Private Rights of Way and development permission

[Smudger115]

We own a private road and a grass verge that runs along it, a developer has brought the field which butts up to our grass verge and has now had planning permission to build upon. to gain access to the new houses he has taken away a piece of our grass verge to build a new road into the houses. we have been told that because he has right of way he can effectively build the road anywhere he likes along our verge (his title transfer does show the road butting up to his field and is marked as the right of way on foot or with a vehicle) it seems strange to us that someone can just take a portion of your land.. is this correct?

[atticus]

no, as described it is not correct. You should take legal advice from a solicitor who will need to see all relevant title documents. You should also work out what you want to achieve.

[islandgirl]

Where I live planning permission was granted for a hotel. To access the site for the hotel a relatively small part of another person's land had to be used. The "other person" demanded so much money that the development did not go ahead...

[Smudger115]

no, as described it is not correct. You should take legal advice from a solicitor who will need to see all relevant title documents. You should also work out what you want to achieve.

Thank you - A solicitor advised us there way nothing we could do, but this doesnt seem right to us, as it would mean that anyone on the road could simply build a new entryway across our strip of land as they all have the same right of way.. I think we will have to get a second opinion..

[atticus]

All I can say is that this may be 1 of 2 things:

1. Your solicitor may have given that advice based on more information than you have provided, and has seen something that points firmly to a different conclusion in your specific case; or

2. You need to consult a more specialist solicitor.

I cannot say which it is.

[islandgirl]

if it were true that anyone could drive across land owned by others without their permission surely the whole concept of a "ransom strip" would not exist?

[atticus]

Well indeed, islandgirl : either the solicitor has seen something that permits this or he/she has missed the point. Or something else - things are not always black and white.

[Smudger115]

All I can say is that this may be 1 of 2 things:

1. Your solicitor may have given that advice based on more information than you have provided, and has seen something that points firmly to a different conclusion in your specific case; or

2. You need to consult a more specialist solicitor.

I cannot say which it is.

He seems to think that because the right of way highlighted on his title plan covers the road and the verge that he can do this, the image doesn't show the verge clearly on his plan, it only shows the road and his boundary. but on our title plan you can see a dotted line where the verge is.

[Smudger115]

He seems to think that because the right of way highlighted on his title plan covers the road and the verge that he can do this, the image doesn't show the verge clearly on his plan, it only shows the road and his boundary. but on our title plan you can see a dotted line where the verge is.

I have attached two images, the first one shows the rights of way with no verge marked and plan two shows the dotted line where the verge is..

[atticus]

Has the solicitor also considered the words on your Land registry title document relating to the right of way?

I assume that you live in "Orion". Why can't the developer build an access to the road shown at the left of the plans?

[Smudger115]

Has the solicitor also considered the words on your Land registry title document relating to the right of way?

yes he said so, i took a snippet -

[atticus]

OK, as I suspected there is more to this than meets the eye. That "snippet" raises further questions. I cannot take this further without seeing a lot more. You should get that second opinion.

[Smudger115]

OK, as I suspected there is more to this than meets the eye. That "snippet" raises further questions. I cannot take this further without seeing a lot more. You should get that second opinion.

Ok we will do, thank you for the help and advice much appreciated