Rights of Way to a small homestead

[lepitw]

Hello,

 

I live in Pai, Mae Hong Son.

I am facing a problematic situation that I would like to understand from a legal standpoint.

 

The property on which I have a 30 years lease has no direct access to a public road. It has not been a problem so far as the neighbors have been letting us use their pathway. Now they want us to pay rent: we understand why but can not agree to the price and conditions they are asking from us.

We are looking into options to build access to the nearby public road, which means going over a small river: we first need authorization from local authorities and time to build the road and bridge.
Unfortunately, our neighbors are not patient and have forbidden us to use their road anymore, literally from one day to the next.

Of course we want to minimize conflict but at the moment I can not get to my house with my wife and two young kids without going over the river and walking more than 200 meters through fields, which is very inconvenient...

 

What I would like to know is:
- Is it legal for them to forbid us access to our property or require rent for their road if we have no other option?
- Considering our goodwill to build our own road/bridge how can we regain access to their road until the construction is finished?

 

Thank you for your advice.

[CharlieH]

Just an opinion, first off, why on earth would you let and accept this on day one with the property you acquired.

 

If you have no legal right of shared access, then yes as far as I know, they have every right to stop you using their access/land.

 

It would help understand this better if you stated what value they have put on the access.

Depending on the amount involved, I would pay it and push on with your own access then when complete, tell them where to stick it.

Of course the best option is to keep a balance and try to work it out with them in the short term as you also have to live there and no one wants perpetual conflict

[lepitw]

Quote

why on earth would you let and accept this on day one with the property you acquired.

 

When we bought the land, we thought going over the river would be easy: it s a rather small creek and our plan was to build a bridge over it to connect to the public road. What we didn't know then but that we do now is that the river flash floods a couple of times a year which destroys all the bridge locals have tried to build over it... even the neighbor we're talking about. He has seen two 700.000thb bridges destroyed over the last 10 years.

 

Precision: the property in question is used by a non-profit organization that I run, an environmental education project.

 

11 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

It would help understand this better if you stated what value they have put on the access.

They are asking 3000thb/month for:

- access 9am to 5pm only

- no guests, friends, staff, volunteers allowed.

- maintenance is on us

- we need to call them every time we want to come through for authorization

- have to pay 6 months in advance and they keep the right to change the conditions unilaterally without notice.

 

Considering the non-profit's small budget and need for operations this is out of the question.

 

I'd like to be able to use their road without rent until mine is finished.

 

 

[Fab5BKK]

Current situation, you have no access and no right to access.

 

3 solutions:

1. You move to another property (with free access to public roads)

2. You take a lawyer and then go to court in order to get a formalised right to access

3. You agree with the owner 's T&Cs and pay what he asks for.

 

My comments:

Sol # 1 & 3 easy to implement, each of them has drawbacks

Sol# 2 it'd take a long time (and some money) to go to court and reach a decision.  BTW, you're not sure that: 1/ you'll get a decision in your favor 2/ even you get the decision you wished for, then, you'll have to get it implemented...

 

To summarise:

Take it or leave it

[BritManToo]

Cheap bamboo bridge over the stream you can take a m/c over.

No permission needed (so don't ask).

If you have a car park it on the road side of the bridge.

[chrisandsu]

If the bridge cost 700k why don’t you offer the neighbour part of that to buy an access road off him ? Especially if you run the risk of the bridge being washed away . 

[CharlieH]

He's got you over the preverbial barrel !   and he knows it and thats why he's come up with those unreasonable figures terms.Reasonable woukd have been a nominal peppercorn rent.

If you really need to stay there, get a footbridge built.

 

My view is you have been stitched up from the start with that situation.

 

[Toosetinmyways]

Surely you must have some idea as to why your neighbor has started acted like this. You say it was no problem in the beginning, so have you done something different recently. How long were you using their land before your troubles began. You mention you are running an NGO from your property. Is this recent? Does it involve extra noise etc? Has it caused an increase in foot traffic across your neighbors property? I noticed a clause about limiting numbers using their land. Have you started perhaps driving motor vehicles on their land. If it was me I would hold a meeting/party with your neighbors. Make sure to invite the village headman and try to come to a compromise. If they are hell bent on sticking to their plan at least you will know where you stand and can make alternative plans.

It also pays to take note of the Thai proverb. "Better to eat buffalo s--t than employ a lawyer"

[soi3eddie]

How about a floating bridge or a draw-bridge over the river? 4 wheel drive truck? I met a guy in Pai late last year and recall that during conversation hearing a similar story. Maybe it was you. Couldn't help but think at the time that albeit a nice location, there were potential difficulties with access. Even just crossing the river. Do you really need vehicular acess or would a footbridge suffice? When I was looking for land in Southern Thailand with my wife some years ago, we looked at many pieces of land that were "landlocked" with no public access roads. The potential for being held to ransom stopped us each time. Good luck to you sir.