R
rightofway
Guest
Hi, I'll try and keep this very long story as short as possible and would appreciate any help anyone can give.
Basically a neighbour who owns a house and land beyond my mother's home is trying to intensify the right of way. My mother's house is at the end of a rural county road in the south of the country but the last couple of hundred yards or so to her home are private and the road pretty much ends at her home. The fact that the last bit of the road is private is clearly stated on the county maps.
However from my mother's home there is a dirt lane running on to another house by the lake where Mr X has a derelict house and about a few acres of land. He has owned it for over 30years and my family has farmed the land for about 20 years, nothing too intense. This was all above board and paid for with a small fee each year, of which she has a record. There has always been a very amicable relationship and never any problems.
But in the past couple of weeks he has been seeking to build a 'proper' road to the house (the land between my mothers home and his derelict house belongs to neither but to another man, whom I can only presume has granted Mr X permission to tar it). My mother asked for info on how deep the road will be, does he plan to rebuild the house etc but he flatly refused to tell her anything. The problem is the road to her house is barely the width of a car, with the porch barely inches from the road. Plus there's a canopy of foliage so no trucks would ever be able to get in. And she is also concerned about a large development being built. He has been incredibly stubborn and is now threatening to go to the High Court - a threat I have no doubt he will carry out - accusing us of blocking his right of way. Granted, my mother placed a small obstruction in his way for a couple of days but removed it when she got a letter from him about it and she has never wilfully blocked access.
My question is, can he intensify the right of way or can we stop him doing that? What is the legal point of view on this? Obviously he has a right of way to his house, that is without question. But there is simply no room for the trucks he wants to bring in. Cars and small vans have gone down in the past and it may be a bit of a grey area because we've brought tractors down in the past. The thing is, I believe he is already intensifying access by just going on through and is going to change the right of way by stealth.
Apologies for the long winded posting but this man can easily afford a lengthy High Court battle whereas we can't even afford to walk up the steps. He's very well aware of this fact and I think he's mostly trying to bully us. He's brought in stones to upgrade the road but has left them a mile or so out the road and is getting a worker to bring them in by tractor. On another note, that worker destroyed some of our property which was outside the house by driving across it.
Obviously we are seeking legal advice at the moment but my mother is worried sick about this manner. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Basically a neighbour who owns a house and land beyond my mother's home is trying to intensify the right of way. My mother's house is at the end of a rural county road in the south of the country but the last couple of hundred yards or so to her home are private and the road pretty much ends at her home. The fact that the last bit of the road is private is clearly stated on the county maps.
However from my mother's home there is a dirt lane running on to another house by the lake where Mr X has a derelict house and about a few acres of land. He has owned it for over 30years and my family has farmed the land for about 20 years, nothing too intense. This was all above board and paid for with a small fee each year, of which she has a record. There has always been a very amicable relationship and never any problems.
But in the past couple of weeks he has been seeking to build a 'proper' road to the house (the land between my mothers home and his derelict house belongs to neither but to another man, whom I can only presume has granted Mr X permission to tar it). My mother asked for info on how deep the road will be, does he plan to rebuild the house etc but he flatly refused to tell her anything. The problem is the road to her house is barely the width of a car, with the porch barely inches from the road. Plus there's a canopy of foliage so no trucks would ever be able to get in. And she is also concerned about a large development being built. He has been incredibly stubborn and is now threatening to go to the High Court - a threat I have no doubt he will carry out - accusing us of blocking his right of way. Granted, my mother placed a small obstruction in his way for a couple of days but removed it when she got a letter from him about it and she has never wilfully blocked access.
My question is, can he intensify the right of way or can we stop him doing that? What is the legal point of view on this? Obviously he has a right of way to his house, that is without question. But there is simply no room for the trucks he wants to bring in. Cars and small vans have gone down in the past and it may be a bit of a grey area because we've brought tractors down in the past. The thing is, I believe he is already intensifying access by just going on through and is going to change the right of way by stealth.
Apologies for the long winded posting but this man can easily afford a lengthy High Court battle whereas we can't even afford to walk up the steps. He's very well aware of this fact and I think he's mostly trying to bully us. He's brought in stones to upgrade the road but has left them a mile or so out the road and is getting a worker to bring them in by tractor. On another note, that worker destroyed some of our property which was outside the house by driving across it.
Obviously we are seeking legal advice at the moment but my mother is worried sick about this manner. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.