Land access case ends in disappointment for homeowner

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British citizen Geoffrey Croft has lost his case in which he claimed he had a right to use someone else’s land to gain access to his own property in Monk’s Hill, Cobbs Cross.
The Court of Appeal made the ruling during its recent sitting in Antigua last month.
The ruling states that Croft was not entitled to a right of way over the land that is in the care of Joseph Horsford, the sole administrator of the estate of William Horsford, deceased.
Croft’s argument was that his right of access was of necessity because, according to him, there is no other route to get there.
But, the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling and said neither he nor his agents were to use the road again since it is a private road.
The appellate court has ruled that the parties now have to go back to the High Court for the assessment of damages for the prolonged unauthorised use of the road.
Yesterday, Croft expressed dissatisfaction over the ruling, saying it has been over a decade since he built a U.S. $2 million home and has been fighting for a road to use.
Five years ago, the then chairman of the Development Control Authority (DCA), Leon Chaku Symister, said Croft was not the only landowner in that situation.
Symister explained that the problem usually arose because subdivisions and other land changes were made without informing the DCA.
In September 2012, Symister said there was no policing to ensure that what was approved in a subdivision in the DCA remains when the sale of the land takes place.
Croft said that had he known that the road was privately owned, he would not have bought the land let alone built a house on it.

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