An amending bill to remove the deadline for registration of rights of way will “prevent stress between neighbours and avoid a large volume of unnecessary court cases”, according to one TD.
Independent TD for Clare Michael McNamara said that the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform (Amendment) Bill 2021 will come before the Dáil in the coming weeks after cabinet approved it.
November 30, had originally been set as a deadline for receipt of applications for a court order to confirm a right by prescription (i.e. acquired through long or historic use), with new rules to take effect from December 1.
As the law stands at the moment, confirmation of rights of way through a court order will be subject to different regulations after December 1.
The amendment to remove this deadline will avoid “unnecessary” court cases “to register rights that have existed for generations”, deputy McNamara said.
In the absence of this extension, he noted that: “In effect, every right of way dispute in the country, and many cases where there is as yet no dispute, would have been brought to a head at the end of November, ending up in divisive court cases with inevitable resultant legal costs.
“Minister for Justice Heather Humphreys has acknowledged there is legal uncertainty about how the new rules may be interpreted in practice, and that it has not yet been possible to register many important prescriptive rights,” McNamara added.
“These difficulties are also causing significant delays in conveyancing, and in mortgage and farm loan applications.”
“The approaching deadline has been a cause of concern for many people, particularly farmers, and it also has been raised with the minister by the Bar Council and the Law Society of Ireland. I welcome the minister’s decision to introduce this amended bill to the Dáil,” the Clare deputy said.
McNamara – a barrister and farmer by trade – explained that, should the amendment bill pass through the Dáil, the law applicable to prescriptive easements will largely revert to judge-made legal precedent that applied before the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009.
He added that, of the amendment passes, it will still be possible to confirm prescriptive right – either by a court order or by registering it with the Property Registration Authority – but this would become optional, as it was before the 2009 act, rather than mandatory.