To buy or not to buy - parking

Catgirl86

Yes that's what we'd do, leave the car on the street all of the time, we only use it once a week and I commute by train anyway and husband WFH, I think we'd just use the space if we were unloading anything big or if we had visitors and there was no other space. It's prices as no parking as far as we can say, although its a v fine line at the moment- its a difficult market to sell a flat then buy a house in!

I read that for so many people, no parking is a deal breaker and just wanted to understand if the unique circumstances (as feedback tells me its v dependent on where the house is and the street situation) would make the no parking less of an issue here. It seems this combined pathway arrangement could even put people off more than help, so we wouldn't focus on it as a selling point. And hopefully the fact that it seems fairly easy to park on the street and the fact its not on a through-road should help. There is a high st nearby so we wondered if there might be people parking whilst they go shopping but we have found there is a big free carpark much nearer to the high street so that's a non issue, its also far enough from the train station that we wouldn't get any commuters parking.

I think if we had troublesome neighbours in the future we would say we wanted our pathway back and just but a fence in rather than trying to share with them. It would make little difference to us as long as the street situation remained the same.

Soot2006

This arrangement is madness ... It needs to be reverted back to the "alley/driveway"  between the houses being for access only with the parking behind behind each house individually. I assume the deeds state that no one can park/block the alley/driveway? If I were buying this house, I would be instantly unpopular with my new neighbour by enforcing this. So I wouldn't buy the house, because why purchase a problem?

Catgirl86

Soot2006 said:

This arrangement is madness ... It needs to be reverted back to the "alley/driveway"  between the houses being for access only with the parking behind behind each house individually. I assume the deeds state that no one can park/block the alley/driveway? If I were buying this house, I would be instantly unpopular with my new neighbour by enforcing this. So I wouldn't buy the house, because why purchase a problem?

Sorry I think i have made it sound more complex than it is, behind the houses are just the gardens, no ‘access’ needed. Its two houses without off road parking, with a pathway down the side of each house to the garden. But whilst the current two owners are living there they've had an amicable mutually beneficial arrangement to pave the area so they could both park one car on there. If the next next neighbours dont want that, a fence/divide can go up again and thats that.
we dont need a parking space- we’d happily park on the road outside and use our car once a week, but I just wondered if this extra option would make the house more appealing to those who see no parking as a deal breakbreaker, or if it’s more of a problem than having nothing. To use it seems harmless- use it (nicely) or lose it basically.

i don’t think its ‘madness’, i think thats a bit much. The neighbour currently doesn't use their car so its always there, and the owner of the house we are looking at therefore parks at the front of the space and comes and goes as needed, so it works v well for them, but still the house is priced and advertised as no parking, so whilst Id hope to be lucky enough to benefit from such an easy arrangement, we wouldn’t expect it to factor into any buyers head as a parking option now, better to just see it as no parking.
I appreciate now that its by no means a resolution to ‘no off street parking’ to anyone looking for a house with parking, as it could be a problem in the future in which case converting it back to a pathway could be best. So we have to be happy with the house and its future saleability as it is without parking and imagine the driveway is still just two walkways to the garden as per the deeds.
thanks

Sistergold

Life always works better when neighbours get along and in this case they are able to park by agreement and arrangements. Just decide if you will buy this house if it has no off street parking? Many houses sell without any driveway. You don’t want to buy based on an arrangement which relies on good will between neighbours.