Hi I work for a charity and we have a fire exit/loading area to the rear of one of our shops which opens onto a neighbouring landlords property. This landlord agreed access for loading and fire escape purposes when we took on the tenancy and to my knowledge this was not written into the tenancy agreement. Our landlord states that access has always been allowed to tenants of our building and there has never been a problem regarding access.

After a disagreement with the neighbouring landlord, he (rather childishly) says he is going to deny us use of the doors and all other access. Can he legally deny us use of a legitimate fire escape? Please help as this is causing distress to some of our volunteers and we would like to resolve this as soon as possible.

Thanks for any help!

If there is no legal agreement then I am afraid he can deny you access and you will have to find an alternative. You could examine the possibility that this means of escape is not required, other than that you may have to negotiate and appeal to his better side.

Hi Mike

You ought to contact a specialist, as you might have a right of way or easement with regards to the fire escape (and even the transport access), depending on the period the escape route/access route was used.

Harry

Thanks guys for your input, I am in the process of looking into it so I'll let you know how we get on.

Thanks again. :)