Despite careful drafting, easements can be a ripe source of dispute, says Sue Highmore
In Carter v Cole [2009] EWCA Civ 410, [2009] All ER (D) 188 (May) the parties twice ended up in the Court of Appeal to resolve conflicts over the wording of a right of way.
The Carters sold off most of their land to the Coles in 2000, retaining a small plot that was used (by a tenant) as a water bottling plant. A right of way was reserved over the land being sold to provide an access route between the retained land and the highway. The temporary planning consent (for the bottling plant) in force at the time of the sale required adequate visibility splays to be preserved at the junction with the main road, on which only low level vegetation was permitted. The visibility splay land was transferred to the Coles but (the first flaw in the drafting) no restrictive covenant was imposed on them in relation to the planting scheme on that land. The transfer was made subject to the rights in the lease of the bottling
