No Access, No Development
Whilst you may feel you have secured the perfect site for your proposed development, a lack of or insufficient access rights will halt your development abruptly in its tracks. As a starting point, your solicitor should obtain Land Registry and Highways searches to determine whether or not the site and your intended access point directly abut a publicly adopted highway. Where they do, this is the best outcome as it means neither you nor your end users will have to contribute financially to its upkeep and maintenance other than through taxation. Where they don’t, your solicitor should determine whether there are any rights over the relevant adjoining land by reviewing the seller’s title in conjunction with their replies to enquiries and provide a clear summary of the legal position so that you can consider any next steps that will need to be taken to make your development viable. Where no suitable rights are apparent, you’ll want to rectify this before exchanging contracts ...