Neighbour suddenly claims a historic right of way through my garden after I put up a gate — how would you approach this?
I’m in County Durham and I’ve recently ended up in a dispute with my neighbour over a small alleged pedestrian path/access through my garden.
I’ve lived in my house for around 7 years. My neighbour has a gate in the boundary which faces directly into my garden, but in all the years I’ve lived here she has never needed to use this gate or the alleged access route.
The issue actually started because I recently put a gate/fence up to secure my garden. Before this, the garden was open and I had no reason to think that my neighbour claimed to have any legal right to cross it. Once I secured my garden, she objected and suddenly started asserting that she had a right to use the access.
The alleged path doesn’t physically exist anymore. There is no concrete path or other obvious formed walkway through my garden. Both ends of where the path is supposedly located have been blocked/closed off for years, and this was already the case before I bought the house. As far as I’m aware, it hasn’t been a usable through-route for many years.
My neighbour has said things along the lines of “what if I want to bring my dog out that way?” and “what if I need to bring the hosepipe round to the front of my house to water my plants?”
She already has a back gate leading onto the back street and a front door leading onto the front street, so she has other ways in and out of her property.
The alleged route itself was only a small pedestrian path and isn’t remotely suitable for vehicles.
Initially, we were actually able to discuss the matter reasonably between ourselves and my neighbour agreed that we should get solicitors involved to establish the position. Unfortunately, things have since become much more hostile, so I’m now trying to properly understand the property side of things.
I’ve checked both our current Land Registry titles. Neither appears to clearly state that she has a right of way over my land.
I’ve then started looking into the historical documents. Her title refers to old conveyances from the 1920s, including a 1922 conveyance, but the physical path I’m talking about doesn’t appear to have existed at that time.
I’ve also looked at historical maps. From what I’ve been able to establish, the neighbouring house existed by the 1950s, but the property which is now my house wasn’t there at that point. It was subsequently a Sunday school, and I have plans for the Sunday school which don’t show the path either. The path appears to have been created considerably later.
I’m aware that none of this necessarily proves that there isn’t a legal easement. I’m not trying to convince myself that I’m right — I’m trying to establish what the actual legal position is.
I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have dealt with historic rights of way/easements in England:
How did you establish whether the right actually existed?
Did your solicitor have to trace old conveyances and plans?
Can an old right exist even though it isn’t obvious on the current Land Registry title?
How precisely is the route normally defined?
If a pedestrian right of way exists, does that normally mean the person can access the rest of the garden, or can the owner fence off the remainder while leaving the access route available?
Does the fact that the physical route has been blocked and effectively ceased to exist for many years have any significance?
Does putting a gate up to secure your own garden normally cause an issue if someone subsequently claims they have an easement?
How difficult/expensive was it to get the position established?
I’m not looking for someone to give me definitive legal advice from a Reddit post. I’m mainly curious about other people’s experiences and what happened when they had similar disputes.