Shared Driveway - Buying Neighbours Right of Access

elephant_guy

I am a houseowner who shares a single driveway with a next-door neighbour. The driveway leads to our respective garages situated a few yards behind our homes. There is no other access to the garages from the front or rear of our properties.

The driveway itself belongs to me (having checked with the Land Registry), and my neighbour has a right of access to use his garage via my driveway.

I no longer wish to use my garage and would like to build a rear and side extension, at the back of the property and over the shared driveway at the side.

My only problem is obviously whether my neighbour would be willing to sell his right of access. He may refuse point blank, but when I do approach him I would like to make a fair financial offer to my neighbour for his loss of the access (should he be willing to sell it).

Could anyone advise me how much would be a reasonable offer to a neighbour for losing his access to a garage under the above circumstances ?

Our properties are both worth around £260,000 (If this is a factor)

Many Thanks

Elephant_Guy

frugal_dougal_3

Quite a lot I should think. It's not something that I would part with easily.

In his position I would not want another house closer than yours already is.

trafalgar_2

You would be taking away the use of the garage therefore a starting point would be to look at similar homes without a garage..............whats the price differance and then add more for future loss but also I think you will find that as frugal-dougal has said ,your neighbour is very unlikely to agree if your going to build on it ,IMO

lush_walrus

To find out the blanket value you could either checke local papers for a simular property to yours without off street parking or check with estate agents who can give you a value of your house with parking and without or else simply tell you how much their house would loose as a result of no driveway.

The value will depend hugely on how easy it it to park in the area you live. In london no one would ever dream of selling their parking!

To be honest nor would I regardless of the money offered, Bare in mind that straight away by taking away their right to use the drive you render their garage useless.

lush_walrus

One thought depends on whether you need additional space on both floors is building just on the first floor if there is space to keep the drive and support the extension. Ie: Ground floor driveway, first floor bedroom or whatever you need.

Pretty straight forward if the drive is wide enough for columms or supports and a car to pass.

Spendless

I would say it would totally depend on your neighbours circs.

No i wouldn't let you do it as you would be leaving me with nowhere to park my car and a garage that was useless (except as a large shed) and presumably i'd have to pay builders to come and knock it down. It would also concern me about how desirable a property with no parking would be if i ever wanted to sell.

Now Mr Spendless has an uncle in his 50s who can't drive, has never married and has no kids so would have no use of the garage whatsoever and would rather see hard cash for giving up something he wouldn't be using anyway. It also wouldn't concern him about selling the place as he would probably stay there for life and has no direct next of kin who would benefit from inheriting the property anyway.

dougk_2

Its not just the use of the garage it means there is no off road parking. That could affect the price of the house considerably.

Being you neighbour I would not sell my right of way back.... be careful what you do and how you approach it as the last thing you need is an argument with the neighbour and things turning sour!

You would also be affecting the price of your property having no garage. Perhaps you should consider alternate plans or just expand backwards.

You could even knock down the garage for extra garden space or just convert this a "room".

Check with the council first they not grant you the Planning Permisssion anyway.

KrazyFool

prevent someone else from using their garage - of course its not going to happen, unless it would still be physically possible for his car to maneover in and out.

If i was him, you would have to pay BIG

elephant_guy

Maybe I am being a bit optimistic......... :rolleyes:

Like myself, my neighbour does have 2 unrestricted parking spaces on the road outside his house....

Also quite a few other residents have used some of their front gardens and built car parking areas there. That's what I was going to do if I got rid of my garage.

But I do see all your very well made points.

KrazyFool

i suppose you could build an upstairs extention over the driveway if it was pillared so nextdoor could drive under it. Im sure the guy & council would still complain but hey you never know.

Poppy9

Aside from the difficulty in getting your neighbour to give up his rights I think he would object to any planning permission you apply for also. If there are other neighbours with similar set up to yours currently they might also object as they might feel it would set a precedent and would weaken their case if the same was to happen to them.