Whose Drive is it Anyway?

beegee123

Wondered if anyone can shed some light on this:

Went to view a property today marketed by EA as having a shared drive, however, when we arrived the nextdoor neighbours have put a fence down the middle.

It's a very nice fence.

But there is no way to get a car to the garage at the bottom of the drive as the driveway is much too narrow and OH, not unreasonably, wants to park the car in the garage when he tinkers/fixes it etc.

Thing is - are the neighbours allowed to do this? The house is a repo and had been empty for a month or so. Just seems a bit cheeky to me.

Mr_Matey

I think you need to find out how shared the drive really is, as the estate agent may be misleading you. If it is indeed shared, then the neighbour can't put a fence up on it, no matter how nice it is.

If you're serious about the place, perhaps you should chat to the neighbour about it first. The last thing you want is to move into a place with one of those "neighbours from hell" you see on tele.

Davesnave

What Mr Matey says.

If it is a new fence, tread with care. People who take advantage don't suddenly reform, especially when thwarted. Get to meet them. If they appear to be NFH, walk away.

Airwolf1

As the others said really, you may be able to force them to remove the fence, but then you'll have moved to a nice house but won't get on with your neighbours.

jay11_2

I'm live in an area with shared drives, and a fair few of them have fences down the middle. This is possible because half of each drive actually belongs to each house/owner, and are only 'shared' by mutual agreement. Most of these use their front 'gardens', suitably surfaced, as drives.

Others, like the house we're renting, don't have a fence, so the garages are accessible, but it means that the tiny back gardens aren't fully enclosed. It's not a huge problem for us because the kids are older, dog is well-behaved, and we're here short term, but it's not great either.

It would have been a nightmare 10 years ago, when our children were small, and if buying I would look for a house with a fence, and only buy if I was certain it could stay that way. I'd be concerned about my resale market, privacy, visitors kids and pets, and so on. I don't know if the house you're buying has a similar back garden, but if so, and you want to have the fence removed, I'd think carefully.

bristol_pilot

I would never ever buy a house with a shared driveway. My parents went through 30 years of endless disputes with neighbours (not the same ones) over who had parked in the driveway blocking the other people from getting out or in their garage etc. Just not worth it - walk away.

beegee123

Thanks for the responses.

I had no idea shared driveways could be such a problem bristol_pilot, it never really occurred to me.

We do have a small child Jay 11 so the fact the back garden cannot be easily fenced off would be a problem.

Davesnave the fence is new - they haven't even finished building it yet (bricks at the bottom and fence pannelling on the top) so I reckon those of you who think they might be NFH are probably right. At least we know now before it's too late.