Conveyance — Rights reserved to vendor and successors — Right to pass and repass with boats — Whether rights personal to vendor — Whether rights passed under section 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925
By a conveyance of March 17 1987 the plaintiffs became the owners of a property known as North End, Beech Road, Wroxham, Norfolk. The defendants became the owners of the adjoining property under an earlier conveyance of September 16 1983. Both properties had once been in common ownership. The 1983 conveyance excepted and reserved to the vendors and their successors in title “(i) a right to moor one boat … and … (ii) SUBJECT to the payment to the Purchasers of the sum of one thousand three hundred and thirty four pounds … a right to pass and repass with boats over and along the dyke shown … upon the payment of one half of the cost of maintenance of the same”. The plaintiffs were the successors in title to the vendor in the 1983 conveyance, and the 1987 conveyance to them included the right reserved by the earlier conveyance. They alleged that notwithstanding the offer of the sum specified in the 1983 conveyance, the defendants had wrongfully refused them the exercise of the rights.
Held The right to pass and repass was not intended to be a personal right reserved by the vendor to the 1983 conveyance. Section 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925 applied and the rights run with the land of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs were entitled to a declaration that they and their successors in title and all persons authorised by them are entitled to each of the rights set out in the conveyance of 1983.
Jonathan Arkush (instructed by Hunt & Hunt) appeared for the plaintiffs; and David Gerrey (instructed by Elborne Mitchell) appeared for the defendants.
