My Mother and uncle have been arguing over land for the last 10 - 12 yrs but recently everything has been settled out and agreed, well kind of agreed !..
The current issue relates to a large field which both my Mum and uncle agreed would be divided 50:50. The right of way is in the centre of the field and if the field was divided 50:50 as agreed both mum and my uncle could use the same right of way to access their share of the field.
It was agreed that an Independent surveyor would be hired to measure the field and find the exact centre point so as to run a fence and make the division and this was what they done.
The problem is that when this surveyor made up his report and submitted his measurements to the maps office or what ever he had to do with his measurements he had made a mistake and left my Mum short about 4 meters.
My Mum was unaware of this and when the maps came our with some kind of consent to the surveyors measurements my Mum hadn’t noticed the measurement mistake and signed the consent form.
Now it turns out that Mum cannot access the field because in loosing this 4 meters it leaves the right of way on my uncles share and he has fenced the field off going by the mistaken measurements.
We have been told that taking either my uncle or the surveyor to court would be pointless as Mum has now signed the consent form before noticing the mistake and the surveyor would probably just say he done what he was asked to do and measured it as he was instructed to, which in my own opinion doesn’t make sense that he could say this seeing since the original agreement between my Mum and uncle clearly states the field was to be divided 50:50 and not 4 meters short of 50% on my Mums side.
The field is along a National Road ( i.e. N17 ect ) and the council are refusing permission to anyone who seems to apply to open a new right of way or access to land along this national road regardless of where it is. If its along this National road it gets refused end of story. It seems the NRA object to every single new house application, or access to land request ect on the grounds it would generate additional traffic onto this National road and the council in turn refuse the permission to the applicant.
This leaves my Mum in a corner as we have now no access whatsoever to our land for machinery ect. There is a small pedestrian entrance but I don’t believe we would get permission to enlarge this entrance to get machinery in and out as the same usual NRA objections and council refusals would occur.
I’m just wondering does anyone have any similar experience or advice?..
Is it legal that my uncle can hold us to ransom like this as he now has the only right of way large enough to get machinery in and out on his share of the field due to this mistake?
What would the probability be that a Judge would decide against us if we took it to court and leave us in the possition we are in at the minute with no way of accessing our land ?
I apologise for the length of the post but thought id get as much of the story as I could in !..
Eamonn
The current issue relates to a large field which both my Mum and uncle agreed would be divided 50:50. The right of way is in the centre of the field and if the field was divided 50:50 as agreed both mum and my uncle could use the same right of way to access their share of the field.
It was agreed that an Independent surveyor would be hired to measure the field and find the exact centre point so as to run a fence and make the division and this was what they done.
The problem is that when this surveyor made up his report and submitted his measurements to the maps office or what ever he had to do with his measurements he had made a mistake and left my Mum short about 4 meters.
My Mum was unaware of this and when the maps came our with some kind of consent to the surveyors measurements my Mum hadn’t noticed the measurement mistake and signed the consent form.
Now it turns out that Mum cannot access the field because in loosing this 4 meters it leaves the right of way on my uncles share and he has fenced the field off going by the mistaken measurements.
We have been told that taking either my uncle or the surveyor to court would be pointless as Mum has now signed the consent form before noticing the mistake and the surveyor would probably just say he done what he was asked to do and measured it as he was instructed to, which in my own opinion doesn’t make sense that he could say this seeing since the original agreement between my Mum and uncle clearly states the field was to be divided 50:50 and not 4 meters short of 50% on my Mums side.
The field is along a National Road ( i.e. N17 ect ) and the council are refusing permission to anyone who seems to apply to open a new right of way or access to land along this national road regardless of where it is. If its along this National road it gets refused end of story. It seems the NRA object to every single new house application, or access to land request ect on the grounds it would generate additional traffic onto this National road and the council in turn refuse the permission to the applicant.
This leaves my Mum in a corner as we have now no access whatsoever to our land for machinery ect. There is a small pedestrian entrance but I don’t believe we would get permission to enlarge this entrance to get machinery in and out as the same usual NRA objections and council refusals would occur.
I’m just wondering does anyone have any similar experience or advice?..
Is it legal that my uncle can hold us to ransom like this as he now has the only right of way large enough to get machinery in and out on his share of the field due to this mistake?
What would the probability be that a Judge would decide against us if we took it to court and leave us in the possition we are in at the minute with no way of accessing our land ?
I apologise for the length of the post but thought id get as much of the story as I could in !..
Eamonn