fbpx

Neighbours Encroaching on Your Right of Way? Consult a Lawyer Today

14th October 2021 By

Many homes or businesses are only accessible via neighbours’ land and that can prove fertile ground for dispute. However, as a High Court case showed, expert lawyers are adept at ensuring their clients’ unhindered use of rights of way.

A couple’s home and holiday accommodation business was accessed via a track that ran across land that formed part of the grounds of a country house hotel. They took action against the hotel’s owners, asserting that they had for a number of years engaged in a persistent and systematic course of conduct that substantially interfered with the exercise of their right of way over the track. The owners denied the allegation and characterised the couple’s complaints as an attempt to gain greater access rights than those to which they were legally entitled.

Ruling on the matter, the Court found that a succession of works carried out by or on behalf of the hotel’s owners over the years – including the installation of a gate, the placing of boulders on the track’s verges and changes to its entrance splay – amounted to unlawful interference with the couple’s right of way.

Aerial photographs and other evidence indicated that the works had resulted in the track being significantly narrowed in places, making it harder for cars to pass each other and for heavier vehicles to access the couple’s property. The Court was satisfied that the installation of the gate had nothing to do with security but was rather a deliberate attempt to inconvenience the couple.

The Court granted the couple an injunction that required the hotel’s owners to, amongst other things, remove the gate and boulders and to broaden the entrance splay. The couple were awarded £1,000 in damages to reflect the inconvenience they had suffered and, importantly for them, the Court recognised their right to repair and maintain the track, which had at times fallen into a very poor condition.

Source: Concious

Latest News

Tenants Can Purchase Freehold When Landlord Cannot Be Found

11th June, 2024 By

The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 gives qualifying leaseholders the right to join together to buy the freehold of their properties – a process known as collective enfranchisement. A recent case demonstrated that this right can be exercised even when the landlord cannot be found. The leaseholders of two flats in a terraced house wished to purchase it from the landlord, but were unable to ascertain his whereabouts and therefore could not serve notice on him under Section 13 of the Act. They therefore applied for an...

Court Refuses to Set Aside Divorce Order Applied for by Mistake

6th June, 2024 By

While the courts have a range of powers to set aside orders, they will only exercise them in limited circumstances. In a somewhat surprising case that has attracted much comment, the High Court declined to set aside a final order of divorce that had been applied for by mistake. A couple separated in January 2023, after more than 21 years of marriage. In October that year, while financial remedy proceedings were still ongoing, the wife's legal representatives inadvertently applied for a final order of divorce in respect of her instead...

Waiting Time for Grants of Probate Falls

3rd June, 2024 By

Following concerns last year about delays in processing probate applications, recent figures from HM Courts and Tribunals Service show that waiting times for grants of probate are continuing to improve. The average time from submission of a probate application to probate being granted fell to 11.3 weeks in March 2024, a decrease from 13.7 weeks in February and 13.8 weeks in January. This is the lowest figure since March 2023, when the average was 10.8 weeks. The longest waiting time since then was in November, at 15.8 weeks: that month,...

Late Appeal Against Tax Penalties Rejected

31st May, 2024 By

It is incumbent on taxpayers to make sure they fully comply with their obligations to file returns and pay any tax due. The point was illustrated by a recent case in which a taxpayer whose return had not been received by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) failed to persuade the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) that he should be permitted to appeal against the resulting penalties. On the evening of 31 January 2014, the man had completed his 2012/13 Income Tax return on HMRC's website. Shortly afterwards he went to Cyprus, and...