Can I Put A Fence Up In My Shared Garden, Part Of Which Belongs Soley To Me.

[RandomHappiness]

My property shares a courtyard with 3 other properties. A small piece of this courtyard belongs soley to me, marked on the title plans. According to my property solicitor, the rest of the courtyard doesn't belong to anyone.

The flagstones in the entire area in a state of extreme disrepair. We would like to replace them, but pinning down the other property owners to commit towards paying towards the cost is difficult, as all the other occupants rent. I suspect the owner/landlords don't really want to pay towards the cost of laying new flagstones.

Bearing in mind that we do actually own part of the courtyard, and the rest belongs to nobody, and nobody wants to pay for upkeep of this area, can we fence off part of the shared area for ourselves? Do we need to make an application for this, and if so, to whom?

Thanks in advance!

[boxtops]

The rest must belong to SOMEBODY..... but I can't see why you can't fence of your bit. However, do you have to cross the common "not-owned" land in order to reach your bit?

[RandomHappiness]

Thanks for the reply.

The entire courtyard can only be accessed via the houses' back doors, completely enclosed. The piece I own is a strip about half the width of my house. I would have to cross the shared/not owned bit to get to it, as my back door opens onto the shared bit. They're victorian cottages, and at some point have all had extensions (including mine) into the shared bit, so I'm thinking at some point, planning permission must have been applied for...

[askyourgran]

I would look at your deeds or get a solicitor's advice about it. There maybe something in the deeds which does not allow for fencing of any kind. We once owned a house which had to be unfenced but could be marked by short posts. It seem odd that you have to cross part of the unshared courtyard to access your own. Maybe the landlords of the other two properties affected could be contacted about 'dangerous' state of the paths. Other than that ask about planning permission.

[buildersmate]

The straight answer to your question as to whether you could fence it is that you can, but whether you can get away with it from the other neighbours is another issue. Based on what you say, you would fence to fence and maintain it for many years to the exclusion of these to stand any chance of claiming adverse possession.
The planning consent issue is a red herring. There is no connection between applying and gaining consent for a building, and whether the structure can actually be built as it is on another's land. Nowadays a planning applicant has to declare whether or not the land is owned, but it never used to be. And even today it doesn't impact the decision - just the consultation process.
It is perfectly possible that no-one owns the land comprising this yard.
Since your two parcels of land do not adjoining to one another, you should look on your land title document to see what it says about access from one to the other.
Finally, how long have you lived there? The function of your solicitor on buying is to check you have legal access to what you are buying, so even if it is a long time ago, you could complain through that process if it seems this was fouled-up.

[RandomHappiness]

Thanks for the replies.

@ buildersmate: Only bought the property last year. Will our conveyancing solicitor be holding onto the Deeds? Are they even issued anymore, what with everything being in the land register? Do I need to take steps to ensure that one of the other adjoining properties doesn't claim adverse possession of the not-owned land, and possibly denying me access to my part of the yard. One of the tenants told me that a previous owner of one of the properties tried to take the entire yard for themselves, sending 'official' letters to the other tenants telling them not to use the yard. This was quite a few years ago, and nothing came of it.

Can this not-owned piece of land be registered as belonging to myself and the other tenants? Seems a bit risky if it belongs to nobody...