Find out who owns a driveway

darkwarrior

There is a cul-de-sac behind my home with rows of a few terraces homes, a gap, and then another series of terraced homes. Only 2 or 3 of the homes has an attached garage, out of about 20 properties, and there are a few detached garages positioned together that belong to some of the homes.

Directly behind my house are two driveways immediately next to each other. One has a garage built on it and is in use, the other is just a seemingly abandoned drive way. The entrance is too thin to use if the other drive way is in use. It's hard to remember what exactly it was like out there 30 years ago, but basically our back gate had some stone steps that let down onto the cul-de-sac. Over the decades, some Russian Ivy we had growing over our fence basically completely overgrew this abandoned drive way and the steps and since we never went out that way it wasn't really an issue. It just created a nice green view.

In the last few years, we needed to get a new fence because the old one was like 4 decades old and being crushed under the weight of the ivy and reducing our privacy. I had to cut the ivy back for the fence to be done, and as part of that I decided to start making use of the new gate by making some new steps. Since the steps were already there I assumed this was our right of way.

Now the abandoned driveway I was led to believe belonged to the nearest terraced house. Even though it is one of the few homes there with an attached garage and drive way. I was led to believe this by a) the son of the guy who owned it rudely saying "I hope you clean all that up", referring to the left over twigs from me basically making the drive way usable by cutting back 20 feet of bush, and b) a separate nasty person complaining that I was restoring the steps because "she's lived there for 40 years and you're not entitled to make those steps". Fabulous neighbourhood.

Anyway, that house has changed hands now twice since in about 3 years and still no-one has used it or is using it even though the new occupants have two cars and only one can fit on the attached driveway. On the most recent sale I noticed that no second drive way was mentioned in the sale listing, which made me wonder if this was just something someone had decided to claim and done it for so long that other people had believed they owned it. I downloaded the deed for that property and it makes no mention of the additional drive way either. Maybe it has just fallen into the ether because no one knows about it.

The house itself is leasehold by Fairhold in Huddersfield but I've struggled to contact them to see if maybe they own that parcel of land. Because I now don't know which property it belongs to, if any, I don't know how to find out as because it's literally right behind the fence, I was considering buying it myself to build a garage on or just keep it open as a right of way since the children ride their bikes down it.

Is there some trick I'm missing that could help me out here?

Thanks in advance.

Doozergirl

If it isn't on the deeds of the houses immediately surrounding the plot you submit a map enquiry to the Land Registry. 

You do this when the land doesn't appear to be registered, so doesn't appear on the list with the houses on a regular postcode search.  

https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/MapEnquiryInit.do

darkwarrior

Thanks Doozergirl. I've tried this, it doesn't come up with anything except the closest house. It doesn't come up with anything for that second garage there. It's difficult though as the aerial view is the only one that shows the garage for me to click on, but the image quality is too poor to identify it properly. Would you suggest contacting the land registry directly?

EDIT: -_- just bought the title plan to "Land adjoining X" and its for a tiny, tiny, sliver of land next to a house. Bizarre. 

EssexExile

darkwarrior said:

EDIT: -_- just bought the title plan to "Land adjoining X" and its for a tiny, tiny, sliver of land next to a house. Bizarre. 

Could be a ransom strip.

darkwarrior

Sorry to bump, does anyone have any other ideas?

Norman_Castle

You call them driveways but are they communal parking spaces originally intended to be used by anyone? Its not clear how old the properties are but planning permission often insists on areas for residents parking when estates are built.

es5595

Its difficult to have ideas without actually being able to see where you mean, but you've purchased the title plan for the two houses 'behind you' and, I'm assuming you've also checked your title plan?

Doozergirl

darkwarrior said:

Thanks Doozergirl. I've tried this, it doesn't come up with anything except the closest house. It doesn't come up with anything for that second garage there. It's difficult though as the aerial view is the only one that shows the garage for me to click on, but the image quality is too poor to identify it properly. Would you suggest contacting the land registry directly?

EDIT: -_- just bought the title plan to "Land adjoining X" and its for a tiny, tiny, sliver of land next to a house. Bizarre. 

I wasn't clear with that link.  You can ask for a manual map search - specifically contacting the Land Registry about a plot of land that is not registered and therefore not coming up on the list.  I thought that was the link to it.  It wasn't. 

Get the coordinates of the centre of it from a different website if you need to.  The land registry are used to this and so they do have a specific process for it!  

There is a Land Registry representative on the House Buying Board - have a look for their specific thread if you need more help.  They tend to answer things faster than going direct to the LR.  

Jumblebumble

darkwarrior said:

, and b) a separate nasty person complaining that I was restoring the steps because "she's lived there for 40 years and you're not entitled to make those steps". Fabulous neighbourhood.

I hope you asked "How do you know?"

darkwarrior

Norman_Castle said:

You call them driveways but are they communal parking spaces originally intended to be used by anyone? Its not clear how old the properties are but planning permission often insists on areas for residents parking when estates are built.

The one behind me is specifically just a driveway. The other spaces have garages, poorly built garages in most cases, but garages, with locks. So individual people have some kind of possession of them. They were built around 1960. I'll provide a link to the below quote to give you a clearer idea what I'm talking about.

es5595 said:

Its difficult to have ideas without actually being able to see where you mean, but you've purchased the title plan for the two houses 'behind you' and, I'm assuming you've also checked your title plan?

I have checked our plan, it just outlines our particular border, no mention of the drive way. It's so long ago I'm not sure the drive was always there or not. This is a google maps link to the area I'm talking about.

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.5620689,-2.1123345,3a,75y,121.71h,74.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMK-dEcyT1qoxmR9_eNoEig!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

If you look to the right after loading the link, you'll see a house with a garage attached to its left side. Then a gap. Then a sloped driveway/garage and then next to that is what I'm talking about. It's heavily overgrown in this image but I've cut that back in the last few years. The house with the garage attached is the one I was TOLD it belonged to by the same lady who told me not to build my steps, and the son of the previous house owner who was mad I'd cleared the space and hadn't swept and polished also.

Doozergirl said:

darkwarrior said:

Thanks Doozergirl. I've tried this, it doesn't come up with anything except the closest house. It doesn't come up with anything for that second garage there. It's difficult though as the aerial view is the only one that shows the garage for me to click on, but the image quality is too poor to identify it properly. Would you suggest contacting the land registry directly?

EDIT: -_- just bought the title plan to "Land adjoining X" and its for a tiny, tiny, sliver of land next to a house. Bizarre. 

I wasn't clear with that link.  You can ask for a manual map search - specifically contacting the Land Registry about a plot of land that is not registered and therefore not coming up on the list.  I thought that was the link to it.  It wasn't. 

Get the coordinates of the centre of it from a different website if you need to.  The land registry are used to this and so they do have a specific process for it!  

There is a Land Registry representative on the House Buying Board - have a look for their specific thread if you need more help.  They tend to answer things faster than going direct to the LR.  

Ah ok. I will have a look for the LR rep and then try the LR direct approach if necessary.
Jumblebumble said:

darkwarrior said:

, and b) a separate nasty person complaining that I was restoring the steps because "she's lived there for 40 years and you're not entitled to make those steps". Fabulous neighbourhood.

I hope you asked "How do you know?"

I just said "There were stairs here long before you were and I'm putting them back". She then came up with the excuse that she was concerned if kids came down the steps she might accidentally reverse over them. A different neighbor approached me afterward and said that she thinks she owns the culdesac. I've not had to deal with her since thankfully.

farrantc

My son shares a double-width drive with the neighbour which leads to our joined garages. Can they have their half resurfaced without asking for his permission?  If they go ahead what happens if they tarmac over our side or damage it.