loss of parking space

[wools]

hi all,
i have a drive on rear of my home it is accessed by a council lane.the house was built in 1974 and drive has always been there.previous owner paid council one off fee for access.
council now plan to build in lane hence taking my access and leaving me with useless drive any one know what to do.
plzz cheers wools

[buzby]

It depends, the 'one off' fee may simply have been one to allow access, rather than give you rights over the land you passed. (Usually called a 'wayleave'). If you have no ownership of the land, then there is little you can do unless the council are seen to have acted improperly. It might be useful to contact the council AND the Planning Department and advise them of the potential problem (which will be cheap) but if your access IS going to be expunged, you'll need a solicitor to check out the fine print of what was actually agreed.

[johnhowell]

Wools,

Try posting on the Garden Law website (Garden Law advice on fences, trees and boundaries) they have a forum on rights of way.

Regards,
John

[bazak1]

just a stab in the dark, but if this land ( all of it ) was paid by means of a one off payment, perhaps it wold be an idea to check your deeds, it may be on there. Your local council office should have all neccessary details of this logged too.

[wools]

thanks every one have checked deeds not on there,
but can remember when we bought the house soliciter said if access has been used for so many years it becomes legal right of way.
have spoken to council and they way goodbye drive BUGGERSSSS

[buzby]

Your solicitor wasn't talking about a Right of Way, but adverse possession. In your case, you paid a fee to the landowner (Council) to use the route, and you might have some lee-way if it was in perpetuity, but if they are now going to block this access, you need to find what you got for your money....

[patdavies]

No the solicitor wasn't. If you have permission to be on the land (the one-off charge) than you cannot claim adverse possession.

However, if this has been used as a right of way for over 20 years (and from the sound of it, it has) then you may have acquired a prescriptive right of way.

The Council may argue that by giving permission, they have not allowed a prescription to build, but then you can rely on the principle of 'estoppel'.

johnhowell's advice is good. Gardenlaw have experts in this sort of thing.

The main negative is that you probably have a limited budget for legal costs and the Council has huge amounts of taxpayers money - so they can delay and obfuscate and grind you down.

[buzby]

I don't think we have the mind of that solicitor, but a Right of Way has to be formally defined, and this isn't the issue here. This is an arrangement entered into between a single tenant/owner for access to a car parking space, fundamentally a private arrangement. There is no wholesale right of access to walkers, ramblers and the OS to show it on their maps.

[patdavies]

Well you're the one who started on about what the solicitor was talking about.

A right of way can exist prescriptively (ie purely from length of use); also if the OP had incurred expenses like a driveway or garage then the principle of estoppel may well apply.

I'm kind of assuming that this is a matter under English law

[buzby]

Agreed estoppal could be a valid claim as you suggest, but everything still boils down to what the payment made to the Council was actually for. There's a heck of a difference between a payment for a wayleave waiver, and a cash consideration for full access rights. A look at the Valuation roll might prove who owns the land, but not what rights of access/usage the OP has in respect of getting to his parking space... indeed, if the space is also on council property (rather than solely an access route) the lack of formal deeds proving ownership doesn't bode well from a satisfactory outcome.