[2025] UKUT 204 (LC)

The Appellant’s case, at the hearing before the FTT, was that he had run a local boat hire business (“the Business”), from the Appellant’s Beach Huts, since 1982. The Business was seasonal; with the summer holiday season running from the beginning of May until late September, and the off season running from October to the start of May. During the summer season the boats hired out by the Business were kept on moorings when not in use. The Appellant’s evidence was that during the winter months (meaning in this context from 1^st October to 31^st May in each year), and since 1982, he had used the Triangle to store up to six boats used by the Business, with related equipment, and to carry out maintenance and repairs on the boats.

The Appellants’ case was that he had acquired, by prescription and for the benefit of the Appellant’s Beach Huts as the dominant tenement, the following right over the Triangle; namely a right to store up to six boats and related equipment on the Triangle, and to carry out maintenance on those boats. It is important to note that this right was not claimed on the basis that it was a continuous right. The right was claimed on the basis that it was a right which had effect during the winter months; meaning in this context the period from 1^st October to 31^st May in each year. I will refer to this period of months as “the Relevant Period”.

It is this claimed right which I am referring to as the Disputed Easement.