Right Of Access.........

[10ClarionSt]

....or Right of Way. Where these exist, my perception is that 'right of way' means a person/s is allowed to travel accross a road or pathway. Does it mean that anyone with right of access can dig the access up for the purpose of installing utilities? Has anyone got any ideas about this? TIA.

[Zacs-Master]

The true definition is a Public Right Of Way (PROW).

A PROW falls under ‘highways’ for the purposes of a legal definition.

Utility companies (water, gas, electricity, communications and energy industries) have statutory rights of access onto private land to lay pipes, wires, cables and other service infrastructure.

[fiction-factory]

Are you talking about a situation where the right of way will be restored once the installation work has finished?

[fiction-factory]

Crossed posts. Thanks Zacs. Makes common sense doesn't it

[bhg481]

I think Clarion needs to be more specific. I read the question as being the case where someone sells off a chunk of their back garden for someone to build a house on and grants right of access through their own land to the new house. Can the new house owner dig up the right of access to, say, install cable TV?

[Zacs-Master]

But it wouldn’t be the householder who did that, it would be a utility company.

[fiction-factory]

I read it that 10CS is concerned that a right of way/right of access is blocked temporarily for a few days or maybe a couple of weeks while utilities are being installed thus causing inconvenience and restricting freedom of movement

[Arrods]

I believe the right (to install/maintain pipes etc) can also be embedded in title deeds if, say, access is needed to other properties.

[Zacs-Master]

It may be, arrods, but there’s no need to do that.

[10ClarionSt]

Thanks folks. Sorry for the late reply. I'll do my best to clarify it. Further up the street where I live, there is a narrow "access road" between two houses. It is only 3 metres wide; just enough for a small van or family car. It provides access to a row of garages. The deeds of the houses on either side of the access road, say that it is jointly part of their land, but they must allow access without charge or obstruction. The owner of one of the garages wants to instal water and electricity and says he can contract the utility companies to do this and dig it up because he has right of access. The owners of the two houses agree that he has access, but argue that it is only to travel over it, not to dig it up. There is the dispute.

[Buenchico]

Plenty of people who live in terraced house have a 'right of access' across their neighbour's back gardens to enable them to get to their own back doors. That most certainly doesn't give them the right to start digging holes in their neighbour's gardens!

So I agree with the owners of the two houses.

[10ClarionSt]

Thanks Chris. I think there is a lot of mileage with this issue yet!

[btrobin]

I have had a painful experience of this ROW across my property, which was built in the back garden of a large Victorian house that retained a ROW to pass and re-pass up my driveway to obtain access to a garage in their remaining garden. The arguments that ensued were beyond belief, we had two garages at the top of the driveway, one ours the other his, next thing he had knocked the back out of his precast garage and put a corrugated tin extension on his property to enlarge the garage to facilitate his side-line doing car repairs, cars being washed on the driveway, all and sundry walking up and down to obtain access, it got beyond a joke. Just as an aside both the occupants of the property were members of the constabulary, there were cars being sprayed, boats being dragged up the driveway, a old Ford Zodiac with the suspension jacked up at the rear and with what I believe were known as "cherry bomb" exhausts, being taken past our bedroom at all hours of the day and night, absolute nightmare place to live with those sort of neighbours. Was I glad to finally find someone to buy the place so as someone else could have the problem, never again would I purchase anything with any ROW over my property.

[10ClarionSt]

Thans Bt. Interesting. Not quite the same scenario but I do understand. Thankfully this isnt my property but I also have a ROW. I definitely have no plans to dig it up!

[tamborine]

What is an easement?

At its most basic, an easement is ‘the right to use another person’s land for a stated purpose.’ The easement could refer to an entire property, or just a part of it, and the ‘stated purpose’ could refer to as diverse a range of activities as laying water pipes, accessing an otherwise unaccessible property, or joining two separated properties. An easement is granted by one property owner to another, and typically means the original landowner can no longer build on or around the easement, or restrict access to it.

http://www.oxcow.co.uk/easements-rights-way-get-off-land-can-access-property-footpath-right-way-running/

Therefore service company can embed electric cables