Gary Alistair Mitchell & Anor v Quarry & Skinners Ltd

Facts

Mr and Mrs Mitchell, who describe themselves as professional landlords, have been the registered freehold proprietors since around January 1999 of 25 Waterloo Road, land adjoining 19 Quarry Hill Road and 19/21 Quarry Hill Road, Tonbridge. They bought those freeholds between August and December 1998, demolished a workshop and garage and built the house now known as 25 Waterloo Road, which was let first to a Mr Bartlett and, from 2003, occupied by a Mr Callow. The only access to the rear of the parties' properties is from the west along an access road from Waterloo Road, over which the Mitchells have an express right of way. They applied to HM Land Registry by Form AP1 dated 12 April 2023 for registration of the benefit, and noting of the burden, of a right of way with or without vehicles over a small triangle of land within the title to 17 Quarry Hill Road, known in the proceedings as the Green Triangle, claiming that they, their predecessors and their tenants had crossed it openly and as of right for more than 20 years to reach their parking space and car park. Quarry & Skinners Limited, which had been registered as proprietor of 17 Quarry Hill Road on 18 November 2021 and which obtained planning permission in July 2023 to build two semi-detached dwellings partly upon the Green Triangle, objected on 9 May 2024. The dispute was referred to the First-tier Tribunal under section 73(7) of the Land Registration Act 2002.