Shared Driveway

superfran_uk

I rented with a shared driveway trouble free for years - Our last neighbours didn't have a car and let us use the space unless they were expecting visitors, which of course was a great bonus - BUT I don't think I would have considered purchasing a property with one. People are less inclined to play by the rules if there isn't a chance of comeback (i.e. they can't be evicted - in our case our landlord owned both flats in the same property).

Is there any chance of putting up a chain link fence or even just a bit of white paint down the middle? I would be more inclined to enter into a shared driveway if there was some physical boundary - not everyone is as 'good' at parking considerately as I am!

ShelleyC_2

I grew up in a house where we owned the drive and two house at the front / bottom of it had access. Put me off for life as they took the p!ss. Stopping in middle to offload weekly shop, parking half in drive to make it tricky to pass, when friends came over directed them to turn in our driveway, one set even hit and broke gates when we tried closing gate on them.

When my parents downsized they were very open about problems to the builder who bought the house and he and 2 sons all had big old vans. On his first day he "accidentally" scrapped all down the side of car parked half on drive when they tried to challenge he pointed out it was dark and he wasn't expecting car to be parked in his drive when only had access. Phoned my Mum to tell her :rotfl:

zzzLazyDaisy

I have a shared driveway with my neighbours. When I started to buy the house there was no right of easement over the drive (right of way). This meant that if they decided to be difficult I would not have been able to get my car down to my back door. As I am disabled this was a deal breaker.

I insisted that the seller and the neighbour agreed legal rights of easement with each other and that was entered onto the land registry. It held the sale up and the sellers were not best pleased, but I now have a legal right of way over the drive at all times, which means that we both must park our cars off the driveway. As it happens I get on really well with the neighbours and it is not a problem ....

But as a child we had a shared driveway and the next-door-neighbour was a total lunatic - at one point he put up double gates across the drive without consulting my dad and refiused to give him a key until he paid half. Sadly for the neighbour my dad's business was demolition.....

Personally I would never buy a house with a shared drive unless there was a legal right of way over the drive.

slummymummyof3

Shared driveways can be an absolute pain in the proverbial if you have a difficult neighbour! And you must consider that whilst there may be a 'normal' person living in the property at the moment, they might move at some point in the future or could become difficult at a later point in time.....proceed with caution!

Phil_GT

well after all the ballache with abbey and the shared driveway issue

she pulled out 1 day before i signed the contract's wasting my time efford and money!!!

back to square 1

F_T_Buyer

Two anecdotes about driveways. I was going to buy a house with a shared driveway, and the drive was like a capital T; they was enough room for two cars in front of three houses. I asked the vendor if he parked his car right out of the front bay window, which he say he did (he didn't have a car).

A couple of days later live (bing) maps updated with new images, and a huge van was parked there. I went back later in the evening, and it was there parked blocking two spaces, and also all the light into the front room (in the day obviously). As it happens, there was a slither of driveway what was a path to a side gate to one of the houses at the front of the 'T' shaped drive, despite having a separate driveway and garage - so never occured to me that he was also part of the shared drive.

I went round and asked if it was his van, of which it was, and asked if he had the right to park there - a bit cheeky of me, but buying a house is a big cost! It turns out he's had arguments with the neighbours, and as long as he wasn't blocking access to anyone's garage he can part there. The vendors lied to me, and I ran a mile!


The second is about a parking space in a different area, but looking at it you would think it belongs to one specific house (and was never used). On the deeds it is just visitors parking, and the use for everyone - my friend foolishly said this to one of the neighbours, and from then on they always park there even when they could park on their own drive!

Think long and hard about shared driveways imo...

Slinky

Phil_GT wrote: »

well after all the ballache with abbey and the shared driveway issue

she pulled out 1 day before i signed the contract's wasting my time efford and money!!!

back to square 1

Try and think positive, with all the comments on this thread, you've probably had a lucky escape.