civil agreement on right of way

[josillito]

My neighbour has contacted the council to say that she wants my fence to be taken down as she has right of way through my property. The fence has been up for over 18 months and 12 months before this my neighbour bloked off the entry while she was having an extension built. So for the last 2 1/2 years she has been walking down my private drive to get to the back of her property which i didnt mind. Now she wants the fence taken down so i rang the council to ask my rights and was told that it wasnt a public right of way but there was a civil agreement made years ago to say that the neighbour could access her property through my land. I have been through all of my paperwork from when i bought my property and there is no sign of any civil agreement. would there be a copy of this agreement anywhere other than in my deeds ect I'm not sure what to do next as the council said that they will close the case as it has nothing to do with them as it is on private property????

[Buenchico]

Start by finding out what appears in the title register to your neighbours property. Go here:
http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/
Click 'Find a Property' (at the top of the page).
Enter the house number & postcode.
On the next screen, put a tick against 'title register' and click 'purchase'. (It will cost you £4 but that's a lot cheaper than paying a solicitor to do exactly the same thing!).

It might also be worth forking out £4 more to see what's on the Land Registry's files in relation to your own house. (There would have been no reason for the council to be informed about any covenant between the people who used to own the two properties, so their response suggests that they've already accessed the Land Registry website themselves).

Then, once you're in possession of the full information, you'll know how to proceed. (If there really is a valid covenant in place, requiring you to provide free access along the route now blocked by your fence, you'll have to take it down unless you can get the covenant removed which, in practice, will be close to impossible).

Chris

[themas]

And if you can't find an answer from what Chris suggests go back to the council & ask them where they got the information from about a civil agreement.

[unknowing]

I'm just looking in to this matter for another reason and would direct you to the Rights of Way Act 1932 - http://www.glass-uk.o...iew&id=236&Itemid=455 - which seems to show that if the path has been used as a right of way for more than 20 years, then residents can argue for it to stay open but not straight forward.

It may well be, since this post is over a year old, this answer is irrelevant now but your question came up while I was searching for an answer myself on a related matter.

[CrazyScot]

Citizen's advice
Firstly, your neighbour should not have blocked off access - building works or not.
Secondly, the neighbour does not have a right to walk through your property. If you do nothing then she can try and claim precedent.
If e want the access blocked for whatever reason, you need to get a key from her. This needs sorted or it will cause a problem if you try and sell