re; allowing neighbours access to your land.
- Thread starter hwd007
- Start date
Short answer is yes, however there is much more to it.
Under what arrangement do you consent to your neighbours entering your property? Is it an unwritten understanding or a written agreement?
A property occupier has a duty of care for all persons on their premises. This duty extends even to the extent of a duty to robbers in your own home and there are common law cases that have enforced this.
By giving consent, the reasonable standard of care may be considered to be of a higher level than if they are considered to have entered your property without consent.
Do you have any reason to believe a part of your property would give rise to an injury should some enter? Examples might be that your duty of care might be to ensure there are no unfilled pools left without appropriate cover or possibly dangerous objects left lying in your grass. These are both just examples and not necessarily correct but convey my point.
You should also be aware that allowing access such as that can amount to a legally recognisable burden on the land, being an implied easement - which you would have ot notify purchasers and can impact the value of the land as it restricts what you can do with it! An easement implied in this way usually takes a number of years before it would be recognised - you should check with a local lawyer!
This would be one of my concerns, as well as whether your public liability insurance will cover you for any trips etc on the land.
You should also look into when after a what period of time it becomes common land. I know of someone who lived on a corner and school kids used to cut the corner of about 1-2m of his land, it actually was a little path most of the time. The council after a period of time ( I think it was about 10-12 years) declared it common land
Jezza
Jezza
so could that work in reverse... say you have an easment next to your land that you look after (mow etc) for x amount of years. Can you then say you have looked after it for x amount of years and then claim it?
You cannot actually claim it as 'your land' - though there are some provisions where squatters can actually claim the land/house, but they need to have lived there for an extended time (eg 40+ years), not been told ot move on, made major improvements, eg fencing etc to be able to claim it as there land...in your scenario, the best you can do is claim the right to mow...
This is called Adverse Posession and while a claim like this is possible, such an action would take a very long time to see through, and would be an expensive process.
I know I'm getting a bit off topic, but if the parcel had any creditors, ie; a mortgage or council rates owing, most juristictions afford creditors the power to reposess for arrears.
An applicant would need to be paying these bills, to prevent the creditors from taking on ownership and liquidating the asset themselves.
A successful claim for adverse possession in NSW requires you to occupy, pay rates, care for the land etc for a period of 12 years without the knowledge or consent of the owner. In Victoria, its 20 years.