Shared driveway missing restrictive Covenant - Help please!

betjo

Can anyone give some advice ?Will try to keep it as short and precise as possible,  We have a shared driveway with 2 other neighbours. All with access / right of way over the drive to our  own individual parking areas infront  our own garages.There is also a coach house which has pedestrian access to their garden gate which is on the driveway , but has no vehicular access. The title deeds clearly shows who owns which part of the driveway . Areas of the drive are shaded blue  on each specific owners title deeds. These areas should be kept unobstructed as stated in our restrictive covenants. One of our neighbours is parking in this blue area which restricts ourselves and neighbours movements in the driveway . We have checked all the deeds and we all have the same covenants except this neighbour. On their deeds the blue area is clearly visible but there is no reference to the blue area at all and no restrictive covenant .Yet every other covenant is the same. It is as though this covenant is missing. We have an ongoing dispute with this neighbour regarding encroachment which I will not fully go into as it will confuse matters.But any light shed on this matter would be so helpful. 

carefullycautious

Is this a new build estate? Is the coach house over garages? 
A diagram would help

betjo

10 years old. Sorry not near plans at the moment. will try to explain the lay out. The coach house is attached to our property which is a town house, as is our neighbours who share the driveway. You drive underneath the coach house to access the shared courtyard which houses the garages. The neighbour in questions property is a detached house within the courtyard/driveway so separate from the street facing the estates boundary..  The land for the estate exchanged developers 3 times and this house was added by the last developer. Sorry hope this makes sense!!

AdrianC

A right of way does not include the right to park, even if no obstruction is caused. It is a right to pass over.

The question is, though, how legal do you want to go to enforce anything...?

betjo

It is already in the hands of solicitors due to an encroachment caused by the same neighbours. They are basically just being as awkward as possible by parking here opposed to in their own parking area. What we cannot understand is why there is no reference at all to what this blue area means on their title deeds and why they have  no restrictive covenant which the other 3 properties have . Their solicitor is saying they were told they could park here when "they were sold the house "and as there is no covenant and no reference to the blue area on the deed they can. Can we register a complaint with the Land Registry to see if there is  a mistake with their deeds. It seems very odd that each of us sharing the drive do not have the same covenants, surely they should mirror each other?

betjo

Anyone with any advice re the mishing covenant and missing  reference to blue area on neighbours deeds?.We really are at our wits end. 

davidmcn

A plan would be worth a thousand words...

Cakeguts

I don't understand how a developer can have granted a right of access over a shared driveway that is already owned by other people?

Land_Registry

betjo said:

Anyone with any advice re the mishing covenant and missing  reference to blue area on neighbours deeds?.We really are at our wits end. 

Simple answer is a conveyancing error when their Transfer was drawn up. As you suggest you’d perhaps expect a fairly generic transfer for each sale so if the blue was included on the plan then a clause should refer. 

We could have erred but if the deed contains the details then unlikely as I assume each title refers to the deed as being filed so the specific details are in the deed and not set out on the register. 

Happy to check and try to explain if you quote your title number?