Neighbours from hell dispute over shared driveway

sims22

I am guessing the OP wants it repaired because they take pride in their house/property and don't want an unsightly drive.

I would feel the same although I'd probably offer to split the costs of repair.

Not sure it would be so easy to close off as they have a legal right to use it (even if they're not paying maintenance - they are seperate issues).

Hope it is resolved soon.

Smi1er

OP, sorry to say this, but you sound like a nightmare to live next to.

You asked them to repair the driveway? Surely good neighbours, who share a driveway, would contribute equally to the repair costs:o So where was your contribution?

cats4ever

Wow I'm getting bombarded with replies. I wasn't expecting anyone to be bothered. I have tried so many other sites and barely get replies.
SouthCoast thanks for that brilliant link. I'll be contacting the Citizens Advice Beareau on Monday. I'll let you know how that goes.
tek-monkey you have some really witty ideas. Our soliciter did say that if the neighbours dont' do as the deeds say then we could put a gate at the top of the driveway and deny them access by vehicle. The only reason we didn't do that was for fear of more threats. He also suggessted that next time they threaten us that we should call the police. They would have a lot of explaining to do as to why so many of them have come to threaten the two of us. We get on with all the neighbours to the right of us, theres about 12 houses. On the left we have the driveway and a playing field. The driveway runs all the way down to our neighbours from hell. Our house is at the top of the driveway.
Dept_free_chick I know its hard to understand that if the driveway gets ruined why its a problem for us. First of all I'd like to know if anyone would be alright with others trashing their property. If our driveway is getting ruined it would affect our property on the whole as does a neighbour dispute. Would you buy a house if the driveway was in disrepair? We would also like to use our driveway and garage but its always blocked with their cars. Our problems with the driveway aren't just the repair. If you read my first post you would know that they are speeding on the driveway. Our doorstep comes straight off on to the driveway. I have kids and cats too. I was almost knocked over once when I went to put the rubbish out. Its even scarier when its dark outside. His wife has actually reversed her car onto our doorstep twice. Then theres the car beeping all day. They can't be bothered to get out of their cars when they need to pick each other up so they beep their car horns especially when parked right outside our house.

Fire_Fox

Can you get a restraining order on your neighbours and their family? Then they cannot come onto your property and threaten you. Sounds like ASBO territory to me. For car horns and other noise you want Environmental Health.

tek-monkey

Any chance of a google maps link, to see the layout? Or just screenshot it, to preserve anonimity?

Can the council not adopt the road in some way, take it out of your hands?

How nasty are you prepared to get? This will get nasty, no two ways about it. If you're willing to go the whole way there is lots you can do, but I'm still unsure on the layout. Do all of you share this driveway? you say there are a dozen houses to one side, the driveway and these neighbours to the other. How do the dozen neighbours get to their houses?

cats4ever

Thanks for understanding sims22. I do take a lot of pride in how my home looks and it is important that it looks nice outside. Its nice to know that everyone here is trying hard to understand the situation even though everyone seems to be agreeing that we should share the cost.
Smi1er your forgetting the issue here isn't just the cost of the driveway(which everyone is focusing on). Our neighbours believe they own half the driveway. They say their papers say it is shared access and they think this means shared ownership. Do you think I should give them half the driveway? If i don't then am I nightmare neighbour? Nobody here would let anyone claim ownership over their property. If I wanted stuff from you would you just give it to me? I think you'd want me to buy it. Please try to understand that there is more than just the problem with repairing and maintaining the driveway.

cats4ever

Just talking to you guys is getting me braver. Fire Fox I'm hoping that we don't have another argument with the neighbours but if it comes to that then a restraining order sounds good.
tek-monkey I didn't know you could see my house on google maps. The council cannot adopt our road. I hope what you are planning on telling me isn't too nasty as I lack courage. Looks like I'm going to have to pay the wizard of Oz a trip. The rest of our neighbours are to the right. We are a semi detached property and our driveway comes straight off the road and runs down the side of our house. All our other neighbours don't have a shared driveway. Their front gardens come off the road/pavement and they park on the roads. Our neighbour on the right(adjoining our house) has his driveway to himself. It runs down his house and into his back garden where he has a garage. We are the only ones with a shared driveway.

PasturesNew

The point here is that it is the OP's land - and the new people bought their property based on the fact that it's the OP's land and they have a right to pass and repass over it for vehicular access, but not to park or obstruct it - and the cost of repairs and maintenance is for them to bear alone.

They bought the house, this means they agreed to those terms.

The NFH are the ones entirely in the wrong it would appear.

I guess the flip side of the coin is what is "reasonable" for repair/maintenance scheduling and what is "reasonable" for pulling up the weeds on it. I'd probably think the weeding was equally my responsibility (as it was my land) ... but the parking and other annoyances are anti-social and against the terms of the original agreement.

Why do so many people (NFH) have to be bl00dy minded and common.

Ulfar

To stop people from obstructing your doorstep, you could get a great big granite boulder dropped to obstruct cars from where you don't want them to drive.

As others have said without the layout of the land it is difficult to comment.

cats4ever

Thanks PasturesNew.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Its as if you just read my mind. This is what I've been trying to explain all along. Our neighbours new what they were buying into so why are they acting so childish now. They don't have to say and do the things that they are doing. They can talk to us and if they can't afford the costs then we can arrange something between us. We maintain all the fences on either side of the driveway and even clean it up every third month. In the winter it gets really bad as. It seems as if we have all the leaves in the area blown onto our driveway and we clean them up regularly. Yet they can't even clean the driveway once a year and we are the ones that get attitude from them. They stole our bin on two occasions. Their bin was half way down the road so they took ours and the second time they claimed that they had two bins when they moved in and we took theirs.