Hi - So you know exactly whether you have any liability for maintainance or for this upkeep, I suggest you firstly inspect your title documents for your house. If this obligation exists it should be recorded on the deeds along with your rights of way and responsibilities.

It could be that you still do have a legal right of way, except a previous owner blocked the gate, in that case the ROW would still exist along with your shared liability, if on the contrary there is no mention then there is no liability on your part.

You can download a copy of your title documents for £4 from HM Land registry.

http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/wps/portal/Property_Search

Any advice would be welcome as its difficult to know where we stand on this.

We own a house that is part of and backs onto a gated development that consists of other similar houses and a block of flats. Our house is not access via the gated development but from another road and is part of a terrace of around 8 houses. All the other houses in our terrace have a gate at the back of their garden, so they can access the development and communal areas should they wise, but ours doesn't. So my question is where do we stand legally in contesting the annual service charged?

I have contacted the company several times - Peverel OM - and so far haven't recieved any response. Its a matter of principle rather than the cost which is the issue. I don't see why we have to pay for the upkeep of the communual areas, grass areas and gates - when we have no access or benefit to it.

I would like to know how to go about contesting this legally as I think its unfair that we are charged when we have no benefit from any of the upkeep that the service charge goes towards.