Neighbour blocked garage with fence

Johnny123123

Need advice please. Neighbour blocked my access to my garage with a fence down the middle of the access way.

I live in a semi detached property with a 2.5m access way between me and my neighbours house leading to a joint double garage, one of which is mine the other is the neighbours. Our title deeds show that we each own half
(1.25m) of this access way from top of accessway where it meets main road all the way down to half way between the double garage. Now that the neighbour has put up fence on their half there is only 1.25m on my side which means I cant fit a car through to reach my garage at the end of the drive.There is no mention of shared access way on deeds or that we have any right to cross eachothers halves to gain access to garages.

Heres what it says on both our deeds:

""excepted and reserved out of the Conveyance hereby made to the Vendors and their successors in title (a) the right and liberty at any time hereafter to erect and maintain on any lands of the Vendors (being land comprised in the Conveyance) or their successors in title adjoining or adjacent to the Premises buildings or other erections of such height or extent as the Vendors or their successors in title may think fit"

The neighbour has outlined this to us and is saying this means they can build a fence on their half. However in the deeds it also says the following:

"the access of light and air over the Premises to the existing windows or other openings in all buildings now upon any land of the Vendors (being land comprised in the Conveyance) adjoining or adjacent to the Premises to the same extent and in the like manner as if such premises and the Premises had not at any time during the period of Twenty years now last past been subject to any common ownership or common occupation and such access had been during that period enjoyed as of right without interruption."

This conveynece was written up in 1969 so could i argue this acess way has been shared for 20 years since then and is now a right for us both to keep sharing it? I have only been living here 5 years and my neighbour has been living in his house for 10 years. I'm thinking theres nothing i can really do as I cant really prove it was shared for 20 years... Soliciter I went to has told me he will research this and get back to me. Its been a week and hasnt got back yet. I think im going to get some advice from another soliciter. Can you please help me with this? Thank you

BrassicWoman

I don't understand how a fence in a two car wide accessway stops a one car wide car having access. Please can you explian?

Madmel

My car is 1.8m wide. If, as the OP says, their driveway is 2.5m in total, that is wide enough for a car if there is no fence. My understanding of the OP is that the 2.5m is the total width of the shared driveway and the fence has made this into 2 lots of approx 1.2m. Please can you confirm OP.

moneyistooshorttomention

Probably means there is room for the car - but not for opening the car doors?

Could also mean the joint drive was built in an era when cars were smaller and the width of it doesn't take account of the rather bigger cars these days?

I know I've got a "drive" (mine only) immediately by my house and it may (just) have been wide enough when the house was built - but it's certainly not wide enough these days (either in actual fact or in law). So I use it as a side garden - rather than as a drive.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Madmel wrote: »

My car is 1.8m wide. If, as the OP says, their driveway is 2.5m in total, that is wide enough for a car if there is no fence. My understanding of the OP is that the 2.5m is the total width of the shared driveway and the fence has made this into 2 lots of approx 1.2m. Please can you confirm OP.

That's my understanding also. 1.25m is nowhere near wide enough for a driveway. Seems a bizarre setup to build it like this and have no right to shared access.

I presume the neighbour doesn't use his garage? It might be worth pointing out to him how he is devaluing his own house by doing this, though.

ProDave

BrassicWoman wrote: »

I don't understand how a fence in a two car wide accessway stops a one car wide car having access. Please can you explian?

I read it as 2.5M total so they each own 1.25M.

Presumably the neighbour has no intention of ever parking a car in his own garage?

Johnny123123

Sorry for confusion. The full width is 2.5m between the two houses. We each own 1.25m. ath the end of the drive where the joint double garage is it gets a bit wider. Now that the neighbour has put up fence on their half there is only 1.25m on my side which means I cant fit a car through to reach my garage at the end of the drive.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Incidentally the passage you quote refers to "access of light and air" and isn't relevant, unless you think the fence will block light to a window, which is possible.

moneyistooshorttomention

Wondering if neighbour actually knows OP uses their garage?

As a lot of people just use them to store things these days.

At a guess too the neighbour has put this fence up because it was the only way to get a bit of "private" garden (ie I'm guessing the back garden is overlooked).

pmlindyloo

I think this is more likely to be a neighbour problem rather than a boundary dispute.

Whatever your solicitor says about 'fighting this' (probably through historical use) it is likely to be expensive and not improve relationships with your neighbours.

There must be more to this. Why would your neighbour do this? Are they not using their garage?

Johnny123123

The Neighbour knows I use my garage to park my small mini in there, they waited till I took it to work and put up the fence when I was in work, came home and found a fence running down the middle. I dont know if theres anything I can do.