Agreeing to share drive - posible pitfalls

riverboat2001

I've just downloaded the Land registry documents that clearly show i have the wider part of the drive.Their EA obviously doesn't know what he's talking about!

zara*elise

Shared drive and access through the garden puts me right off. Wouldn't even consider looking at a property with either. All you need is one inconsiderate neighbour and you could have years of trouble.

flora48

Have to agree with previous posters, even if your neighbours are co-operative now no-one can tell what future neighbours may be like. A major concern for me would be the maintenance issue. In the village where I live there are lots of shared drives/parking areas and some are very neglected after 25 years or so.
A pity really as when I was a child my parents created a shared driveway with the neighbours which enabled garage access to both houses (traditional 1930's builds). We had no problems but don't know the current sitauation.

poppysarah

riverboat2001 wrote: »

Also i have a dropped kerb, and they don't. I'm not convinced they would get one easily due to a lampost being nearby, and they are right on a blind bend.

So shared drive and sole access point on your side?

dorset_nurse

I have enough trouble with a neighbour who owns a sliver of the lawn an the side of my house.
I would definately not want anything shared in my next home!

tbs624

Doozergirl wrote: »

Get it into the deeds. Mark off the boundaries and allocate a strip that they have right of way over. Ditto their deeds give you right of way for access only over a strip. It wouldn't be 'shared' land

They can't take possession of it, even if you just removed the fence, they could only establish the right of way, which is what they are also giving you, so it's mutual. Might as well formalise it now.

DG is right that any such change should be formalised - however, doing the background legal work does not remove the possibility of the hassle and cost that these matters involve when another party fails to observe the "rules".

riverboat2001

I agree, i didn't want to buy anything with a shared drive.
Where we currently live, the fence came down a few years ago, and has never been put back up.
We each keep to our own side of the drive. The difference is i guess here is that although the drive is shared there is plenty of room for a two cars to be parked alongside each other.

In the new place i was thinking down my fence to make things easy for me, but by the sound of it, the other sides EA is trying to say that they have a drive too (which they don't and land registry documents prove this)
So, for now i decided to leave the fence up, which makes this more awkward, but not impossible for me.

I just wondered, if i took the fence down, and my new neighbours started using a couple of feet of my drive to get into their back garden, would they actually gain any rights?

taxsaver

Over a period of time (12 years I think) of uninterrupted use they will gain a permanent right of way over your land.

amorris72

Don't do it.

Tell them you have spoken to a solicitor and they have advised it could adversely affect the value of your property.

I think it could get very messy (especially if you get new neighbours who start parking a van or boat on the shared drive....)

Think long term!