An important recent case is London Tara Hotel v Kensington Close Hotel [2010] PLSCS 281 where two hotels adjoined each other and one of the hotels used a road around the other for servicing. The hotel using this road had enjoyed this right under a licence that ceased around 1980. The hotel continued to use this road for the same purpose on a daily basis. The court decided that the hotel had acquired a prescriptive easement under the doctrine of lost modern grant based on the fact that the same use had continued on a daily basis for the last 20 years. The right was limited to the user that had continued for the last 20 years so the right did not cover private use.
A claim under lost modern grant is not rebutted where the use is interrupted after the 20 year period has passed. However, the doctrine of lost modern grant will fail if it can be proved that the grantor was in some way incompetent through capacity, or ownership, to grant the easement.
A Mackman Group collaboration - market research by Mackman Research | website design by Mackman
