Neighbours from hell dispute over shared driveway

cats4ever

Hi everyone I desperately need help. We live in a semi detached property and all our neighbours are really nice except the ones that live at the bottom. We share our driveway with them. We own the driveway but they have right of way. On our papers it says both parties can not park on the driveway. It also says on the deeds that they have to maintain and repair the driveway. We have been living here now for 5 years and had problems with the previous neighbours everytime we asked them to repair or maintain the driveway. They ended up selling the property and getting out of this mess. The new neighbours have had the house now for over 2 1/2 years and everything was peachy until we asked them to repair and maintain the driveway(the driveway has barely any tarmac left and weeds are growing everywhere). At first they stalled us for a year by saying they wanted to buy their own driveway from a field adjoining our driveway and were enquiring from the land registry office as to who owns the land. Later they started saying they owned half the driveway. So about a month ago we had our soliciter take a look at our paperwork. He said they do not own the driveway and wrote over 5 letters to the neighbours explaining that we own the driveway and that they have to repair and maintain it. He also made it clear that they are not allowed to park there at any time and shouldn't be driving at high speeds, beeping their car horns or running over our cats. They still continue to do this. They also invite all their friends and relatives over and have up to 6 cars parked on the driveway especially on weekends. On special occasions there are up to 10 cars parked on our driveway. They have not replied to any of our soliciters letters and when we ask them to move their cars they just ignore us. A couple of days ago my husband parked our car on the driveway and they knocked on the door and started an argument with us. The wife called in some of her relatives to come and threaten us and they said if we park on the driveway again they'll park behind us. Unfortunately our soliciter only deals with property buying and selling so he can't help us take them to court. The other problem we are having is my husband had to quit his job a few years ago (I became seriously ill)and now he cares for me regularly. We can't afford to take our neighbours to court and can't find a solliciter to fight our case. We don't even know if we can get legal aid for something like this. I hope someone can help us. We need help urgently. We can't carry on living this way and the neighbours are taking advantage of us more and more everyday.

poppysarah

You need to park a tank on your drive. Regardless of whats in the way:)

huge headaches.

You own it but they have to repair it?

Doozergirl

poppysarah wrote: »

You own it but they have to repair it?

I'm presuming you find that as odd as I do? Regardless of what the deeds say, that isn't exactly fair or reasonable, in my own opinion. I'd be annoyed if my neighbour came to tell me that I had to replace the drive when they were contributing nothing towards it yet used it everyday.

We share a drive between three and two of us have had the drive relaid. The other party didn't want to do it as she is moving on but it needs doing so we've done it without her. I'm not angry with her because she had the option to say that she wasn't ready. We were so we did it.

Really, it's fair that you share the cost if you share the use of the drive.

cats4ever

Hi poppysarah.
Wish I did have a tank and yes it does say they have to repair the driveway with tarmac and then continue to clean and maintain it. Think about it , even though its our land they are using it for free and we don't even get to use it at all. We either park on the road outside or our front garden to avoid having a dispute with them. Our parking area and garage is right at the bottom (towards the right) but we can't use them.

V.Lucky

If you have legal protection on your home insurance it would cover this kind of dispute. However, as it's been ongoing for some years I hope you kept the with the same company over this period of time and didn't shop around for a better deal yearly.

cats4ever

Hi v.Lucky.
We don't have legal protection. We renewed our home and buildings insurance and they wanted to know if we had any kind of dispute with the neighbours. We had to tell them we did as our soliciter had already written to them about repairing and maintaining the driveway. So they didn't give us legal protection.
I know you feel that maybe its unfair to our neighbours that they have to get burdened with all the costs but in the 5 years we have lived here we have not used the driveway once except the one time we parked on it. They use it everyday. So how is it fair to us that they get to use it, ruin it and get to bully us. They are using our property for free and then threatening us also and its not like they didn't know what was on their paperwork before they bought the house.
We can't even get to our own garage because they are always parked there. We dare not say anything as they have a lot of family.

tek-monkey

Buy a crappy car, leave it parked in their way. What they gonna do, really?

TBH though, its a tad crap that they are expected to maintain your property. I'd tell you to F off if it was me. As long as the drive was useable, I wouldn't repair it. Even if it wasn't, I'd just stop using it. If you own it, what benefit do I get from repairing it? Why should I waste my money, improving your property?

You know what? Dig it up. Get it trashed out, plant some trees. You don't use it anyway, so its not a problem for you is it. Remove the problem, remove the contention between you and your neighbour, and live a happier life.

SouthCoast

Although a particular dispute may be resolved successfully through the courts, the relationship between neighbours may be damaged. It is also an extremely expensive course of action to take unless the complainant is eligible for publicly-funded legal services (legal aid in Northern Ireland).

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/family_parent/housing/neighbour_disputes.htm

cats4ever

Thanks for the reply tek-monkey. In my situation your advice is the best. I know you woudln't want to repair someone elses property but if it was your driveway would you put up with all that? As for parking a crappy car there, I think I'll save up for the tank.

tek-monkey

A lot depends on the layout of the property, and how much each of you is put out by the loss of driveway. If you don't use it anyway though, it shouldn't be an issue to you. Perhaps get a solicitor to draw up a letter stating that as the driveway is now beyond use, and they refuse to repair it as is stated in their deeds, you shall be closing it off? They can't really complain legally, as they are legally obliged to repair it.

If you do this though, I'd get the end closed off immediately to stop it being used. Prepare for a long drawn out argument with your neighbours though.

Actually, you say you get on with the other neighbours. Who is where? Do any others share this drive?

Debt_Free_Chick

I also find this an odd situation to understand, but it is what it is.

Why do they need to repair the drive now? From what you say, you don't'/can't use the drive - is that right? If so, then why do you insist that it's "repaired"? If it's not in good shape, how does that affect you?

Could you clarify what you hope to achieve? It might help us to suggest potential solutions.