The owners of a £2.25m Cheshire home have lost a right-of-way dispute with a neighbour, whose property they claim has become so derelict that it could potentially devalue their own house.
In June 2002, the High Court ruled that Michael Finn, the owner of Coach House, in Brooke Lane, Alderley Edge, could not access his property via part of Brook Avenue, a private road belonging to David and Valerie Russell, the owners of Brook House. Finn’s only access was held to be through a field alongside the road.
The Court of Appeal has now reversed the decision, restoring Finn’s right of access to his house along the disputed driveway.
The two properties and the surrounding land once formed part of a 16 acre estate, which the former owner sold off separately to the present owners. The Russells maintained that the original conveyance did not specify the extent of the access to Coach House along the driveway. They claimed that Finn’s alleged right of way had been extinguished because he could not show uninterrupted use of the entirety of Brooke Avenue over a period of 20 years.
The Russells also alleged that Finn had removed shrubs and bushes from the front of Coach House to enable him to gain vehicular access via the disputed right of way. This, they claimed, had opened up the view of the dilapidated Coach House from Brook House, which, they argued, could have an adverse effect upon the value of their property.
Dyson LJ held that the trial judge had no basis upon which to reject evidence that the driveway had been used in excess of 20 years. He said that it was inherently unlikely that the previous owner would have rejected the most obvious approach to the house, that is, over the driveway, in favour of the more difficult route over the field.
Russell & others v Finn Court of Appeal (Sir Andrew Morritt V-C, Hale & Dyson LJJ) 20 February 2003.
Paul Chaisty QC and Mark Harper (instructed by Cobbetts, of Manchester) appeared for the appellant; David Berkley QC and Susanne Muth (instructed by Fruhman Davies Livingstone, of Manchester) appeared for the respondents.
References: PLS News 21/02/03
