Unofficial Shared Driveway - Sell or Extend?

Tmckeow5

Hi there.

Currently, access to my driveway is given by a non legal agreement with my neighbour as my car technically crosses their land as I pull onto mine. It was like this when I bought it 3 years ago and like this many years before that so I am lead to believe. This was my first house so I was naive to think it would be naturally legally both ours. We have new neighbours and the shared access is not a problem and we are both courteous to each other not to block ourselves in etc.

However, it has bothered me since I bought it that technically the neighbour could erect a fence along their boundary and I would only have walking access to my house (typical gate size as it was when originally built). I don't believe the neighbour will do this, but this doesn't mean the next neighbour won't.

As I have been using this for 3 years, and it has been like that before I purchased do I have any legal claim to access should this happen?

Also, would a shared drive restrict the value of the house? For example we are currently weighing up whether to move or to extend. I would like to extend but the drive is bugging me and I don't want to spend 50/60k to then have a new neighbour remove my off road parking and devalue the house.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!!

G_M

You would need to show 20 years use to claim a prescriptive right. Would the previous owner be willing to sign a statement declaring how long they used it before you? See


https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/easements-claimed-by-prescription/practice-guide-52-easements-claimed-by-prescription


There is clearly a value to vehicular access. Without access for your car, your house will be worth less


Two alternative legal options exist:


1) you purchase the strip of land from your neighbour, such that you no longer have to drive over his land to get to yours. He may be willing to give you the land (if you cover all legal costs); he may want an additional nominal payment; he may hold you to ransom and demand a large sum


2) you create a right to cross his land by car. A Deed could be drawn up for this, and Executed by both you and your neighbour, and lodged against both your and his property Titles at the Land Registry. His possible responses to this suggestion would be as in 1) above.

Davesnave

Look at it the other way around. While you are considerate, the next person in your house might not be, so the neighbour may welcome a legal definition of how you may access your property, even if no prescriptive right could be claimed.


For example, by agreement, our neighbour now has a right to pass over part of our front garden, but the route's been been made clear in both title documents, no right to park there exists and there's a maintenance contribution payable too.

da_rule

You may struggle to claim a prescriptive easement as you have permission to pass over the land by the so-called non-legal agreement (I am somewhat perplexed by this phrase as something either is or is not an agreement - I assume you maybe mean that it is not a written agreement). One of the parts of a prescriptive easement is that the use has to be without permission.

As has been said, you could approach the new neighbour and ask if they would be willing to grant you a formal easement over the land. You could offer them an upfront payment, or an annual payment, as well as a contribution towards any maintenance works as and when such works are required.

moneyistooshorttomention

G_M wrote: »

1) you purchase the strip of land from your neighbour, such that you no longer have to drive over his land to get to yours. He may be willing to give you the land (if you cover all legal costs); he may want an additional nominal payment; he may hold you to ransom and demand a large sum

That's the option I would regard as the most viable personally. The neighbour has been kind enough to grant vehicular access they didnt have to give for however-many-years and it would be doing a "slap across the face" to them to try and force the issue by seeing if a prescriptive easement is now possible.

You sound considerate enough not to try and "snatch" something that isnt yours - which would only get the neighbours back up (their thinking would be "...and after I've been doing that house a favour for that period of time and this is how I'm repaid").

So - try GM's "coffee and cakes" approach and say to them that you are wondering if they would be willing to "formalise the situation" by selling you that land - as you are a bit concerned in case the next owner of their house isn't so friendly/approachable/helpful as they are.

I can tell you, from experience, that the next owner of their house will be very surprised if they see your vehicle crossing their land and just "assuming" that permission would continue to be granted for that vehicular access without having checked out the situation first and asking permission for themselves to continue to have vehicle access. They might block access off first and find out about the "previous owner having given permission - but they were never told about it when they bought the house" afterwards. BIG mistake to assume any "permissions" automatically continue after ownership of a house has changed hands.:eek: A new owner of that house will likely buy the house "as seen" with garden "as seen" and, by the time they move into that house will have made plans for their garden that don't include a neighbour driving across it at intervals - and hence get a shock if they do see a vehicle in their garden.

EDIT; Never rely on a vendor of a house saying exactly what has been happening - as I got a very vague tale by vendor of my house about "permission having been given" and not too clear what it had been given for. That wasnt a problem per se - as I knew politeness dictated that the neighbours would be due to come and ring on my door and ask if that permission still applied, now that my house had a new owner (ie me) and I was ready to smile regretfully and say "I'm sorry - but no they don't. My plans don't include that". However, with them just carrying on as they had before and without asking me - that obviously puts backs up and you could find yourself in a situation with a future owner of that occurring if you don't buy the land off them.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

A new owner of that house will likely buy the house "as seen" with garden "as seen" and, by the time they move into that house will have made plans for their garden that don't include a neighbour driving across it at intervals - and hence get a shock if they do see a vehicle in their garden.

Really? Most of us confer with the solicior to check that the boundaries shown on the title documents match with what's seen on the ground.

Also, one would probably notice that the neighbour has no independent vehicular access, which would surely focus attention on the entrance.

You might do it differently, of course.

Personally, I would grant an easement such as the one my neighbour already has, rather than sell the land, but as GM says, it's impossible to predict what others might prefer .

unforeseen

G_M wrote: »

You would need to show 20 years use to claim a prescriptive right. Would the previous owner be willing to sign a statement declaring how long they used it before you.

Surely the fact that it is, and was, by agreement (effectively a licence) would preclude gaining an easement by prescription?

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

Really? Most of us confer with the solicior to check that the boundaries shown on the title documents match with what's seen on the ground.

Also, one would probably notice that the neighbour has no independent vehicular access, which would surely focus attention on the entrance.

You might do it differently, of course.

Personally, I would grant an easement such as the one my neighbour already has, rather than sell the land, but as GM says, it's impossible to predict what others might prefer .

The neighbour has all the vehicle access they need and was just trying to take a bit extra they wanted as well. If there's nothing down in writing anywhere and it was just a case of a PO having given permission for "something extra" (but not necessary) that the neighbour wanted then "new owner" won't be expecting any surprises.

Then one adds together: 1. They don't need use of my garden for anything 2. Nothing has been said anywhere in writing and vendor is muttering very vaguely about "permission being given" for summat-or-other - then one knows a polite request is due to be made if that "permission" is still wanted and decided on a polite refusal when polite request is made for previous owners arrangement to continue.

ProDave

Can I be clear here.

Does the neighbour also cross YOUR land to get his car in? It sounds like you had 2 single pedestrian gates side by side and by opening that and sharing the access you can both get a car in.

If he crosses your land as well as you crossing his, it probably makes the process of drawing up an agreement much simpler.

moneyistooshorttomention

unforeseen wrote: »

Surely the fact that it is, and was, by agreement (effectively a licence) would preclude gaining an easement by prescription?

That is my understanding of the law - ie that if permission is given, then "prescriptive easement" will never apply.

I think the wording was somewhere along the lines of "without force, openly, without permission".

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Confusing stuff

You and your neighbour have inependent car access.
The OP doesn't.
The two situations are therefore entirely different.