Shared drive issue

mrbadger96

I recently bought a property which has a shared drive. The drive is between the 2 houses, my neighbor has a garage at the end of the drive at the rear of the house, set over to his side. Presumably there was once a garage on our side mirroring theirs which has been taken down at some point. We have off road parking at the front which is accessible from the shared drive. They just have a front garden with a wall and lawn in front of their house.
I'm not particularly bothered about using the drive, however when we have left our car on there for very short periods, like to unload heavy items, they've knocked and asked us to move stating that he needs 24 hour access, which I suppose is fair enough. The thing is, if he cant park in front of his house (there is on street parking in front of both houses) he parks his car on the drive, often for extended periods of time. He never puts it in the garage, he just leaves it on the drive in front of it, but then gets annoyed if anyone else does it. On several occasions he's been rude and obnoxious to people who have been in our house such as family members and tradesmen (occasionally when we are not there). They've all said the same thing, that the neighbor came at them with an attitude and that it was the kind of situation where if he had just been polite, they'd have moved anyway.

I've only been polite and obliging towards him as I really can't be bothered falling out with him over it.
My understanding is that the drive is there for access, to allow of us to get to and from our houses, and that really neither of us should be parking there??

Secondly, if this neighbor has been in dispute with the previous owner, did the seller have a legal obligation to disclose this to us? If so, what can we do about that now? Do we have any right to recourse for this? The previous owner was a landlord and had various tenants living there for a number of years. When chatting to the neighbor he intimated that he had had problems over the shared drive with previous occupants, and that the owner of the house 'hadn't been interested' when he'd spoken to them about it. I don't know if he approached them in person about it or wrote to them or went thought the council or whatever. I'm wondering if a freedom of information request to the council and police would confirm past disputes? Do I have a right to get access to this information?

I'm just looking for advice on how to proceed with this. The last thing I want is for this to turn into a full blown dispute. I find this kind of thing petty and banal. 'Neighbor disputes' are the kind of thing 'other' people have! I'ts tedious and embarrassing and I just want keep things peaceful whilst knowing where I stand with it.I'd very much appreciate your input.

Thanks

babyblade41

When you bought the house did the sellers have a previous problem with this?

The reason I ask is it can escalate into a huge problem and doubt if it has only started since you have moved in.

I'm not sure on what happens next and more knowledgable people would answer you, but it does seem that this has been happening for longer than you have been there,

kerri_gt

We have a set up like this - shared drive between the houses which opens up to two garages at the back of the house. Why isn't / can't your neighbour park in front of his garage over his side of the drive at the back if he wants to park in the driveway area? It's what everyone in our road does.

flashg67

I think you need to put your foot down asap and have the one (hopefully) uncomfortable conversation that he can't be hypocritical about blocking the drive.
Suggest you may be reinstating your garage and will need access too....

mrbadger96

Thanks for the reply's!

We have a set up like this - shared drive between the houses which opens up to two garages at the back of the house. Why isn't / can't your neighbour park in front of his garage over his side of the drive at the back if he wants to park in the driveway area? It's what everyone in our road does.

I think you need to put your foot down asap and have the one (hopefully) uncomfortable conversation that he can't be hypocritical about blocking the drive.
Suggest you may be reinstating your garage and will need access too....

Flashg67/Kerry GT,

I wasn't very clear about the layout. Basically half of his garage is in his garden and half is on the drive, if that makes sense? So almost like a 'T' shape with the garage(s) at the rear of the houses... so when he parks in front of it, he's actually just parking on the drive, which is shared and only just wide enough for a car. The road is on quite a steep hill so although the shared drive is between both our houses, our garden is stepped down. In theory there may well have been a garage on our side but it would have been significantly 'built up'. His front door is higher than ours.

When you bought the house did the sellers have a previous problem with this?

babyblade41,

We are trying to find out now. The solicitors never mentioned that there had been any disputes, however having experienced the neighbor first hand, and seen how he speaks to people there is absolutely no chance this hasn't been an issue previously.

Cakeguts

Can you get a wheelbarrow down the side of his car to go from the front to the backgarden? If it was me I think I would come up with a lot of suddenly urgent work that needed doing where you needed easy access to your backgarden and you have to keep asking him to move his car so that you can use your access.



I suppose he knows that it is a shared access and doesn't think that it is only his because he has a garage and no offstreet parking?

mrbadger96

No, he knows its a shared drive. As far as I'm concearned, I don't care if he parks there as long as hes in the house and happy to move if I ever need him to, which to be honest is unlikely. It's my understanding though that neither part should be using it to park. He just doesn't seem to want anyone else to do it.

Cakeguts

mrbadger96 wrote: »

No, he knows its a shared drive. As far as I'm concearned, I don't care if he parks there as long as hes in the house and happy to move if I ever need him to, which to be honest is unlikely. It's my understanding though that neither part should be using it to park. He just doesn't seem to want anyone else to do it.

Normally with these drives you both have equal right to access at all times so he shouldn't be parking there at all. The fact that you don't have a garage doesn't change this.

quotememiserable

If you can find your deeds, this will be covered I think. The shared drive I had, the deeds required that neither party blocked the shared part at any time.

Tom99

1st off look at the title to see exactly how the drive is 'shared'.
Most likely you each own up to the middle line of the drive and have a right of way at all times and for all purposes over the half of the drive you don't own.
Clearly you need to have a word with your neighbour either friendly or not friendly.
You can point out that you have a right of access at all times and if he wants to continue exercising his right of access at times when he does not really need it (just because you have parked for a short while on the drive) that you will be exercising your right whenever he parks on the drive - day or night.
Hopefully he will see sense and that he is getting far more use out of the drive than you.

Exodi

From your comments, I'm assuming the layout is something like this;

https://i.imgur.com/d4sinqG.png

I can understand why he wouldn't use his garage. On the off chance you do park on the drive and go out, he'd surely have no way of getting his car out? The fact he says he requires 24 hour access says to me he's probably a tradesman, not being able to access his vehicle could cause massive issues.

If that's all the case, I'd probably just let him have the drive, it's not fair but I don't see it worth arguing over until your elderly.