OT: Road verges

Your hedge should be within your boundary.

With hedges, the actual boundary is usually in the centre of the hedge. With fences, one person or the other owns it.

And if it is deemed to be causing a blind spot, HA will make you chop it down.

They own the highway, assuming it is adopted. That usually, but not always, includes any pavements and verges adjacent to the roadway.

The boundary of your property should be shown on the deeds or, if registered, on the Land Registry map.

I don't think that applies with road verges. In fact looking into it the 'surface' is owned by the highway authority but the 'land' belongs to the adjacent land owner.

It's like rights of way across farm land, the farmer still owns the land but he can't interfere with the surface of the right of way (beyond maintaining it).

Assuming this is in E&W then the Highway Authority doesn't even automatically own the land /under/ the road!

On the contrary, the presumption is that whoever owns land alongside a road owns put to the middle of the road. This can be rebutted but it needs evidence that the Highway Authority (or someone else) owns it.

But before anyone gets excited about charging the Highway Authority, statute hives them the right to as much of the subsoil etc as needed for the road and its foundations.

And Land Registry title plans rarely help with this. They are usually drawn up under the statutory "general boundaries rule" and don't show exact boundaries of the land.

Depends if it's your hedge or theirs. Look at your deeds.

It does. The LR map, which I downloaded today, shows the boundary being right at the edge of the road (as near as one can tell, the scale is not very good).

The reason this has come up is that there is a pole bearing volts (240 of them) in the hedge. It connects to another pole across the road which bears

Umm.. Cross field rights of way may be ploughed. There are rules about restoration and duration of disturbance.

I think the legal term used for *byways open to all traffic* is that the surface is *vested* (whatever that means) in the highway authority but the land is owned by the adjoining landowners.

Non classified roads, as you say above.

Contact the electric Co and sort out the wayleave youself, it is not difficult.

Yes the HA normally only own roads that have been built recently and they have bought the land necessary. Many rural roads are simply adopted and if they have been enclosed from adjacent land the HA takes responsibility for maintenance. The metalled strip is only part of the highway, the highway includes the verges.

The old adage was the HA could dig two spits deep but this wouldn't be much of a foundation for 44 tonne lorries.

The solum (everything beneath this) remains the property of the adjacent landowner.

I think it means it's under their control by law and unconditionally (in that usage)?

Cheers, T i m

Yes if it is overgrown they can first send you a letter, then they will cut it and bill you for it. It happens all the time on Guernsey, where there are few pavements and thus this overgrown hedge issue means that pedestrians can be in danger. Brian

In message snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>, Tim Streater snipped-for-privacy@greenbee.net writes

Huh! You can do it yourself. In normal times, wayleave depts. are very approachable.

First question.. has it already been paid? Utility poles are subject to wayleave payments if they also serve properties other than your own (which is your situation). However, it is possible that a one off *perpetuity* payment has been made to a previous owner.

Agree with Tim's comments here. But also be aware that you are not talking of a large sum of money for a single pole even if you are entitled to back payments. Its certainly not worth appointing anyone to do it on your behalf.

Authority

appoint

Scam alert. How much are this company going to charge? Will they charge wether they succeed or not? Bear in mind a single pole will only "earn" you a few tens of pounds/year, if that... and only then if wires from it feed other customers. It's not clear from your post if the wires to other customers are via this pole or the one the other side of the road.

Where is the pole in relation to the centre line of the hedge? If it's clearly your side and it's supporting wires to other customers and you are not getting wayleave payments contact the DNO.

If your DNO's records of this sort of thing are anything like ours, they aren't very good. Probably because many date from the time of bits of cardboard in a box, people not telling the DNO when they sell the land and/or new owners not realising they are due a wayleave.

Oh. Now I wonder whether they would have been obliged to declare that on the transfer of the property to us. It would, after all, constitute a sort of lien on the property.

Good point - in principle at least. The Law Society's standard questions include one about rights or arrangements. But in practice it'd be easy for a seller to forget about one pole - the more so if a one-off payment was made years ago. And you may find they answered "don't know" - always the safest ;)

Pass! When we sold the farmhouse there was no mention of a *paid up* telephone pole* in the hedge. Elsewhere on the farm they strenuously resisted a claim on two verge poles and some buried cable. Luckily I was able to show the road had been widened by our then landlords. Elsewhere we have 11kV overhead. I think 6 poles brings in £158.61/year. They pay less for grass land than arable.