Dear Property Doctors

Three neighbours and I own houses that are on an unadopted, gravel-surfaced lane that was once a used by the farm at the top of the lane (it still uses it occasionally). Three of the four houses are over 100 years old; we have researched for ownership of the lane and can find none.

My question is: can we house owners register this land to our own properties either in common, or the part that our houses front onto?

We maintain the lane, spreading the cost across the houses that front onto it. But we are concerned that the houses that back onto the lane through their gardens may try to get access. It would be very difficult to collect a share of the cost of maintenance should that happen. Can we prevent those houses from gaining access to the lane?

MV, by email

The position with unadopted roads is always complex. Sometimes they are “highways”; this means that members of the general public are entitled to use them. However, I don’t think this road is a highway. As I understand it, it is simply a cul-de-sac which leads to the farm at the end and, as you say, is used by the owners of the houses in the lane. 

I should imagine that the lane belongs to the farm, which I assume it was there before the houses were built and sold. You can carry out a map search at the Land Registry which should show whether or not the land is registered. Of course, it is possible that the farm itself and the surrounding land is not registered.  

Whoever owns the land, it is important to establish that you do have rights of way over it. If nothing is shown in the register entries for your houses then, as and when you come to sell, there may be a legal difficulty. Accordingly, I do think it is worthwhile you instructing a solicitor to look into this matter to try and get the position regularised.

Another problem is getting people to contribute towards the cost of maintain the lane. It seems that you deal with the matter on a voluntary basis which is very sensible. 

In a somewhat similar case, I arranged to set up a company in which all the owners of the houses who used the roadway were members. The articles of the company provided that when people sold their houses, the buyers should become members of the company. The articles also made clear that the owners would have to contribute towards the upkeep of the roadway. It might be sensible to try and sort out something along these lines at the same time as you sort out the ownership issue. 

If the other houses you mention don’t currently have access to the lane, then I don’t think they could acquire such rights unless the owner of the lane expressly granted them. However, it is only the owner of the lane itself who could bring a claim for trespass if the owners of those houses use the lane when they were not entitled to do so. That is why it is important to sort out the ownership issue.

David Fleming is the head of property litigation at William Heath & Co solicitors (williamheath.co.uk)

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