Right to pass and repass

[Geee0]

I have and end of terrace and on the land registry the 3 joining houses have the right to pass and repass on foot only, I have just finished some work to the house and have added a step at the back door. I have been approched by the person next door saying that I can not put a step as it restricts their way past. Their is a large are around the step. There is enough space to get a wheelie bin by.

My question is does he have a point or should I tell him politely to go away!

[stanleyman]

So long as the way is not obstructed to the point it is difficult for the neighbours to pass then no problem, it is still your land, they only have a right of way. However they may want to move something big in or out that way at sometime and it would be neighbourly to allow them.

[Geee0]

Thanks for that prompt reply, That is what I had thought.

[buildersmate]

I suspect there is a anceient statute floating around that determines the width of a footpath for a public right of way (which I acknowledge this isn't). It may be similar, but I haven't researched the answer. Unlikely to be wider than a wheelie bin, that weren't too common in the Middle Ages.

[Golden Shred]

The area over which the easement to pass and repass is granted is presumably shown on your plan at the Land Registry. It is a Private Right of Way. However, over the years the user's may have accrued additional rights which are not stated ie to pass and repass on bicycles, motor bikes, horses, with carts, barrows, wheelie bins etc, and others may also have accrued those rights such as the milkman, dustman, etc. and yet others again may have accrued rights to put things under it like telephones, gas, electricity, water etc. To place a concrete lump upon the right of way such as you have done is (a) classed as "seizure of land" and the right of way users are entitled to an injunction against you to remove it and not do it again (at your cost - minimum �5000 but usually �10000) and (b) as a trap, so that persons or possessions injured by it can claim against you (personal injury claims can run into millions). You should have told your household insurer before you did it and they would have prevented you, and if you tell them now they will immediately cancel your policy. The best thing for you to do is remove it as quickly as possible before anything adverse happens and leave the right of way entirely alone in the future.

[Hgrove]

so long as they can pass and repass you have not deprived them of their right of way. For someone to successfully claim against you for personal injury you need to meet the following requirements: you need to owe them a duty of care; to have been negligent; the damage to the claimant was caused by your negligence; the damage was foreseeable. For ex. if the step is somehow really awkwardly placed so that it is so easy to trip into it, then you might have a problem. But otherwise, you have done nothing wrong. What it boils down to: is the step intrinsecally dangerous?

[stanleyman]

I think you are getting carried away Goldenshred, or you should be :-) This is GeeeO's land we're talking about with a clear simple right of way for neighbours on foot only, no more. Without being an adjoining landowner themselves it would be impossible for anyone else to claim an easement by regular and uninterupted use over many years. Anyone else using it is a trespasser.