whose land? mine or neighbours?

[evedawn]

please can anyone clarify whose land this is and who legally has access to the alleway from the details in the property register below:

1) (21 MArch 1974) The FREEHOLD land shown edged with in red on plan of the above title filed at the registry and being (XXX our address)

2) The land has the benefit of a right of way on foot only over the alleyway leading from the back of the property into the the roadway subject to the payment of proportionate cost of keeping the same in good repair by a conveyance of (XXXX- neighbours address) on the 11 September 1961 made between XXXXX (names of previous owners )

3) With effect from 1 April 1998 the lands falls within the county of medway towns.

4) The medway towns is now known as the county borough of medway.

[themas]

I assume the alleyway is not within the area edged red on the plan, because if it is then it belongs to you and para. 2 is superfluous.

Para. 2 means that you have a right of way on foot over the alleyway, but it is owned by someone else - presumably the neighbour (who will, of course, also have a right to use it). It is possible other people also have a right of way over it - but only if it has been granted to them by the owners.

The wording of para. 2 is a little odd - you don't normally do a conveyance in order to grant a right of way - but it could be that your house and the neighbour's were at that time in one ownership and the right was granted when one of the houses was sold.

[Eve]

From the above it looks like next door owns the alley (provided no change of ownership has taken place) and your property has a right of way over it subj to contributing to repair.

You can check who owns the actual piece of land by doing an index map search at the Land Registry (free for under 20 titles found).

This is the form...

http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/library /documents/SIM.pdf

You will need to put a plan with it, preferably to a proper scale eg an ordanance survey plan.

You can find the appropriate Land Registry on the title register you have and address details on the form here...

http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/regional/offic es/

Please note though that it will only show up registered titles and will only give you a title number though you can then order a copy of the register and plan for �6.

Make sure you mark the plan clearly inc ase it picks up on a neighbouring title number.

Hope this helps.

[Eve]

Ps, if you have the title plan to your property best to use that to send with the search as it is to Land Registry scale.

They don't supply a plan as a general rule but may if you ask them for one on the form.

The wording of para 2 in, in fact, very common. It is likely that the right was granted when the neighbour's property was sold and the right was included in the conveyance (transfer deed).

[evedawn]

thank you to both of you. thats very helpful.