Problems with shared access pathway, possible legal help needed.

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My house is a tradition 3 bed semi, we have a pathway going up between ours and next doors gardens and it forks off at the top to my front door and theirs. We are having a driveway built over our front garden and the builders want to lower a 10inch high step on this shared access path, they want to lower it by about half, so about 5 inches which is really nice because its a high step as it is and quite dangerous when its icy, nothing else will be altered at all, just the step lowered a bit and the access will remain exactly was was before.

My neighbours who have issues all the time with the littlest thing are going to try and scupper it, she said we cant touch the step blah blah, they are just being awkward as they dont even use the path, never have done, they walk up their driveway.

Am I right in thinking as long as the access doesn't change at all then they cant actually do anything about it?
 
Sorry i can't help directly with an answer, but when we had a similar situation arise I found a lot of helpful advice on the gardenlaw.co.uk forums. Might be worth posting something on there?

NB. I have zero affilliation with their site and i apologise in advance if recommending the site is against forum rules.
 
I would start by checking your deeds to see who the legal owner of the path is, or whether there are any covenants about the use or sharing of your path. It may turn out that you are the legal owner of the path and your neighbour has the right to use it or vice versa. If it is genuinely shared there may also be something in there that restricts rights to alter it etc.
 
I'm having difficulty picturing where this step is & what impact (if any) lowering it may have. Pics may help.
 
Is the footpath joint ownership

If it is then you need their permission to alter it
 
The path is 3m long before it forks off to both front doors, the step is halfway down the pathway, because the gardens slope down there is this step on the pathway, its quite high and ideally would benefit from lowering anyway but the builder has said it would make things easier when he does the drive to lower the step and have it end up around 5 inches high, a win win situation really but my neighbors are being awkward as usual. I'll check my deeds when I get home later and see what they say, I have a sneeky feeling I actually own the path.
 
I'd be surprised if you own the path as without their driveway how would they get to their front door? Sounds like a shared ownership.

Hopefully that's wrong though as it sounds like you have the wrong sort of neighbours for any decent outcome.
 
Im far from a legal expert, but surely if you got the work done... and they took you to court... for what possible reason could they say that the extra inch or whatever in depth they have lost causes them such a HUGE inconvience and effects their rights?

Shared ownership or not, its a right of way, youre not alerting the direction of path or making it any harder to access their house, just making a step lower.... so really, why would a court rule unfairly that you would have to raise the step back up???

More to the point- that pathway... would the step even me MENTIONED as part of the pathway itself? Ive not seen a shared ownership thing before but it would strike me more of simply stating the path direction etc, than saying "there is a 1ft high step at 5feet from the entrance to the path"... so again, if they took you to court- how could they prove that you actually modified the height of the step!?
 
Registration is Free but you can download a Copy of:

1 .The Registered Title to your property and
2. The Registered Plan to your property at:

Online services - Land Registry for England and Wales

for a small fee. I think it's currently £4 for each document. I would suggest you do the Title first (and SAVE anything you download on your computer too - or you'll have to pay again if you want to see it again).

This is the document that will tell you all about the Restrictions or Restrictive Covenants connected with the path.

Obviously the path will be indicated on the Plan but the restrictions or covenants won't be mentioned on this. As I've explained, you need the Registered Title document for that.
 
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Im far from a legal expert, but surely if you got the work done... and they took you to court... for what possible reason could they say that the extra inch or whatever in depth they have lost causes them such a HUGE inconvience and effects their rights?

Shared ownership or not, its a right of way, youre not alerting the direction of path or making it any harder to access their house, just making a step lower.... so really, why would a court rule unfairly that you would have to raise the step back up???

More to the point- that pathway... would the step even me MENTIONED as part of the pathway itself? Ive not seen a shared ownership thing before but it would strike me more of simply stating the path direction etc, than saying "there is a 1ft high step at 5feet from the entrance to the path"... so again, if they took you to court- how could they prove that you actually modified the height of the step!?

Completely agree - if you don't want to sour your relationships with the neighbours (not that it can be by the sounds of it), you could even play naive and say you thought you'd made it clear to the builder not to alter the step, and he did it when you weren't there. Quite frankly, what evidence would they have that it had been altered, or what would a court do if they tried to sue?
 
Completely agree - if you don't want to sour your relationships with the neighbours (not that it can be by the sounds of it), you could even play naive and say you thought you'd made it clear to the builder not to alter the step, and he did it when you weren't there. Quite frankly, what evidence would they have that it had been altered, or what would a court do if they tried to sue?

or tell them its a point of safety, say your mrs slipped over when it was icy, and you are lowering the step to protect both parties..
 
How will it make it easier for the builder? Who, remember, doesn't have to live there after.
 
Why does the builder need to alter the path step if you are building a driveway - is the shared path being pulled up?

As someone else said, some pictures may make things clearer.
 
It would be a very sensible thing to do if you were to check on any Restrictive Covenants in the Title Registration concerning the path before you do anything to it.

As I've explained above, this only costs you £4 to do.

As I see it, it all boils down to common sense and any Restrictive Covenants:

If the path belongs to you, then only thing you have to worry about is 'maintaining free access" to someone else, namely the other resident, then you can go safely go ahead and do a constructional alteration to the step, which forms part of the pathway.

If it belongs to the other person, then you can't work on it without their permission.

If it belongs to the both of you, then you can't go working on it without their permission.
 
Thanks for the advice folks, I'll put some pics up later to show exactly what I'm talking about. The reason the builder wants to lower the step is because the path is right next to the garden and the drive will mate up to the path, it would be much neater etc with a lower step.
 
I have lots of paperwork and stuff that has notes on covenants etc so will be looking at those tonight, been so busy today.
 
TBH, I'm still not sure I understand. As you say, the path slopes (down?) from the road to the front doors. How will that slope be handled if the step is reduced? Presumably the difference in levels will still be there. Won't it impact your neighbour's side of the path?

Also, you don't say if you and your neighbour share the same 2-house building, if you see what I mean, or whether you're in different ones. From your description, it could be either. It could make a difference to the legal position.
 
Not a definitive answer but I have a shared access driveway with 5 neighbours. I own the drive but have to give them access to their properties from my drive so technically as long as they have access i can do what I like.

Check the deeds etc and if it's your path tell the neighbours to shove the step where the sun don't shine.
 
Isn't there a maximum step height these days?
 

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