Access rights

[tebee]

Does the fact that access across a third parties land has been used for a number of years count for anything in France? We are looking at yet another house should which has access by a track that is part of someone’s field, not a public road. There appears to be nothing written down at the moment.

 

Tom

[Val_2]

Seek professional advice from your notaire on this matter, land disputes are all the rage in France and have been for centuries. You would be surprised at what rights there is regarding access across other people's land. Always get everything in writing in France and anything dodgy, walk away now. I've seen here, people trying to sell parcels of land for building on BUT with no access because they just want to offload the problem onto someone else who has no hope of getting a road or track to the land,let alone a fire engine if the place caught fire.

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

There is a law which forces proprietors to permit access to those whose land and buildings have no alternative access.

I have heard horror stories and personally I would not want to be involved in such an arrangement from either side, nor would I trust a notaire's opinion on the matter, although some people who live their entire lives with such arrangements without grief.

[Tarn]

(Local French) Relatives of the (Local French) person we purchased our house from own a small house in the bottom of the valley. There is recorded access to it via a farm on the other side of the valley, with a track down to it. They decided to renovate the house last year. To cut a long story short, the farmer refused them access. The Mayor got involved and agreed that there is access rights. The farmer still refused access. The owners of the house said that if they 'pushed it' legally, they believed the farmer (reputed to be slightly bonkers) would probably accidentally bump into the corner of the house with his JCB.

The upshot is that they have had to purchase access rights from another farmer on our side of the valley and lay a new road - about 500 metres long.

The Mayor insisted that it should be a public right of way in order toi secure planning permission (but declined to contribute to the building of the road).

So. My advice. If there is even a sniff of an access dispute don't walk, but run away.