Paying for right of access.

beveragelady

I'm not a farmer but I have a small patch of land that is separate from the house. There is a very rough access track to my patch of land that passes through land belonging to two other people. My solicitor tells me that rights of way have to be registered by 2021 (I think, might have the year wrong) so I'm going to do this.
I contacted one of the farmers who owns a tiny half-acre plot (well in from the road, neglected, mostly swamp and brambles). The access track goes along one side of this plot. He asked me for 'a sum of money' to sign off on the access. I am very reluctant to give him any money because (a) I don't have any and (b) I don't want to be taken advantage of. (Also he got a bit sleazy when I expressed my reluctance, so he can feck right off.)

So my question is...
Is it normal to try to charge for access to land like this? And if so what is the normal fee?

There are other details but I'm not sure what is relevant and what isn't (previous ownership, etc) so I've left them out for now.

I'd be grateful for any insight or perspectives at all.

Jaysus Christ

Is the right of way marked on any maps?
If it is and its land locked you don't need their written consent.

But if there is access by another route like a public road you need their written permission before 2019 to continue using access across their land.

But I would first check ordnance survey maps to see if it's on it. If not it will be a court job as, 99% will be.
Don't give money. Because if you have to go the way of getting squatters rights and can prove use of this track for the last 13(I think) years, paying any sum of money would rule that out.

Rights of ways are very complicated and lots will end up in court.

beveragelady

My land is only accessible through other people's land. Is that what you mean by landlocked?
My solicitor tells me that the right of way has to be registered in the next few years. For this reason the deeds haven't been passed to the bank yet. (I bought the place a year ago.)
The really annoying thing is the same chap sold the field that is now mine to the lad I bought it from, access and all. It has just fallen to me to register it and he's making a grab for money.
It's not on the OS maps because there's no road or even a proper track.

djmc

If there was always a right of way there then that's your right.
I would get advice from your solicitor and speak to him again
Explain it will have to go through the courts and you will be seeking costs, tell him he should seek his own legal advice and get back to you.
Courts are best avoided but you should win hands down if the predecessors of your land had right of way then he can't block access.
His solicitor will tell him the same.
If he still doesn't budge then it's up to you how you want to proceed.
Falling out with people has a cost too , he might well be just chancing his arm.

beveragelady

djmc wrote: »

If there was always a right of way there then that's your right.
I would get advice from your solicitor and speak to him again
Explain it will have to go through the courts and you will be seeking costs, tell him he should seek his own legal advice and get back to you.
Courts are best avoided but you should win hands down if the predecessors of your land had right of way then he can't block access.
His solicitor will tell him the same.
If he still doesn't budge then it's up to you how you want to proceed.
Falling out with people has a cost too , he might well be just chancing his arm.

So in general is it the case that people don't pay a sum of money to formalize existing access? In this instance, and given one or two other characters I have had dealing with since I moved here, it's important that I show that I'm not going to be pushed around. At the same time I don't want to be a complete phallus-cranium.

It wouldn't bother me to fall out with him, he lives miles away and has only hung on to that half-acre to spite another neighbour. He has no use for it whatsoever. (The big eejit told me that himself.)
I'm going in to my solicitor later today, hopefully she'll put my mind at ease.

ganmo

so the guy that sold you the plot is the one who owns the land you have to cross?

access should of been sorted at the time of sale, anyway, you can't be refused access to your property so the law is on your side but by the sounds of it you may have to get thick with this chancer

patsy_mccabe

So this land hasn't been transferred to you yet. This is held up until the Right Of Way is agreed. Right?

Maybe there is an existing right of way there already. How did the previous owner access the land?

If it was me, I wouldn't hand over any money.

Bass Reeves

ROW's are a in mucky water at present. The Land Registery will not register any deeds without access. If this was registered previously in a paper version there should be an access ROW and it details (width of access where it is located etc.

The issue has now come to a head up until last year all ROW that were paper based could have been applied for to be transferred to digital format. However for those that did not register before early 2015 those that had other access ( from a public road) were wiped and cannot be reinstated with out the permission of the land over who's land the ROW was on. However the case with land locked land is different this ROW can still be registered until 2021 and cannot be objected to. What you need is for the previous owner to give you the access detail and the legal ROW defination from his old purchase contract. It is really up to him to chase the ROW.

However I think that you may have paid for this piece of land with out this detail. In that case you need see what detail previous owner has.

beveragelady

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

So this land hasn't been transferred to you yet. This is held up until the Right Of Way is agreed. Right?

Maybe there is an existing right of way there already. How did the previous owner access the land?

If it was me, I wouldn't hand over any money.

No, the whole thing has been transferred into my name. The bank don't have the deeds because they're waiting for this to be resolved, but everything is in my name.

The right of way goes back at least ten years, and I have an affidavit from the previous owner to that effect.

I spoke to the solicitor today, she is going to send on the paperwork and see if he has the brass neck to refuse to sign it. There's no way I'll hand over the money, I'd actually rather pay extra legal costs at this point.

Thanks for everyone's help. It seems I got the information I was looking for, which is that in general there is no payment expected for something like this.

beveragelady

ganmo wrote: »

so the guy that sold you the plot is the one who owns the land you have to cross?

access should of been sorted at the time of sale, anyway, you can't be refused access to your property so the law is on your side but by the sounds of it you may have to get thick with this chancer

No, I bought the land from the widow of the man who bought it from this guy who is now being difficult. The first transaction was about ten or twelve years ago, then I bought it a year ago. Sorry if that wasn't clear, I had typed out the whole sceal then I decided to leave out the pointless details.

Base price

beveragelady wrote: »

My land is only accessible through other people's land. Is that what you mean by landlocked?
My solicitor tells me that the right of way has to be registered in the next few years. For this reason the deeds haven't been passed to the bank yet. (I bought the place a year ago.)
The really annoying thing is the same chap sold the field that is now mine to the lad I bought it from, access and all. It has just fallen to me to register it and he's making a grab for money.
It's not on the OS maps because there's no road or even a proper track.

Does the lad that you bought the field from have written consent about "access and all".
IMO your solicitor at the time of purchase misrepresented your interests and should have ensured that you had Freehold title to the lands that you purchased.

Base price

beveragelady wrote: »

No, the whole thing has been transferred into my name. The bank don't have the deeds because they're waiting for this to be resolved, but everything is in my name.

The right of way goes back at least ten years, and I have an affidavit from the previous owner to that effect.

I spoke to the solicitor today, she is going to send on the paperwork and see if he has the brass neck to refuse to sign it. There's no way I'll hand over the money, I'd actually rather pay extra legal costs at this point.

Thanks for everyone's help. It seems I got the information I was looking for, which is that in general there is no payment expected for something like this.

If the right of way goes back at least ten years then it should appear on the official land registry maps. You could look up https://www.landdirect.ie/index.html to see if the original row is registered.
Here is a copy of a map of our row to a plot of bog - registered row's appear as yellow on the map.

beveragelady

Base price wrote: »

If the right of way goes back at least ten years then it should appear on the official land registry maps. You could look up https://www.landdirect.ie/index.html to see if the original row is registered.
Here is a copy of a map of our row to a plot of bog - registered row's appear as yellow on the map.

It doesn't appear on the maps because it wasn't registered, which is why I have to register it now. Obviously the land registry can't be expected to know who is accessing what land until it has been formally registered.

Anyway, thanks everybody for all your help. I'm satisfied that my initial question about paying somebody to formalize a right of access has been answered and I'm confident that my solicitor is handling the matter. It'll all get sorted
Mods, this thread can be closed.