Right of way

[horselady]

Any solicitors out there? We are selling our housewhich is terraced with a pathway leading from the pavement, between 2 end houses and then goes along the back of the houses where our back gates are. We have lived here for 31 years. The buyers' solicitor has stated that the pathway that leads from the pavement may not be a right of way and wants �10 for us to sign a statutory declaration that we have always used it and to knock �200 of the purchase price to arrange an "Absence of Easement Indemnity Policy" to save any future problems. Can they do this? Surely it is rather obvious what the pathway is there for and why was it not brought up when we bought the property?

[Golden Shred]

In the absence of a grant of a right of way from your documents the proposal and costs by the purchaser's solicitor are perfectly reasonable and should be accepted.

[horselady]

Thanks for your reply. Rather than argue and delay the sale, we will sign the documents. It just seems such an odd thing, it's a path that goes nowhere else except to our back garden gates so it seems so silly to have to pay to say we have been allowed to use it all these years, don't know how else they think we've been getting to the garden, helicopter perhaps?
Thanks again.