Pods in my face!

[Mcclelland]

Neighbours sold their ground and began building a couple of holiday pods on remaining field.In order to access their farmhouse they have a right of way through my land across half a mile dissecting my house and stealing.Stragely I was never contacted by the planning authority.These pods have now increased to nine all without any consultation with me.The result is a continuous flow of traffic at various speeds through the day and night .Should something like this take place across another persons land? I objected to the last three and was told I only need to be advised if my property is within a metre of the new development. So what do you think folks ?we live in scotland

 

[idgni]

Check the wording of the right of way, very doubtful it will allow the extra use, probably just access to the original house.

 

[Mcclelland]

thanks for your reply.In fact both farm were originally tenancies to the local Duke.All the deeds say is that the other farm have access to their property either by vehicle or on foot.

 

[Azlett]

I think.... that if there is a change of use of the dominant land and also there's an associated increase of use, then they don't benefit from the right of access. I don't remember the relevant two precedents, I'm sorry to say. I think Lord Denning and Neuberger established the 2 part test.

 

[Mcclelland]

But would that cover Scotland I wonder?

 

[Azlett]

But would that cover Scotland I wonder?

Yes, me too. I expect you will need some good legal advice. If you can do some research on www, at least you might be better able to choose who the best legal person is. It was a struggle here.

 

[Tamar]

Some rights of ways were granted for Agricultural purposes only. Might be worth checking.

Alternatively, just put a few gates in your land so it is a pain for the tourist to keep opening them.

 

[betweenthelines]

Check exactly what your deeds say about the RoW. My neighbour has a RoW across my land for "horse and cart for agricultural purposes"


On the other hand, it's not unknown for RoW's, access etc. to be totally fudged up when an estate is split up (Legal work done on the cheap) Tenants buy their cottages, no problems as everyone just carries on as normal, but when they sell on Solicitors find that Cottage No2 doesn't have a RoW along the lane that belongs to Cottage No1, Cottage No3's garden was "left off" the Plans, etc etc.

 

[Bob the beef]

Would be surprised if it’s a right of way. More likely to be a right of access to his property which I’m pretty sure is significantly different. Very unlikely he would have a right of access for a non agricultural business.
Get a good lawyer

 

[Mcclelland]

Thank you for your replies .I’ve spoken to a second lawyer more familiar with this type of work and will ask him to address your comments

 

[puppet]

Seems odd that you were not notified as that is a substantial change of use from agricultural to business

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I think it is very important to check the wording of the right of way, I suspect that it could be only for agricultural use or domestic, their right of way must be worded to allow them to use it for their pods (otherwise you could have a veto over them!).

As far a gates are concerned, I think you could put up a couple on the route, I spoke to a lawyer about that (on our right of way) and he said, if the owner put up two gates (that needed to be shut after) the courts would not find that an interference with my right of way (even thought it would have been a real pain for me!).

 

[brigadoon]

I think it is very important to check the wording of the right of way, I suspect that it could be only for agricultural use or domestic, their right of way must be worded to allow them to use it for their pods (otherwise you could have a veto over them!).

As far a gates are concerned, I think you could put up a couple on the route, I spoke to a lawyer about that (on our right of way) and he said, if the owner put up two gates (that needed to be shut after) the courts would not find that an interference with my right of way (even thought it would have been a real pain for me!).

I can corroborate this - having had cause to research this exact point when our neighbours land changed hands and the new owner replaced a cattle grid which had been in place for 30 years with a gate which we open and shut 50+ times in a week.

Seems like your neighbour has increased the use of a servitude right of access - which puts him on sticky ground