To buy or not to buy - parking

Catgirl86

Hi All, thanks for your responses.

Yes the dropped kerb was (apparently) arranged via the council/they applied for it properly but would of course check this through solicitor. So the two cars park on 50% on each others land.
You are right in that there is nothing to stop the neighbour selling to a new neighbour who may come in and want to divide the "driveway" in half again, the arrangement is mutually beneficial as without the arrangement there is no off road parking, with the arrangement there is one space each, but of course we can't take for granted that all neighbours would appreciate this. I also can't imagine anyone with a caravan or with a huge appreciation for cars would buy such a property without private parking or anyone with multiple cars, but i do of course take into consideration those who have children who may have cars in the future. We would be there to see that ourselves but of course the person buying would.

For ourselves we are not concerned about having no parking space really, if resale didn't matter we wouldn't have any doubt. When we viewed the property and since then we have just viewed it as a house without parking with the physical current arrangement a bonus.
As far as we can say it isn't priced as a house with parking. Its roughly £20k less than the same with parking spaces that have sold recently although they all differ so much and things have been so unpredictable the past year its hard to tell. We would probably just view it as something to use when needed, for example with unloading shopping (whilst we shop online ourselves and have delivery) there is the option to pull up onto this shared driveway.

The front 'garden' of the house is just a little wider than the width of a car so some of the houses on the opposite side of the square have paved the space, had the kerb dropped and park in front of their bay window, a parking space created, so there is that option but we likely wouldn't do that in our time there.

it's true that as every other factor is what we want, and as there is nothing else on market at the moment and we are now really out of time to find anything we could complete on before end of stamp duty hols (this house has no chain) , I do really want to just look past this issue as the compromise that we made and go ahead, but i am just trying to detach my heart and avoid making a decision we regret in 5 years time if it really could make it that much more difficult to sell.

Again we rarely drive our car (except to go and view bloody houses!!) and would walk to the train station to commute into work in London so we'd just leave our car parked on the road with no problem, again its not a busy road with other residents driving around it and no need to reserve down the street or anything as its a square which you can just drive around, but I do take into account everything you are saying.

Anyway, its either we go ahead here and proceed with surveys etc or we just rent, with the way things are looking here we'd have to rent for around a year as short term rents are non-existent or super expensive, and then where this is supposed to be a 5 year things, we make that period even shorter so its not what we ideally wanted to do. But then again if those forever predicting a drop in prices are right after the stamp duty holiday, maybe we would benefit?! 
Just moving forward with a clear decision for now will be invaluable at this stage!

Thanks again all for your time!

teachfast

Renting expensive as houses are increasing in value just now. 

Remember electric cars basically need a drive to work. 

Section62

Catgirl86 said:

You are right in that there is nothing to stop the neighbour selling to a new neighbour who may come in and want to divide the "driveway" in half again, the arrangement is mutually beneficial as without the arrangement there is no off road parking, with the arrangement there is one space each, but of course we can't take for granted that all neighbours would appreciate this.

If the arrangement hasn't been formalised (e.g. a RoW and right to park written into the deeds) then a future neighbour could decide they value having a garden over providing a space for you to park.

The parking is only mutually beneficial so long as both parties want to use it. If your new neighbour believes in the 'climate emergency' and considers all forms of personal transport to be the work of the devil they may feel they are doing their bit by reclaiming the garden from the evils of the motorcar. If you live in an area with good public transport this may be more than just a theoretical risk when you come to sell.

Catgirl86 said:

For ourselves we are not concerned about having no parking space really, if resale didn't matter we wouldn't have any doubt. When we viewed the property and since then we have just viewed it as a house without parking with the physical current arrangement a bonus.
 

If the arrangement is formalised then even if you decide using the shared space is more hassle than it is worth, you won't be able to stop the neighbour from doing so. As a potential purchaser I wouldn't be remotely interested in facilitating a neighbour's free parking making use of my soon to be garden without a reciprocal benefit. How would you convince me to buy your house with your neighbour half-parking in the garden I'd be paying for?

Catgirl86

HSection62 said:

Catgirl86 said:

You are right in that there is nothing to stop the neighbour selling to a new neighbour who may come in and want to divide the "driveway" in half again, the arrangement is mutually beneficial as without the arrangement there is no off road parking, with the arrangement there is one space each, but of course we can't take for granted that all neighbours would appreciate this.

If the arrangement hasn't been formalised (e.g. a RoW and right to park written into the deeds) then a future neighbour could decide they value having a garden over providing a space for you to park.

The parking is only mutually beneficial so long as both parties want to use it. If your new neighbour believes in the 'climate emergency' and considers all forms of personal transport to be the work of the devil they may feel they are doing their bit by reclaiming the garden from the evils of the motorcar. If you live in an area with good public transport this may be more than just a theoretical risk when you come to sell.

Catgirl86 said:

For ourselves we are not concerned about having no parking space really, if resale didn't matter we wouldn't have any doubt. When we viewed the property and since then we have just viewed it as a house without parking with the physical current arrangement a bonus.
 

If the arrangement is formalised then even if you decide using the shared space is more hassle than it is worth, you won't be able to stop the neighbour from doing so. As a potential purchaser I wouldn't be remotely interested in facilitating a neighbour's free parking making use of my soon to be garden without a reciprocal benefit. How would you convince me to buy your house with your neighbour half-parking in the garden I'd be paying for?

Hi, yes I understand that either we, or a new neighbour could decide we dont want to use the combination of 50% of our space and 50% of theirs as a driveway for one car each, and then have no parking, which is why we are seeing the property as ‘without parking’ which is how it is sold and priced. 

In reality and physically the arrangement does provide more than ZERO off-road parking option but we are seeing that as just a bonus and from a resale p.o.v it might as well not exist.

the kerb was arranged via council but obviously I haven't seen the deeds or gone any further yet.

in essence its a house with no parking where on-road parking is fine as its on a square, not a through road, its typical for the type of house not to have parking and if to look at this house individually there is somewhere to put the car whilst we have this agreement with neighbour, and we *could* turn front garden into a sideways parking space for one car (through correct process as neighbours have done) but essentially we wouldn’t. We’d live in it happily for 5 years, leave our car on the road, most likely within 10 metres of the house as its been every time wev visited in evenings and weekends and have no problem. Im just very aware it puts people off and wondered the general opinion on how unique circumstances might eleviate the issue slightly if at all.

I do also understand the issue of children growing up and needing cars, that happens everywhere whether you start with 0 parking space or 1 parking space, and we’d just have to hope no-one with 2 cars and a caravan moved to the house next door given its official ‘no off street parking’ status!!

suppose its whether we want the house enough/think the benefits/appeal is enough to overlook the fact its (officially) on-street parking only.

thanks!

Ditzy_Mitzy

Is there any possibility, neighbour willing, of converting the setup to one of a proper shared drive?  In essence, the access between the two houses would fork immediately beyond the back walls and lead to parking in each back garden.  It's a fairly common arrangement round here.  

Norman_Castle

Catgirl86 said:

HSection62 said:

I do also understand the issue of children growing up and needing cars, that happens everywhere whether you start with 0 parking space or 1 parking space, and we’d just have to hope no-one with 2 cars and a caravan moved to the house next door given its official ‘no off street parking’ status!!

This could only work by agreement and it would be on the understanding that either of you could change it and revert to a fence between the properties. Leaving an intermittently used caravan there could work well as long as its understood each property only has one space.

Section62

Catgirl86 said:

In reality and physically the arrangement does provide more than ZERO off-road parking option but we are seeing that as just a bonus and from a resale p.o.v it might as well not exist.

But it does exist, and from my point of view that is the potential problem when it comes to resale.

Either you are going to have buyers who see the kerbside pictures and think the property comes with offstreet parking, only to be disappointed.  Or they see there is an unusual shared arrangement and run a mile because they know it will be more hassle than it is worth. Shared parking is the source of all kinds of neighbour disputes - if it were me I'd rather have a house with no off-street parking than one with problematic parking.

Until you know whether the current arrangement is formal or informal you can't properly assess the risk you might be taking on.

Catgirl86 said:

and we *could* turn front garden into a sideways parking space for one car (through correct process as neighbours have done) but essentially we wouldn’t.

Councils don't normally agree to sideways (parallel) parking in front gardens that are only just large enough. There's a safety issue with vehicles getting in and out of the parking area.

It wouldn't surprise me if the dropped kerb was provided on condition it was only used to park in the shared area perpendicular to the road.  Or possibly that the council were not involved in providing it.

Catgirl86 said:

Im just very aware it puts people off and wondered the general opinion on how unique circumstances might eleviate the issue slightly if at all.

As I said above, I think a lot of people are quite happy to live without off-street parking at all, especially in areas with good public transport, or plenty of on-street parking.

To me the offputting thing is the half-and-half situation where you might have off-street parking, but it comes with potential headaches and an easy route to a neighbour dispute.

theoretica

There is also the potential, maybe, for one neighbour to buy out the drive from the other, leaving only pedestrian right of way to the back - so one house definitely does not have parking, but the other does. 

Catgirl86

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

Is there any possibility, neighbour willing, of converting the setup to one of a proper shared drive?  In essence, the access between the two houses would fork immediately beyond the back walls and lead to parking in each back garden.  It's a fairly common arrangement round here.  

Hi, yes this is the case, at the end of the 'driveway' as you can see below, is a gate to each back garden (they are on a diagonal at the end of the 'driveway' joining in a point at the very end. The gates are wide enough for a car to be driven through into each garden. The owners husband used to keep a classic car in there, probably why they suggested joining the two pathways to create one driveway to allow this. See below, most of the other houses on the square don't have this option, only a few do and most of them have made this 'driveway' and have had the kerbs dropped and have even added gates.  We know it is not actual 'parking' which could be listed as parking when selling the house, but as you can see in reality, there is the physical space, its a long space where two cars fit comfortably between the two houses, again its just a mutual agreement and it could be ended by a new neighbour wanted to divide the space in two again, but for now this is how it is as with several of the other houses in the road.

We went again tonight and noticed many of the houses which don't have the two pathways in between the houses, have just dropped the kerbs in front of the houses and have sideways parking in front of their bay window- in my opinion it ruins the look of the house a little bit, and of the street but its a parking space created. I don't think we would personally do that, I think we would just park on the road as again tonight we have come to find it there were several spaces and we don't use our car more than once a week.


Anyway, I have gathered from everyones comments that we certainly wouldn't rely on this arrangement or see it as anything more than a bonus whilst we were there if it worked well. I can now also see that it *could* put future buyers off if they thought it could be an area of aggravation, even though for us we had viewed the house knowing it had no parking so we weren't expecting anything.

wannabe_a_saver

Honestly, having to co-ordinate with the neighbours to arrange who can get in and out of the alley sounds like an absolute nightmare, you might think it won’t be an issue but I am willing to 100% guarantee it will become annoying.

if it’s priced as a house with no drive, and it’s genuinely easy to park on the street, I’d just go with that and ignore the alley completely.  As and when new neighbours next move in I’d put a stop to them parking on your access too.