Access Problem – Solved…

When Mr and Mrs P came to sell their property they discovered they had an unexpected and rather difficult problem – they had no right of access to the house!

Despite the fact that the property had been accessed for in excess of 20 years via a short driveway from the main road leading to their gated entrance, it turned out that the driveway was owned by their neighbour.

A neighbour who said that whilst they had allowed Mr & Mrs P to use the driveway for access they were not prepared to allow the same rights to the purchasers.

The sale fell through.

Mr & Mrs P consulted Hayley Walker at our Birstall office who advised making an application to the Land Registry for prescriptive rights over the driveway land. This was on the basis that they had exercised continuous use without licence for in excess of 20 years. The application was made, and this is turn persuaded the neighbours to agree to sell that section of driveway to Mr & Mrs P, thereby solving the problem for good.

Happily a new purchaser for the house was soon found.

We also acted for Mr & Mrs P in the sale, which proceeded to completion smoothly and without issue. A successful ending to a potentially very complex and lengthy legal problem.

Land law is an area which causes a lot of disputes – from boundary disputes, to access problems, and many other areas of conflict. If you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in such difficulties you need expert help. Contact Hayley on 01924 443900 or [email protected] for the advice you need.

And in this matter we will leave the final comment to Mr & Mrs P who contacted Hayley to say –

“Just a quick update for you, we completed the sale of our property we had all the problems with and have been in our new property a month now and are very happy. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the work you carried out on our behalf getting us through those troubled times”