Dreaded Shared Access

franklee

Village_Idiot wrote: »

Thanks all for the comments so far, I feel like my diagram would be really useful to help explain things a little better. My new status won't let me post though

You can post the link to your diagram just change the url by putting spaces or something in and let us know how to edit it back

You keep mentioning the neighbour going past by car but they may also be on foot maybe with dogs off the lead, children running up and down unsupervised etc. That may not be true of the current neighbour but you do not who who will move there over time.

ReadingTim

Herewith link to image, as requested by Village_Idiot

Village_Idiot

Thanks ReadingTim. The Purple line basically represents the path the neighbour would be taking, and on the land registry diagram there is a strip (car width) shaded yellow. The pass/repass only applies to that.

Lespaul1960

Another vote for avoid like the plague, sorry to say. I too have experienced shared access in the past.NEVER AGAIN. Please always bear in mind, the neighbour may be lovely now, but what if she moves away or gets a new partner?

Smodlet

Personally, no way in hell. Why bother with a rural location which has no garden? Surely "rural" begins at your back door, doesn't it? Maybe try searching RM/whatever with your budget and seeing what you could get anywhere in the country, then considering what aspects are most important to you, be it size of property, number of bedrooms/reception rooms, location, type of property, whatever. A pros and cons list could also help.

Your priorities are what they are but I would not dream of buying the kind of house I would love to live in unless it had a huge garden and no compromises to my enjoyment of it.

Maybe petrolheads' preferences are different but if so, why bother with a rural location in the first place? Surely major roads are more of a concern for them than green spaces?

Just a random (and probably unwelcome) thought but, depending on the degree of your petrolheadedness (is this a word?) your prospective neighbours might prefer you to be somewhere else as well. Imho, rural should equal quiet: What is the point of all the expense and inconvenience that goes with it if you might as well be in the middle of a council estate because of other peoples' loud, revving engines at all hours of the day and night?

pinklady21

I would not touch this, personally - on a main road, shared access, no private ground. Neighbour very close. While you might "love" the house now, you are quite correct to be concerned about the potential for being able to resell it later.
I live in the country, and love it, mainly because there are no near neighbours. We are up a lane surrounded by fields, with only one near neighbour some distance away with whom we get on very well. Now trying to move, and finding it very difficult to find anything similar.
I would not even consider a "steading" type development, simply because it is like a housing estate albeit one surrounded by fields. Privacy is important!
Don't just pop a note through the door of the neighbour's house - if you are serious about proceeding, then you need to talk to them, find out about them and their lifestyle. Obviously with sensitivity, but you are going to living very close to them and sharing space with them, are they they kind of laid back folks who are a joy to have as neebs or likely to be the neighbours from hell, for whatever reason?
Best of luck.

Smodlet

Whatever the neighbours are like, they may well not be there forever and the very fact the current imcumbents have been trying to sell it for 2 years says it all to me. So much for "garden grabbing". I say the vendors can repent at leisure. I don't understand how this ever received planning permission in the first place but common sense and officialdom seem to be mutually exclusive.

Village_Idiot

Smodlet wrote: »

Personally, no way in hell. Why bother with a rural location which has no garden? Surely "rural" begins at your back door, doesn't it? Maybe try searching RM/whatever with your budget and seeing what you could get anywhere in the country, then considering what aspects are most important to you, be it size of property, number of bedrooms/reception rooms, location, type of property, whatever. A pros and cons list could also help.

Your priorities are what they are but I would not dream of buying the kind of house I would love to live in unless it had a huge garden and no compromises to my enjoyment of it.

Maybe petrolheads' preferences are different but if so, why bother with a rural location in the first place? Surely major roads are more of a concern for them than green spaces?

Just a random (and probably unwelcome) thought but, depending on the degree of your petrolheadedness (is this a word?) your prospective neighbours might prefer you to be somewhere else as well. Imho, rural should equal quiet: What is the point of all the expense and inconvenience that goes with it if you might as well be in the middle of a council estate because of other peoples' loud, revving engines at all hours of the day and night?

Thanks Smodlet, some good points in there somewhere between the rest of it.

If it wasn't already obvious - I'm no gardener but I very much enjoy the outdoors. I've never lived in an urban area my entire life with the exception of an overseas stint for a year. This particular property is about 20 feet away from a public footpath that leads down to an RSPB nature reserve and some of the best walks in the area. A desire to have minimal garden and still be in a rural setting are not mutually exclusive!

I probably need to clarify what I mean by a petrolhead too. My hobby is the maintenance and running of a "third car". It's a car used for leisure activity only and generally spends most of the year sat in the garage being tinkered with, and when it does go out - I try my very best to stay away from motorways, and keep to rural back roads. It's not like I'm running a scrap yard, tuning shop or hosting grand prix events.

The current vendor actually has a kit car in the garage, so i'm sure the neighbours are used to it and will survive....

pinklady21 wrote: »

I would not touch this, personally - on a main road, shared access, no private ground. Neighbour very close.

When I say "main road", it's pretty much a village lane - there's no through-traffic and we counted about 3 cars passing during our saturday afternoon viewing (45mins or so). Also my diagram doesn't do it justice, but the neighbour is not "very close" Their house is a distance away which could contain 3 or 4 entire new build plots if this was a new estate. Aside from when they're passing through the driveway, we would not see or hear from them.

I would have walked away from this immediately if I was concerned about the other points raised, and to be honest we still may walk away. We're going to re-view another property this weekend which is a similar size, has a small little garden and no shared driveway. The village is slightly less attractive, but would still be a lovely place to be... It is however a ~20 year old build, and has the character of a faux-country pub premier inn.
We're trying to generate a bit more excitement back into that place to help pull us away from the lure of the shared access property.

Doodles

Where is the neighbour's front door? if on foot, would they (and any other visitor to their house) walk through the same bit to get to their house as well?

Ozzuk

Don't do it! So many threads/posts about shared drive issues (admittedly you don't get posts if there are no issues!). I've seen some recently where the neighbour runs some kind of business, one was home physio, another was a paper round business. People walking up and down the drive all times of the day, not something I would want!

And you can't stop them, they often don't need change of use or permission, and unless you have some specific wording in your title you can't restrict access.

Aside from the annoyance aspect, there is also the security aspect.

For a forever home? no chance. Even if the neighbours are awesome and no bother now...neighbours change!