# What is a Wayleave?



## ajool (24 Jul 2011)

The County Council has used a compulsorily purchase order to "compulsorily and permanently acquire a wayleave" on commonage  land in which we are a shareholder.

 Does this mean that they are buying the land or buying a right of way so that they can use or enter the land at any time.

The land runs along side a road and has a mains water pipe under ground which there has been a dispute about as no permission was sought from the shareholders to install it.


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## onq (24 Jul 2011)

How are you a "shareholder" in commonage?
I'm not too familiar with this branch of law.
The terms seem mutually exclusive.

ONQ.


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## ajool (24 Jul 2011)

The Commonage is a large undivided parcel of land over 150 acres that was sold to a number of people by the Land Commission after the foundation off the state. The people (shareholders) could each use the land to graze a cow and calf on the land to provide milk and meat for their family. The land has never been divided into individual plots and remains open .   I too am not familiar with the law and maybe don't know the correct terms to use.


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## ajapale (24 Jul 2011)

Where a utility such as a water, Electicity, telephone etc wish to run cables across land owned by another typically they will negotiate a "wayleave" agreement in which the landowner allows the utility lay the cable/pipe. The utility will agree to restore the trench and the landowner will agree to allow the utility to maintain the cable/pipe in the event of breaks/busts etc.

Such agreements are registered with land registry and stay with the land in the event of it being sold on.

Undivided commonage is common in bogs and mountainous areas in the west of ireland. Scores of individuals will have rights to graze animals on the land.

This can pose big problems for a water authority/group scheme which desires to provide drinking water to the community. They have to deal with scores of owners some of whom do not have clear title to the commonage.

In these cases rather than deal with scores of commonage owners / reputed commonage owners the water authority will commence a compulory acquistion (of wayleave) process. Not to be confused with compulsory acquision of the land itself! Its only the right to lay the pipes and maintain in the event of a break.

Personally I cant see why such owners of commonage would object to a water main going though the commonage but some can and do object.



ajool said:


> Does this mean that they are buying the land?


No



ajool said:


> or buying a right of way?


 No , a right of way is not the same as a wayleave.



ajool said:


> The land runs along side a road


 Yes, landowners often own to the centre line of the road.



ajool said:


> Which there has been a dispute about


 what was the nature of the dispute? It is fairly common for community based group water schemes to lay pipes along rural roads without the express permission of the landowners. It only becomes an issue when the group apply the council to be taken over.



ajool said:


> permission was sought from  the shareholders to install it.


"Shareholders" is not a word that is generally used in this context.


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## csirl (25 Jul 2011)

The biggest impact of having a wayleave through your land is that you usually cant build on top of the wayleave route as access is needed to the pipe or whatever else is buried in the trench. Probably not an issue with commonage.


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## Alwyn (25 Jul 2011)

Interesting thread.  In a case were there is anti social behaviour and illegal dumping on a vacant land site, were their is a wayleave route in place, who is responsible for the clearing away of rubbish etc - the landlord or the council?


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## csirl (26 Jul 2011)

Boomtobust said:


> Interesting thread. In a case were there is anti social behaviour and illegal dumping on a vacant land site, were their is a wayleave route in place, who is responsible for the clearing away of rubbish etc - the landlord or the council?


 
Landlord - its private property.


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## WizardDr (26 Jul 2011)

Isn't 'shareholder' merely indicating that the land is 'tenancy in common' as in it can be passed on in a will as opposed to 'joint tenancy' where there is a right to survivorship?


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## ajool (26 Jul 2011)

Thanks for all the replies. I understand what a wayleave is now.
The dispute arose because the land is a SAC (Special Area of Concervation) which has prevented the land owners from doing anything with or on the land, document which we received about SAC basically said we could not even walk a dog on the land incase any flora & fawna would get damaged, Yet the council came in and dug it up to put in the pipe. One of the land owners took exception to this and took the matter to the high court and won damages. This is why a CPO is in the works so that they don't have to dig up the pipe.

The council are now going to pay the owners for the wayleave. First we have to write to them to state our interest in the land and how uch compensatio. we want for that intrest. We can't really afford to get legal advice on the matter and the compensation may not be very much. However I was reading on the net that they must pay the market value.


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## ajapale (26 Jul 2011)

ajool said:


> Yet the council came in and dug it up to put in the pipe.



It is unlikely that the laying a water main (telecom or electricity cable) along side an existing private road would impact on the SAC.

How long ago was the water main laid? Was the water main part of a community based group water scheme or was it a council public water scheme from the beginning?

I imagine the market rate for a wayleave would be very difficult to determine. In the past individual landowners were supportive of local efforts to get good clean water to the local community and would agree to the wayleave for a nominal sum. €1-€10/m.

As mentioned above the disadvantage of a wayleave like this is that you cant develop over it and in the very rare event of a major burst damage of the land might occur.


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## ajool (26 Jul 2011)

Not sure of exact dates for pipe laying, it's within the last 10 years. I think it might have ben a community water scheme. The pipe is not really an issue for me but it is for others I wanted to get an understanding of what a wayleave is.


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## ajapale (30 Aug 2013)

related question raised today


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