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Neighbours – access to land |
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Relatively few practitioners seem to know about the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992. Basically, it allows a property owner access to ‘adjoining or adjacent land’, so as to carry out ‘works that are reasonably necessary for the preservation of the whole or any part’ of his land, provided that the works could not be carried out ‘or would be substantially more difficult to carry out’ without entry upon that other land.
All of this is achieved via an access order granted by the county court. However, it has to be said that the law is relatively untested in that the law seems to have been little used. Fears have been expressed that the Act requires that an access order be granted if the landowner ‘desires’ access, as opposed to ‘needs’ access. Theoretically, this could result in the making of unnecessary and burdensome orders, but that risk appears to be more theoretical than real.
Whilst on the topic of neighbours, if you are consulted in a neighbour dispute then you (or, more realistically, your client, who will probably end up acting for himself) can find an excellent compendium of ‘neighbour’ legislation on the useful Neighbours from Hell website. For instance, it has the full text of the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992, Party Wall Act 1996, Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Dogs Act 1996, and much other relevant legislation.
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July 2004 |
