is burdened with the easement. The owner of the dominant tenement should not forget that the owner of the servient tenement has a right to the peaceful enjoyment of his land and the legitimate development of his land, and the performance of the easement should not interfere with the servient owner's peace nor prevent him from exercising his right to develop his land (provided that the development caters for the easement).
An easement is said to "run with the land", i.e. it cannot be sold separately from the land but must be passed on with the land whenever the land is transferred to a new owner."

[OliveAdaVowles]

Re: Bollards across private road

Thanks for the clarification. If I understand correctly, I have to find someone who consistently has used this area as a turning circle for twenty years without seeking the owner's permission. I have only lived here for three years so I don't qualify myself.
It also seems to me that, even if the hotel's previous owners did not own this land, they could have acquired rights over the land by consistently using it as their customer car park for a period of twenty years. This is almost certainly the case and so gives rise to a further question. Would the new owner of the hotel, by virtue of these acquired parking rights, be entitled to develop this car park as a beer garden, for instance?

[des8]

Re: Bollards across private road

If the land has become subject to an easement, it does not give the owner of that easement the right to develop further uses.
e.g. a footpath right of way created by prescription over a neighbour's ground cannot be turned into a vehicular right of way.

I don't believe the "someone" refers to a particular individual, it can also refer to a class of person, e.g. those living in the cul de sac.

[OliveAdaVowles]

Re: Bollards across private road

Thank you!