Driveway consent

[Biglet]

Hi all,
Hoping someone will be able to help.

Family have a property purchased 20 odd years ago, that had consent for a for a right of way - a small portion of the drive runs over the neighbours land. The neighbours at the time signed off on this, we still have all the paperwork - however, the council never applied this to the title.
Fast forward to the present day, new neighbour is aware of this unconsented ROW, and is pretty much blackmailing us for money.
I have heard that even though it was an error by council not adding it to the title, that we would need to get the property re-surveyed and the new neighbour would still need to sign off on this ROW being added (and for a cost no doubt).

I just wanted to check in with you all, that this is correct, and there is no way around going through this to get it sorted?

[John the builder]

council aren't responsible for the change the owner is though the council may have to approve it. Get legal advise on the agreement and what is allows for.

[RollingCloud]

Hi
An easement instrument (that's what the document is called) which is the instrument to register the ROW easement against your title should have been registered on your families title by a solicitor. The council provides what they call a s348 certificate that accompanies the instrument to be registered. The s348 certificate is another document that is submitted to show permission has been given by the Council. This is due to the requirement of s348 of the Local Government Act 1974..."Except with the prior permission of the council, no person shall lay out or form any private road or private way, or grant or reserve a right of way over any private way, in the district". Perhaps the s348 certificate is what you are referring to? If the ROW instrument never got got registered and the owners of the land that the ROW goes over has been changed then it appears you may need to seek to have a new ROW registered. I cannot see that you would need a new survey plan unless the affected land has changed since then, i.e. subdivided. But given I don't know all the information and the reason why the original ROW did not get to completion stage, yes probably better if you seek legal advice. However if you think that Council did not consent to the ROW then I would find out why, as their permission would still be required if you resurrect the process to achieve a ROW.