The advent of the motor car created fertile ground for land disputes, as one couple found to their cost after their neighbour succeeded in establishing his ‘squatter’s right’ to park his cars on a country lane at the end of their garden.
Trouble brewed after the couple bought the lane and tried to register their title to it. Their neighbour objected, saying that any registration should enshrine his pedestrian and vehicular rights of way. Whilst accepting that he was entitled to travel the lane on foot, the couple disputed his right to park three cars on it.
In upholding the neighbour’s arguments, the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) delved into title deeds dating back to a time when cars were a relatively rare sight. It found that he, his partner and visitors had used the lane for parking their cars for more than 20 years. They had done so ‘as of right’, without the landowner’s permission and with sufficient frequency to establish the vehicular right of way.