Manorial Rights.

[SteveW]

I was reading Brenhden's post regarding his tenency agreement issues and I thought my little predicament my be of some interest.
I'm building a house on 4 acres of land near Knutsford, Cheshire.
I've owned the land for 14 years and last year I finally got planning permission for a dwelling.
The land title deeds show a Unilateral Notice in favour of a 3rd party, The local lord of the manor.
He's got "Manorial Rights" on the land. Which means he can enter my land (But only with my permission) to hunt and fish, Also he can hold a fair on the land, but again only with my permission.
When I saw this on the land title I thought what a quirky, quaint relic of our distant historical past.
Not so, this Unilateral Notice is quite a serious thing, it would make it difficult to get a lender to offer a mortgage for the property when it's completed and I want to sell it.
I'm just starting the process of challenging his lordship's Manorial Rights, hopefully it'll be a fairly simple process to get the Unilateral Notice removed....if he doesn't object!
I'm not alone on this one either......there are 115,000 other properties/land with similar Manorial Rights lodged against them.....serfdom isn't quite dead!

[Brenhden]

It does feel like serfdom and it should have been changed centuries ago.

[bill_qaz]

Better still ask for "Quid pro quo " and you can ride on his land and maybe host the Cheshire ADV fair

[lancashirelad]

You'd best make sure he doesn't have Prima Nocta rights as well

[andrew882]

Haven't heard of that one before, but there's all sorts of pitfalls that can catch you out. The house I currently own has a strip of land at the bottom of the garden that is 'almost certainly' ours, but because of discrepancies between official maps, may belong to some archaic group of landowners. There is no record of them being in existence any more, but the housebuilders had to take out a significant insurance policy to make the property mortgageable, just in case someone emerged from the mists with a claim to the 2m wide strip of land.

Worst case for us, we would lose a flowerbed, but the neighbours would lose access to their garage!

Not sure if chancel tax is still an issue, but a few years ago it was making everyone very windy indeed.

[Brenhden]

Not sure if chancel tax is still an issue, but a few years ago it was making everyone very windy indeed.

This p!ssed me right off when I bought my house. Church and state should be separate in this day and age.

[herman]

There are still all sorts of covenants on land. Here we have to have permission from the previous land owner to build an extension, etc. basically a little fee but multiply that by the thousands of houses here !! Local Authorities do it too removing permitted development from new estates meaning you need planning for even a conservatory, oh and a nice fee too. Don't get me started on uplift clauses.

[boboneleg]

I always thought you were a bit of a serf Steve, make sure you take your three cattle and six pigs up to his tithe barn next year and you should be ok

[PaulinBont]

Knoweth thy place you great unwashed serf, get thee back in the fields and doth thy cap whence the squire come byeth.
Dilly dilly !

[boboneleg]

In all seriousness I hope it works out all right for you Steve as I know how much you've put into that place.