Right of access over drive.

groovychick69

Do I have to allow my neighbours access to my driveway to make getting on/off theirs easier? We have a central driveway between 2 houses and we both have a front diagonal access across the from of our houses.
To cut a very long story short we bought a house with a shared drive up the centre but didn't really understand what that meant. Never had an issue and both us and the neighbour parked and used the driveway as we wished. They even told us that there used to be a fence up the middle however took it down as their family lived next door so it made sense to make 1 big driveway.
I should at this point add that the neighbours property is council owned and we purchased ours from the previous "tenant" who had bought it from the council years ago. Anyway fast forward 9 years nice neighbours have moved out and new tenants are in and kicking up a fuss about the driveway. In short if the original boundary was reinstated then their driveway would be smaller than ours. Council have got involved and have recognised that when our deeds were drawn up for the house purchase from the council for the previous purchaser it was wrongly written up as a shared drive (they had no permission to take the fence down) and the deeds for next door still have the original measurements and separate driveway details.
The neighbours have agreed that the boundary needs to be reinstated and a fence should go other wise neither of us can park on the shared driveway and it's such a waste - also there isn't room in the street for us to park. The sticking point is that to access the front diagonal drive it would be very narrow for them if the fence goes to the road. We share a large dropped kerb but they have a wall which would make their access very tight. The front of our property was changed years ago and our access the driveway is larger as we trimmed the front fence back to make access easier.
Council are again involved liasing with both us and their tenant.
The tenant wants us to leave the last 2 fence panels out at the front so that they can still get on and off the drive easily, we don't need to cross their driveway to get on and off. I was willing to comprise and leave 1 panel out but I don't want this written up legally in our deeds as it may make selling our house difficult in the future. I'm waiting on a response from the council - has anyone got any knowledge on this subject? Do I have to allow the access or can I stick to my guns and fence to road forcing them/council to change the wall??
TIA

G_M

You can either

* stick to the letter of what the Deeds say
* allow an informal arrangement with the curent neighbours
* amend the Deedsin conjunction with the council

which do you want to do?

Ozzuk

I'm struggling to make sense of that. Why can't you park there without a fence? Who wants the fence? If there is nothing in either deeds stating access is shared over whole drive, or that they have permission over yours, or anything limiting what fencing you can put in then you can do what you want.

bouicca21

Why can't they take down all or part of the wall?

smem18

I think the obvious answer is make the council change the wall. Sorry but it is their problem! Otherwise you might have further problems in the future. The fence will clearly separate access to each property, preventing future disputes.

mrschaucer

Simple answer - no, you are not forced to alter your property/do anything to your property to make life easier for your neighbour. Nor can the council make you do anything just because they happen to own the house next door. Sounds like they are all out for an easy life and don't want the hassle of removing part of their own wall to sort the problem for themselves.

Cakeguts

Why have the council let a property to tenants who can afford to run a car? Aren't there people in your area who are more deserving of a council property? People who can't afford a car? It seems most unfair that poor council tenants are subsidising these tenants with cheap rents so that they can have a car.

Soot2006

I think your concession one fence panel as a bit of leeway (reduced risk of your fence getting damaged by the sounds of it!) is fair. If they need more room they should remove the wall. I removed part of my front garden wall quite accidentally when a vehicle didn't quite fit. It was surprisingly easy considering the wall had been standing for years. Cost me about £500 to have it put right, mind you, bu I asked them to permanently remove a section so I didn't mow it down again .

groovychick69

Hi thanks for your replies - to answer all of them
We want the fence - they currently park up the middle bit of the drive but further onto our side so it makes it really difficult for my husband to also park there.
If we stick to "shared access" we can't park there and if we have the informal agreement it will be as above "him parking as far over as he likes"
And
We have offered to pay for fence so I'm hoping that might encourage him/them to pay for wall to be changed .
As for the councils requirements for tenants I have no idea. They both work aswell but I guess that's another story. I'm sure there are more deserving people but not really my place to comment.
I'm gonna stick to my guns I think and insist on fence to the road. I can only see trouble ahead if we don't get it sorted flounce and for all. I'm not prepared to have anything written into my deeds regarding the "access" and surely if it's just an informal agreement I could just chance my mind in the future and fence it anyway? The fence to the road isn't ideal for us either however at present they use the drive with little regard for us and even drive partly over the front section some of which on our deeds we already own! Thanks for your responses I'll keep you posted

Mardle

I think I'd be inclined to just mark the boundary with posts and chains. Cheaper to repair when the neighbour hits it.

Norman_Castle

Cakeguts wrote: »

Why have the council let a property to tenants who can afford to run a car? Aren't there people in your area who are more deserving of a council property? People who can't afford a car?It seems most unfair thatpoor council tenants are subsidising these tenants with cheap rents so that they can have a car.

Some council tenants own cars. Get over it.