Change of easement: Legal Advice

Questioner

We recently purchased a house where the neighbours have a right of way to their back garden, and are currently using our back garden (a narrow strip between the house and a garage at the back of the property). Now we are planning to demolish the garage, which will allow the right of way to be moved to the rear of the property. This would mean that the dominant property would have to extend approximately 6 metres by 50 metres, otherwise their entrance would remain in the same place. The ruling estate is not very keen due to problems with this right of way in the past. However, is it still possible for us to push this through in this situation?

Lawyer

There are two ways to change the easement: 1. by means of a notarial deed in which both the owner of the dominant estate and the servient estate cooperate; or 2. by means of a court ruling. Option 1 will not work, I understand, but then you still have the option of requesting the court to adjust the easement. You must demonstrate that there are unforeseen circumstances that are such that the owner of the servient property cannot be expected to allow the easement to continue unchanged. Whether such a request has a chance of success I cannot assess without further study of the underlying deed(s) and the situation on site.