Unadopted Road, Common Land & Parking

[Scottland]

Hi,

Just curious on OcUK's take on this. Our property is located on an unadopted road, surrounded by common land. The previous owner of the house used to park in front of the garage (which is on the deeds), and we have continued to do so.

Picture below for reference, although we're only parking where the silver car is which is in front of the garage door:

At the moment it's a bit of a mud bath, and I'd like to tidy it up a little.


Between us, the 5 houses here try to maintain the unadopted road by filling in pot holes etc. The the above picture shows that where we park is more on the common land than it is the unadopted road, so I'm not sure I can get away with just dumping a load of gravel on there etc

I don't want to dig out a driveway and lay block paving or anything crazy, just tidy it up a little and stop it getting so muddy!


Thoughts? (For reference I'm pretty sure if I checked with the neighbours about doing something with it nobody would object.)

 

[LOAM]

So its not your land? I would be nervous about doing anything to it all as it would probably constitute criminal damage.

 

[Scrutinize]

The common land will probably have some by-laws or covenants in place. It's worth checking with land registry/common register who actually owns it especially if there is ambiguity; along with confirming the specific access and usage rights.

Sometimes you do get unregistered strips adjacent to private / unadopted and common land parcels. This can even be down to a technicality in mapping production missing boundaries. You can then apply to register the title for this.

You should be entitled to maintain the common land for the purposes of access and upkeep and this would also include improving the surface.

The difficulties only arise if the common land has a national park, public body, trust or statutory authority ownership.

You also need to check the public rights of way maps as unadopted roads may still be prows/boats etc. Plus confirm who actually owns the land. It can be unadopted but the land registry may show council ownership. Unadopted is not always the same as a private drive/land for access.

In normal situations on unadopted roads you have access rights and part ownership to the middle of the highway on your side.

Typically though it's a civil matter and agreement or lack of disagreement means you have flexibility.

 

[a1ex2001]

I'd just do it, if nobody has complained about you parking there and churning the ground up who is going to care if you gravel it over?

 

[Scrutinize]

I'd just do it, if nobody has complained about you parking there and churning the ground up who is going to care if you gravel it over?

Please don't just do this. For the sake of a few mins effort to check the land titles, registers and covenants it's worth it. You can then take a view on whether to just go for it.

Land disputes, especially on common land are time consuming and costly. If for example the common land was ultimately owned by a national part authority (NPA , Crown Estates or MOD prob the worse case) or local authority and you didn't have any access or maintenance rights then remedial clean up plus fines can be astronomical. Fines are often levied and pursued even if you undertook remedial works immediately.

Ultimately, you are likely to be fine and gravel has good filtration and drainage. You do want some sleeper retention edging though to prevent further spillage/movement onto other areas. Better would be levelling and using grasscrete.

 

[Scottland]

So its not your land? I would be nervous about doing anything to it all as it would probably constitute criminal damage.

I'm not sure it would come under criminal damage, but you're right it's not my land so I want to be careful what I do (if anything).

The common land will probably have some by-laws or covenants in place. It's worth checking with land registry/common register who actually owns it especially if there is ambiguity; along with confirming the specific access and usage rights.

Sometimes you do get unregistered strips adjacent to private / unadopted and common land parcels. This can even be down to a technicality in mapping production missing boundaries. You can then apply to register the title for this.

You should be entitled to maintain the common land for the purposes of access and upkeep and this would also include improving the surface.

The difficulties only arise if the common land has a national park, public body, trust or statutory authority ownership.

You also need to check the public rights of way maps as unadopted roads may still be prows/boats etc. Plus confirm who actually owns the land. It can be unadopted but the land registry may show council ownership. Unadopted is not always the same as a private drive/land for access.

In normal situations on unadopted roads you have access rights and part ownership to the middle of the highway on your side.

Typically though it's a civil matter and agreement or lack of disagreement means you have flexibility.

Thanks for that - the land is registered as Other Statutory Access Land as far as I can tell but I've not yet managed to find who actually owns the land. Everyone I ask just says it's common land so you can do what you want, one of the neighbours uses the land to burn off rubbish occasionally

The road/track that's unadopted is owned by the council I think, although it doesn't have any road signs etc.

I'd just do it, if nobody has complained about you parking there and churning the ground up who is going to care if you gravel it over?

You're probably right in as far as nobody would know/care - the land has been used like this for access and parking for ~20 years most likely. But I'd at least rather check and do a bit of homework before I make any decision.

At the moment the solution I'm considering just placing down some spare concrete flags there on the muddy surface and see how it goes.