The judgment can be read here. Landmark Chambers has updated its cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If that is the case, you can check at Companies House if the person from whom you are purchasing your house is a member of the company and able to transfer their share to you at completion. If he or she is not possibly because they did not contribute to the original purchase price of the garden then you may only be entitled to use the garden if you buy into the company so you will need to establish the cost of this before committing to your purchase.
It is possible for a garden committee to admit other people to the garden on the basis of granting annual licences or longer term arrangements but it is not in a position to grant legal easements where it does not own the legal title to the garden. In practice, many garden square committees do grant short term licences in return for premium to boost their annual income and to pay for improvements to the garden.
It is always worth asking for contact details for the chair of the garden committee and to speak to him or her directly, and to obtain a copy of the bye-laws along with details of how a key can be obtained. This conversation may well flush out any issues or perceived issues with access. If minutes are available from the most recent committee meeting then these can also be useful in providing an overview of any current concerns or disputes over the management of the square.
Share this page. On this page. Lisa Bevan Senior counsel London. There are more than fifty of these garden squares dotted around London, and they are particularly prominent in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, as Notting Hill stars Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant can attest… Background and potential issues The arrangements for access to and management of these squares, in keeping with their rather quaint image, are governed by a hotchpot of obscure and ancient pieces of legislation, often leading to confusion for anyone buying a house marketed with "access to private garden square.
Check the council tax bill It makes sense to check a council tax bill for a property that you are purchasing, if you believe it comes with rights of access to a garden square as the bill will show a separate payment being collected towards the maintenance of the garden square, if it is covered by the Act. That is why I should like to update it and to bring in adequate protection for the half century ahead. The Act forbids development on protected garden squares, but, because it was unthinkable at the time, the Act gave no thought to development under or over squares.
Today, many squares are threatened with underground car parks, and the new possibilities of cantilevered architecture make development over an open space a commercial prospect. The Act is particularly inadequate because there were only squares listed at that time—and that number cannot now be added to. The list is closed. New squares are being created all the time in the capital and elsewhere.
Such spaces are protected only by the leaky planning laws and not by Acts of Parliament. My Bill would open a new register, to which any enclosure could be added at the behest of its owner. These owners are the successors of the Victorian builders. Sometimes they are local authorities or trusts, or ownership may be divided equally between the residents of the or so dwellings that surround a square. Good—I have no complaint about such diversity. Owners who wish to set down their squares in the new register would have them protected from any development, on, under or over.
However, the removal of railings created greater access to squares, and after the war many remained open to the public. Some, like St James's Square, continued to be privately owned, although accessible by the public, while others were leased or given to local authorities by landowners who could no longer afford their upkeep.
Squares during World War 2 London squares 'did their bit' for the war effort. Air raid shelters were built in some, like Soho and Manchester Squares.
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