Summary

Effect of enlargement of dominant tenement on existing easements.

Facts

Appeal against dismissal of claim to right of way from a house where right had been granted to a top-floor tenant by predecessor who owned both the house and the servient tenement. The appellant claimed that by virtue of s.62(2) Law of Property Act 1925 the right of way had devolved to him as owner of the entire house. The judge had held that it ended when the tenant's lease expired.

Held

Following Wright v Macadam (1949) 2 KB 744 the mere alteration of the house, the dominant tenement, into one dwelling could not have any effect on the existence of the right of way which survived. The character or extent of the burden imposed on the servient tenement had not been enlarged.

Appeal allowed.