NSW Right of Carriageway

[Toohardy]

Hi,

I own a right of carriageway behind my back fence. There are 7 other properties that own a section of this carriageway. We are the second last house and there is a duplex behind us that is at the end of the carriageway. At the very end of the carriageway is a fence between the duplex behind us and a set of 4 townhouses on the other side. The set of 4 townhouses do not own any of our right of carriageway and they own their own right of carriageway which accesses a separate street. The set of 4 townhouses on the other side of the fence and the duplex behind us have recently replaced the fence between them and decided to put in a lockable gate. Up until now we all shared each other's carriageways. ie the set of 4 townhouses on the other side of the gate used our carriageway and we used theirs. The both access different streets so it was beneficial to use.

When I heard they were installing a lock on the gate I asked if we could have a key to keep our friendly reciprocal agreement to share the two rights of carriageways.
But the set of 4 townhouses say that we can't access their side. The said they didn't want the legal responsibility of someone hurting themselves on their carriageway.

Yet the duplex behind us has granted the 4 townhouses access to our right of carriageway. I know the duplex behind us can grant access to anyone who wants to access their property. In my mind that is friends, relatives, tradespeople, delivery drivers etc. But is it morally or legally acceptable for us now to have the burden of 4 more townhouses accessing our carriageway ? They don't wish to share theirs so now I feel like I'm being taken for granted. And possibly legally responsible if someone hurts themselves on our section of the carriageway (is that right?). There is no official contract or agreement in place. Just spoken word, a sharing of keys between the duplex and the 4 townhouses who replaced that fence and installed the lock on the gate.

I have a legal document showing that we have legal rights to use the carriageway from the street all the way down to the lockable gate.

Would love any opinions. Council couldn't help (I've tried).

Cheers

 

[Tim W]

Not that we can say for sure without seeing the documents,
but you seem to think that the Right Of Carriageway is part of your land.
Typically, it's not.

You don't "own" (the way you mean) things like
Rights Of Way, Carriageways, Easements for Access etc.
Such things are a right to use part of somebody else's land.
They are not part of your land.

I'm not quite clear.... What, of yours, do you say you have actually lost here?

 

[Toohardy]

Hi,

thanks for your reply. The right of carriageway on our side of the locked fence runs all the way to a street at the top. 7 properties including ours own a section of it. We own $100,000 of land there. Part of it is a section of the right of carriageway and part of it is parking for our property. Hope that helps to clarify.

Not that we can say for sure without seeing the documents,
but you seem to think that the Right Of Carriageway is part of your land.
Typically, it's not.

You don't "own" (the way you mean) things like
Rights Of Way, Carriageways, Easements for Access etc.
Such things are a right to use part of somebody else's land.
They are not part of your land.

I'm not quite clear.... What, of yours, do you say you have actually lost here?

 

[Tim W]

...7 properties including ours own a section of it.

I'm not quite getting it...
Is it your land (and some of your neighbours') land that is burdened?