Hi All,
Thought you might get a kick out of this:-
These here city type folks moved into the countryside and brought properties from elderly country folks down a private lane. Private means the council doea not do any maintenance on it, it's down to the folks that live there. Well the first property was still owned and lived in by an lady in her late 50's her's, had the largest garden and the lane went around the outside of it then onto the other properties. She didn't even have a car. Well the yuppy types that had moved in over the last few years all drove flashy sporty type cars and soon found that especially in the winter what with the rains the holes that developed in the lane caused the cars to ground out. The previous residents would actually fill the holes up every year, but that of course was beneath the yuppies.
so they formed a residents commitee, the original lady was not interested as they didn't need such things before being neighbours they all tried to get along. But the city types or townies as we call them seem to have a need for such. Well they got together and decided that the lane needed improving and it would be tarmaced so their nice shiny sports cars would not get all dirty and scraped bottoms. The decided that they would each pay for the bit lane that passed their property to be done, when it was all cut and dried and prices obtained they then troop down to the lady at the end and tell her that the lane is going to be tarmaced and her share of the bill is £X amount which of course was far higher than anyone elses as her garden was bigger and it went around the boundary in a loop.
Well to say she was not pleased is an understatment, especially as she didn't even have a car, but when this was pointed out the newcomers told her that was not their fault and that the majority had made the decision and she would have to pay up or be sued for the money. Hmm bad move that one as now she had no option but consult a solicitor (lawyer), well the Deeds of the property were duly sort and consulted whislt this was being done the townies had a brainwave, they would just take a slice from the old ladies garden and put a new lane straight through thereby shortening the journey and reducing the cost. They informed the lady of their idea and plans. Stuck up or what.
Well it all backfired on them as it seems that actually there was no OFFICIAL LANE AND ACCESS to their properties at all, the lane where it entered off the main highway was owned by this little old lady and she was advised to gate it off and refuse the others permission to trespass on her land
Seems when it was all friendly like the owner which happened to be her father had let the other original owners of the properties built later one construct the dirt/shingle as it was originally lane which is why it went around the outside of the garden. The townies were now in a state claiming that she couldn't (yes she could and did) fit a locked gate and refuse them access, yes she could quite legally it seems. Now it seems when the deeds of the other properties were carefully looked at there was no provision for any other access and it relied on good will of the owner of the first house which they had no lost through their lack of respect.
They tried bribary and offering to pay for her share, not interested was the reply, they offered to buy the lane outright, nope as she could no longer trust their intentions. So all that was open for them was to make offers to buy her out lock stock and barrel or try to buy some land next too the lane or at the other end to put an access way through providing they could actually obtain planning permission that is.
I don't know what the final outcome was as I moved jobs and the guy who I worked with who knew of this personally as it was just up the road from him and he knew the lady in question at least to chat too. Oh boy now if I owned the land around or next to the lane you can be sure the price just went through the roof
Hope it brightened you day a little.