SIde Extension - Shared Driveway

Chanes

This is going to sound defeatist, but I think it would be more pragmatic to just sell and move somewhere where you would have the space you want. Legal bills from neighbour disputes fill acres of internet pages and resolutions have seldom seemed amicable or cheap. And you never know, the thought of you leaving - as you say a good neighbour for many years - may shake them into a compromise to keep you? New neighbours would give them the unknown.

Doozergirl

I think a rear extension is calling

JP1978

Is there a 3rd option?

Not sure how to explain this.....

I assume your proposed extension was going to be a ground and 1st floor extension, using the footprint of your driveway for part of, or all the length of your house?

Have you considered asking them if they want more space too?

Imagine building the extension on the 1st floor only but between both houses and having half each...… does that make sense? The structure would span between both houses and 'link' them visually but with a dividing wall inbetween, so you had one side and them the other. You would both still have access to the drive and you both get more space.

You pay for all the work obviously. The structure been supported by foundations / stilts on both properties.

traineepensioner

I would check their deeds here ...... https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry

It only costs a couple of quid and would indicate whether you're proposed side extension could go ahead.

BTW I hate shared drives and would never by a house with one.

JJJones

mrschaucer wrote: »

Are you planning to build the extension over (what you believe is your bit of) the shared drive?

Yes, the architect and council had never stated it as a problem since we own the land and both drives on the property, they're separated by a fence and are wide enough for access up the back. Unfortunately it's an oversight and she's happy to strong arm us into not building the extension

JJJones

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

Best thing to do is check the deeds for both houses and see what actual rights are in place.

If they do have a right of way over part of your land does that include access for vehicles.

That's a good point, we've just requested the deeds to read the exact details.

JJJones

TELLIT01 wrote: »

If your extension will prevent vehicular access then I think they are right to object. It could certainly affect the value of their house if vehicle access is no longer viable once your extension is built. It's entirely possible that they had no objection to an extension to your property in principal but did once they saw the specifics of what you want to do.

They still have a 2 metre wide drive on their side of the fence. They agreed to the extension and if we had known there would be any upset or objection, we would never put so much money into renovating the house over the years

JJJones

Cash-Cows wrote: »

You might need to buy out the neighbours.

So frustrating as they have never wanted access to our drive until money is involved

JJJones

MoneySeeker1 wrote: »

ROW's cannot be extinguished without the agreement of the other people involved.

If they don't agree, then you have two choices:
1. Forget about an extension
or
2. Offer to buy the ROW off them and then arrange for both sets of deeds to be changed to reflect this.

It looks as if you will have to forget about the extension and, if having more room is that important to you, then sell up and move.

We would of definitley moved if we had any idea they would object or be anything but happy with our extension. They repeatedly agreed and talked about it with us with not objection. Just a shame we trusted them so much

JJJones

markin wrote: »

If you did it this way the next owner would have a good chance of getting it knocked down, Making selling it ever a real problem. They probably thought all your plans were pie in the sky and without reading the deeds and when you did you would drop it!

Yeah they admitted they thought it would never get accepted. Such as shame they never said anything, instead of investing the money into the house we could of moved to a bigger purpose built property years ago.