I need advice on gates!

Godby

Hi guys 
looking for advice. I have lived in my property for 3 years and I have a kinda shared driveway. Basically I own the drive way but next door have access at the bottom on the right up to their drive. I have young children so have always said that at a cost to me I would put a gate up. Now they always agreed and gave me concerns so I have paid for an electric gate with fob and pad for easy access from your phone or emergency services. Now it’s due to be put in next week and they have said they don’t want the gate! Can I still put this up?! 

davidmcn

Hard to work out from your description what's going on. We could do with a diagram (and knowing what it says in both your titles).

greatcrested

Probabably.

The drive is yours.

The neighbours have a ROW which you have not specified in detail.

So, subject to confirmation of the precise wording, it is likely that provided you do not obstruct their ROW (ie you give them a key, fob, whatever such that they can come and go as they please) you will be abiding by your obligation to them.

Having said that, you need to mend fences.

Having disgruntled neighbours is never ideal, and ghastly if they decide to get revenge in some way for what they perceive to be unreasonable behavior by you.

Hasbeen

Godby said:

Hi guys 
looking for advice. I have lived in my property for 3 years and I have a kinda shared driveway. Basically I own the drive way but next door have access at the bottom on the right up to their drive. I have young children so have always said that at a cost to me I would put a gate up. Now they always agreed and gave me concerns so I have paid for an electric gate with fob and pad for easy access from your phone or emergency services. Now it’s due to be put in next week and they have said they don’t want the gate! Can I still put this up?! 

Without a plan, pictures, drawing etc and what it specifies on title deeds. Hard to say. So please clarify.

But if what you say is correct and you OWN the drive and neighbours have access then at this moment as long as they still have access then you can put your gate up. Will they get fob and is pad easily available to them to gain access to their drive?

Jeepers_Creepers

Do I take it that the driveway is for your vehicles only, and that the neighb has a pedestrian ROW over it? Or are they allowed vehicular access too?

I presume this electric gate is for vehicle access - it's a 'large' gate?  

If so, I'd imagine the ideal solution would be to have two gates - the large leccy one, and an adjacent pedestrian 'manual' gate for those on foot. This latter gate could have a self-closing spring on it since I imagine it's important that you keep your driveway secure for your kids? 

If your neighb's ROW is for foot traffic only, then it would be undesirable for the large leccy gate to be operated every time they walk back and forth. However, if you don't provide a separate small access gate, I believe you will need to give them a method of operating the leccy gate as they wish. 

tacpot12

 I would suggest that you consider whether you really want the gates as having them might cause a rift between you and your neighbours.  If you want the gates because of your children, and you are sure you have the rights to put up the gates. I would go ahead, but I would go around and explain your decision first. 

Before you go around, consider whether you would back down if they turn nasty? If you might lose money as a result of cancelling the order, find out how much cancelling might cost you and say that you will cancel, if they pay half the cancellation fee. Asking them to pay all of it would be a bit much; I think you have to accept that you should have perhaps checked with them first that they were okay to have the gates before you placed an order that could not be cancelled without it costing you. 

Scotbot

You say they  access their property via the bottom of the drive so can you position the gate further up the drive so that they they don't need to go through it? Thus keeping your kids in safely without obstructing access to the neighbours property.  Irrespective of who owns what this might keep everyone happy.

eddddy

Have you asked the neighbours what their concerns are?

For example, is it to do with people visiting or couriers making deliveries (on foot or in a vehicle)?

• Will there be an intercom so that visitors / couriers can buzz the neighbours, and the neighbours remotely open the gate and close it after? (Will they be able to see when the visiting car/van is clear, so they can safely close the gates and/or is there any kind of safety device to stop the gates closing when vehicles are in the way?)

• Is there a sensible place for a car / van to park whilst the driver uses the intercom?

• I guess you want to stop your young children getting to the road. If the neighbours are opening and closing the gates remotely for visitors (or even opening them for themselves when they drive in), how will you stop your children getting to the road?

greatcrested

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Do I take it that the driveway is for your vehicles only, and that the neighb has a pedestrian ROW over it? Or are they allowed vehicular access too?

It's really not clear hence asking OP for confirmation of the precise wording. "ROW" is far too vague and could mean any number of things.

princeofpounds

From your description, it sounds like your neighbour has a vehicular right of way over only the initial part of your drive. Assuming that is the case, that portion of the drive is a shared drive, not a 'kinda' shared drive. 

You have a couple of options. One is to place the gate behind the point where their drive splits off from yours. You do not lose any rights to the initial part of your driveway by doing so, and it would not interfere at all with your neighbour's right of way.

Or, you put it at the entrance to your driveway, thereby effectively gating your your access and theirs too. The law on this situation is that you are not allowed to cause a 'substantial interference' to their right of way. Thankfully, that does not mean you cannot have a gate under any circumstance. Unfortunately what counts as substantial is not clearly defined, and the ultimate judgement depends on the courts. There is quite a lot of case law out there which can help clear up specific points but by reading the links below you'll see how it can turn on small details. Perhaps if you look into this you can inform your decisions.

https://www.footanstey.com/article/a-gate-too-far-when-does-a-gate-amount-to-an-interference-with-a-right-of-way/
https://www.thursfields.co.uk/interference-with-rights-of-way/
https://www.hughes-paddison.co.uk/site/blog/property-litigation-blog/rights-of-way-is-a-gate-an-obstruction

Furthermore, do you have any evidence of their past agreement? If you can evidence their agreement to a specific scheme, then that might make any claim against you very difficult - 'estopped', in legal terms. But i suspect you don't have proper evidence here. 

greatcrested

OP has not logged back on yet so till he does, and clarifies the wording, further speculation is pointless.