Prescribed Access

[JohnArmagh]

I own an ex-council end-terrace property (purchased from the council in March 1990)
.
Next to the property is a council-owned garage area (the council rent garages to occupants) with two banks of garages - one bank abutting the property and one abutting the rear of the garden.

My late father rented the garage which abutts the property. Access to the garden from the back was provided by gate which leads down an alleyway behind the other bank of garages.

My father had a gate put in the side-fence of the garden to enable direct access to the garage area (and his garage) without having to walk all the way down the alley and round into the garage space. The back gate was thereafter never used - and a fence was erected across the back garden closing access to the back gate.

The council wish to demolish the garages and build three houses in the space. I am concerned that in doing so they will prevent access to the garden through the side gate.

The side gate has been in place for around 30 years and neither the gate nor access to the property via the gate has been contested or challanged in that entire time.

I do not have any evidence (invoices or photographs) indicating when the side gate was put in - though we are friends with neighbours who are aware the gate has been in existence at least since my father drove a car (which he stopped doing in the early 1980s when he was 86) and thereafter he used the garage to store his effects - so continued using the access via the side gate until his death in 2002.

How do I ensure my prescribed access to the property via the side gate is safeguarded when the garage area is re-developed?

[jen78]

Try and get it registered.

Land Registry Practice Guide here...

http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/library /documents/lrpg052.pdf