[2024] UKUT 00153 (LC)

I understand that the Appellants acquired the freehold interest in Number 4 in May 2020. In July 2020 the Appellants applied to the Land Registry for their registration as owners of the Blue Land title to which was, I assume, formerly unregistered. This application was successful and, as I have said, the registered title to Number 4 now includes the Blue Land.

The Appellants have carried out a substantial refurbishment/restoration of Number 4. I assume that it was as part of this refurbishment/restoration that the walled garden on the Blue Land was created.

Prior to the refurbishment/restoration the Blue Land comprised a paved area of forecourt at the front of Number 4, similar to the forecourt areas of Numbers 5-8. In the case of the Blue Land however there was a railed metal staircase, with open treads, which ran from the surface of the Blue Land up to the Walkway. This staircase (“the Staircase”) ran in an east to west direction, parallel with the Pavement and with the Walkway where it runs in front of Number 4. The Staircase ascended from a point in the middle of the Blue Land to a top step giving access to a point on the Walkway located at the corner of the roof of the basement structure in front of Number 3. A person reaching the top of the Staircase and turning to the left would have come, within a few steps, to the front door of Number 4.

The Staircase was demolished as part of the works to create the front garden on the Blue Land. The Judge found that the Staircase was removed, without warning, on 29^th November 2020 by the Appellants, and has not been replaced; see Paragraph 5.