Shared Domestic Driveway / Vehicular Access

Very_Concerned

We live in a property that shares a driveway with the adjacent neighbouring house.

From the deeds it appears that two-thirds of this driveway is on our land with the remaining third belonging to the neighbour. It was put in approx 50 years ago by the original owners and our neighbours. We have been using this without problem for 49 years but our elderly neighbours have moved and the new prospective buyers want to do away with the drive and replace their car-port with a room. This would prevent us from accessing the parking area to the side of our house, which allows immediate access to our kitchen (which is very useful as we are also now getting older!).

By law, can our new neighbours take out this drive and deny us vehicular access to the side of our property?

SmashedAvacado

A bit of deja vu here

1) Definitely not if the rights are clearly set out on the title to your property / your neighbour's property
2) Probably not in any event, as such rights may have been acquired by prescription, but if this is the case, you might need to take action to protect those rights.

Are the rights entrenched in your title?

Slithery

What do your title deeds have to say on the matter?

Tom99

If set up correctly you will have a right of way over the 1/3rd you do not own.

bouicca21

The supplementary question is still the same as when you first asked. What do your and your neighbour's deeds say about rights of access?

Davesnave

bouicca21 wrote: »

The supplementary question is still the same as when you first asked. What do your and your neighbour's deeds say about rights of access?

It sounds as if the access was set up after the properties were built through an agreement between the parties living there at the time. Bearing in mind that 50 years ago people were less likely to set up such agreements in a legal manner, the title documents could well be silent.


In that case, as has been mentioned already,OP might need to claim a prescriptive right to park where they've been used to parking for 49 years.

PasturesNew

Very_Concerned wrote: »

From the deeds it appears that two-thirds of this driveway is on our land with the remaining third belonging to the neighbour.

By law, can our new neighbours take out this drive and deny us vehicular access to the side of our property?

Two things:

1/ Do you have rights to pass over their 1/3rd, or is it just that they didn't moan when you did it? Is it in writing, in the deeds, that you have a right to pass/repass (if so, on foot, or vehicular). If this writing exists, they cannot take it from you.

2/ They can't take it ... if it's in the deeds that you have rights.

The above being said, some people might tell you that there's the rights you would gain by having used it unchallenged for X years... but deeds/writing trump everything anyway.