Buying access to the rear

[waterwonder]

Hi,

I wondered if anyone had advice on how to approach the following situation.

The access to my back garden is via a path (marked in green below). However in legally the path is actually only to provide access to house 2.
Currently we have a informal arrangement which works perfectly.

Unfortunately house 2 will shortly be going up for sale and obviously I have no idea if the new owners will be as accommodating. Not being able to access would be a pain as it would mean going through the garage or the house.

To avoid this i'm happy to pay a small sum on top of legal fees (to make it worth the current owners while) to get some sort of legal access granted. Alternatively i would be happy to pay even more for ownership and sole access of the green bit, and more if it included the yellow bit as well.

In terms of size its approx 10m x 1m. the Yellow bit is approx 2m x 1m. The plan is roughly to scale although the path size is exaggerated, the blue block next to it is actually a small garage.

Obviously legal advise will be needed in due course, but what is the best approach? What sort of things do i need to consider? And how would such thing be valued?

[waterwonder]

TA14 said:

I'm sorry to say that you'll have to speak to your neighbours. How much money can you offer? It would knock value off their house but if you could offer enough I'm sure that they'd gladly accept. Have a stab at 10% of their house valueto buy or 5% for joint use.

Thanks for your sarcasm and advice. I will of course talk to them in due course, however I'd like to have some idea of what i'm dealing with or asking for before i do that.

5% for joint use sounds excessive to me. The green bit is probably circa 5% of the total plot however surely it isn't worth the same per sq meter as the garden or the actual building, especially for just for access only?

Would joint access realistically knock value of the house?

megaphone said:

You have checked your deeds, you sure there is no right of way?

Yep sure, it was reviewed in depth at the time of purchase.

[waterwonder]

Pheo said:

So I guess you are asking for some kind of right of access easement/covenant to be added to their deeds? Not actually buying the land?

I'm not sure really.

In case the new owner is the arse i would like to acquire the legal right to use the green bit for access.

Alternatively if the current owner would prefer, I would also consider buying the land (and therefore access?) to the green bit and possibly the yellow bit. Obviously I would expect the cost of this to be significantly more as it will clearly impact the value of the house.

[waterwonder]

Jobbo said:

Who do you think owns it? Why would the sale of house no.2 result in the current permissive access being withdrawn?

It is owned by number 2. I.e. I have no right to use it but they let me.

Access may not be withdrawn but i'm conscious that what had been amicable arrangement may not transfer to the new owner. They might for whatever reason decide that they don't want me to use it. As a small example they would be within their rights to put a fence up (where i currently have a gate) to make it impractical for me to use it even if i wanted to.

[waterwonder]

I very much doubt it will be subject to a mortgage.

[waterwonder]

ozzuk said:

waterwonder said:

I very much doubt it will be subject to a mortgage.

It will be if it is all on the same title...

I'm not sure i follow, i don't think any of the property will be subject to a mortgage (i.e. money borrowed against it). Or am i showing my ignorance and you mean something else?

[waterwonder]

Yep

[waterwonder]

Thanks to Jobbo for looking into this.

Just to clarify the house labelled as 2 owns the green and yellow bits marked.

Therefore essentially I think i'm after an easement to grant me pedestrian access to the rear of my house (I.e. right of access to the green bit).