Shared Driveway nightmare

kardella

Hi all
i bought my house and there is a shared driveway to the front of the property. There are only 3 houses in the street and my is the last one in. The middle house has tenants in it. He continues to park his van on the shared driveway causing an obstacle for me to get in/out of the property (I’ve already damaged my car once due to the parking obstacle).  I have tried speaking with the tenants several times with no success so I wrote a letter to them saying I would take legal advice. The next thing I get a visit from a policeman as they are saying I am harassing them, so have been advised by the policeman not to communicate with them.  I managed to get the details of their rental agency and spoke with the manager and provided photo evidence of the difficulties and he said he would write to them telling them that there is no parking on the shared driveway and they are not to park there.  This was last week but the tenants continue to park on the shared driveway.  I know I have to see this through otherwise it will cause a problem if I want to sell my house in the future without a conclusion.  Please can someone advise what steps can I take to resolve the parking issue and if I have to go legal, how much would this cost approximately.

many thanks for your help
Jacqui

Jeepers_Creepers

Do you have Leg Prot on your house insurance?

And what exactly do your - and their - deeds say about the shared driveway?

kardella

I am not sure? I will have to look why?

kardella

I have purchased the info off the land registry which shows clearly the shared driveway and that is can only be used for right of way and trade work

UnderOffer

Like JC asks, have you checked both your deeds and the neighbours, what is stated about the shared driveway? 

I can’t quite picture the issue without a pic or drawing, as what you feel is an ‘obstacle’ could be seen by neighbour as no issue and easily passable. 

AnotherJoe

kardella said:

I am not sure? I will have to look why?

Because you woudl use that service to take action against them. The good news is, they regard your letter as an issue so you are having an effect. IANAL but i think the policeman is in the wrong, its not harassing soemone if you complain about them  blocking you in and I woudl make a complaint to the police as well.

 @UnderOffer envisage a long drive which branches off twice to two houses, with OP at the far end so has to drive past their houses, once of the houses is using the drive as a parking space no doubt thinking "I'll only be here 5 minutes" or "theres room for them to squeeze by". Surely the fact the OP has damaged his car squeezing by is good enough??

When this happened to me I was lucky in that i was on very good terms with the landlord (it was also rented house) and she got them to stop using it and they did.

The bigger issue you will ahve is when you come to sell, you may have to mark down youve had a dispute with the neighbours but theres not much alternative if they wont stop parking there. 

kardella

My plans and other property plans show the driveway. Half of the driveway is in red and states shared driveway. For by pass.

kardella

My other worry is that my daughter is due to visit me in March, she will have a transit van as she is picking up furniture. I know there won’t be room for her to pass to get to my property due to the neighbours parking on the shared driveway.  I don’t want any conflict, I would just like people to abide by the rules 😕

sheramber

he said he would write to them telling them that there is no parking on the shared driveway and they are not to park there.  This was last week but the tenants continue to park on the shared driveway.
When last week?
They might not have received the letter yet. It would have to be typed up- probably in queue with other letters- signed and posted, probably  second class.

ivavoucher

"I have tried speaking with the tenants several times with no success "

What did they say? You may be able to reason with them.

kardella

When I spoke with them they said “what’s the problem, there’s no problem” basically not taking me seriously. On another occasion I spoke with them they told me I was the problem.
yes, I am waiting another few days to see if things improve as they should have got the letter from letting agency as that would have been a week then.