Hi all
Having an issue in our industrial estate. We're part of a large area of units, and as our office has been expanding we've more cars than previously. The tenant opposite has been renting part of the carpark outside his own office to allow people to part 40ft lorry trailers, but he's not happy with our expansion and deems half the carpark belongs to us, and half belongs to him, which although sounds fair, there is no legal bias for this and he just thinks it belongs to him. In reality, he only has control of the footprint of his unit and not the grounds outside, similar to ourselves. I've checked land registry and no boundarys are shown other than the units
Anyway, on occassion he has now taken to instructing the lorrys to just park our cars in and left an audi blocked by 3 trailers for nearly a week
I can see how this MAYBE goes against the following, which is police backed
The question is.... Does a publically assessible, but somewhat private bit of land, count as a highway? There are units here open to the public, so they're welcome to drive in. It's not closed off, during the day at least, but I'm unsure if anyone locks the gates from the road by night.
I'd like to get all my facts straight incase I need to approach him about blocking in vehicles. And I haven't even started on the ridiculous number of punctures we're all somehow getting too
Having an issue in our industrial estate. We're part of a large area of units, and as our office has been expanding we've more cars than previously. The tenant opposite has been renting part of the carpark outside his own office to allow people to part 40ft lorry trailers, but he's not happy with our expansion and deems half the carpark belongs to us, and half belongs to him, which although sounds fair, there is no legal bias for this and he just thinks it belongs to him. In reality, he only has control of the footprint of his unit and not the grounds outside, similar to ourselves. I've checked land registry and no boundarys are shown other than the units
Anyway, on occassion he has now taken to instructing the lorrys to just park our cars in and left an audi blocked by 3 trailers for nearly a week
I can see how this MAYBE goes against the following, which is police backed
Section 137 Highways Act 1980 wilful obstruction of the free passage along a highway.
137Penalty for wilful obstruction.
(1)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence and liable to [F1imprisonment for a term not exceeding 51 weeks or] a fine [F2or both].
[F3(1A)In relation to an offence committed before the coming into force of section 281(5) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (alteration of penalties for certain summary offences: England and Wales), the reference in subsection (1) to 51 weeks is to be read as a reference to 6 months.
(1B)For the purposes of this section it does not matter whether free passage along the highway in question has already been temporarily restricted or temporarily prohibited (whether by a constable, a traffic authority or otherwise).
(1C)In subsection (1B), “traffic authority” has the same meaning as in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (see section 121A of that Act).]
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The question is.... Does a publically assessible, but somewhat private bit of land, count as a highway? There are units here open to the public, so they're welcome to drive in. It's not closed off, during the day at least, but I'm unsure if anyone locks the gates from the road by night.
I'd like to get all my facts straight incase I need to approach him about blocking in vehicles. And I haven't even started on the ridiculous number of punctures we're all somehow getting too