Deed of Easement

Hi Adam,

we have been in this forum a few times and you have been very helpful and knowledgeable every time.
So our situation is as follows.

we bought the property CL84106 last year, there our conveyancer raised the issue of right of access, the vendor’s conveyancer drafted a Deed of Easement with the owner of the register and signed it. But… the owner had sold part of the access road 15 months before( but it was not registered and still isn’t)so when it came to registration of the Deed there was a requisition raised. We thought of drafting a new deed with the new owner, but he wants very restrictive amendments added to the Deed. There seemed to be a cross over of information on the register, which the vendor’s conveyancer missed.
Is this something that could rectified with the Land Registry? If not, alternatively could a ST4 be used as right of access?
The owner who signed the Deed, used the access road for more 20 years, and the adjoining property is using the ST4 as well.
The road is the only access to our property so it is a necessity.
Sorry long story!

kind regards,
juergen

Hi Juergen - I'm unclear as to what could be 'rectified' in the scenario as raised. If a right needs to be granted then it's for the landowner to do that using a Deed of Easement as described. Naturally such a grant needs to be by the actual landowner as you are already aware.
A prescriptive easement, namely a claimed right, can be applied for but the claim needs to cover at least 20 years of use - see PG 52 for guidance. So if your seller and you have more than 20 years use then it is something to consider if you don;t wish to take the formal deed of easement being offered 
Very much something to discuss with your legal rep re options and what happens next and how the claimed against actually granted easement may impact in the future

Hi Adam,

Thank you very much for all your help.

We will try to get our conveyancer to sort it out what the best way is for getting access.

Best regards,

Juergen

Juergen - they are best placed to do that for you and at least you appear to have options also

Hi Adam,

thank you again, it is just so frustrating to have to find out that things have gone so horribly wrong as we purchased the property. You just assume that the conveyancers have reviewed everything.

kind regards,

Juergen