Crossing onto your neighbour's land?

Crossing onto your neighbour's land?

"I'd like to be able to go over my neighbour's land to access the road. But he says it's his property and I'm not allowed to go that way.

What about it?"

In principle, every owner of a thing (movable or immovable) has the right to dispose of it freely, within the limits of the law. He or she can claim it against anyone who holds it without right and repel any usurpation. A landowner may, for example, bring an action for the cessation of disturbance against pedestrians using his land if a ban on access has been ordered by a judge and posted on the premises. However, the exercise of property rights is not absolute. Federal law provides for a number of legal restrictions, most of which derive from neighbourly rights. These include the prohibition of excessive encroachment; the prohibition, in the case of excavation or construction work, of harming neighbours by shaking their land, exposing it to damage or compromising the works on it; the right of the owner to cut and keep branches and roots growing on his land, if they cause him harm and if, after complaint, the neighbour does not remove them within a suitable period of time; the obligation to receive on his land the water that flows naturally from the upper land, in particular water from rain, snow or uncapped springs or water from drainage from the upper land, if it was already flowing naturally onto his land; as well as the right of way.

Under article 694 of the Civil Code, an owner who has insufficient access to the public highway may require his neighbours to give him the necessary right of way, in return for full compensation. This right is exercised in the first instance against the neighbour from whom the right of way can most naturally be claimed because of the previous state of the properties and access roads. If all these conditions are met, you are entitled to demand that such a right of way be established, by paying compensation to your neighbour.

If you reach an agreement with your neighbour, you should draw up a contract in writing, specifying the amount of this compensation. In the event of disagreement, you can then refer the matter to the Court of First Instance, which will decide whether the conditions have been met. Note that a right of way of this kind is only constituted by its entry in the Land Register.

Other rights of way may be provided by cantonal legislation. In Geneva, the owner of a fence or building erected along the property boundary may, insofar as it is necessary to build, repair or rebuild it, borrow the neighbouring land, subject to prior notice and compensation. Similarly, the owner of a live hedge has the right to use the neighbouring property to trim his hedge if he cannot do so on his own property, subject to prior notice and compensation.