Shared drive dispute

Bendy_House

This type of split ownership of a shared drive isn't unusual. Not sure what the thinking behind it is - perhaps so that no one household 'owns' it all (in case it gives them silly ideas - like No 2).

But the deeds should be absolutely clear about the 'rights' each household has over it all.

trickydicky4321

980233 said:

DB1904 said:

If the purple part belongs to house 2 then they can surface it as they see fit. 

I'd wager he doesn't own it and it's ROA only. These types of driveway access are a pain in the proverbial and ripe for disputes and bad parking.

@980233 thank you for the reply.  What is an ROA?  And how would I be able to find out if this is the case?

980233

trickydicky4321 said:

980233 said:

DB1904 said:

If the purple part belongs to house 2 then they can surface it as they see fit. 

I'd wager he doesn't own it and it's ROA only. These types of driveway access are a pain in the proverbial and ripe for disputes and bad parking.

@980233 thank you for the reply.  What is an ROA?  And how would I be able to find out if this is the case?

Just a right of access for each house owner to get to their respective 'official drives' over the shared strip of land.

I was in a similar situation with 2 other houses where I previously lived as shown by land registry that I owned all of the shared access area and my neighbours only owned the area outside their garages as the garager were linked.

However it didn't give me the right to block access or change the layout to my needs/wants. Not that I considered it , plus the costs of the shared access area (wholly owned by my house) for any repairs were shared by all 3 houses.

I never wanted to to have a property with this type of access after that though whatever the house itself offered. Just needs one numpty to not look at the small print plus the squeezing of multiple cars by each house making it a nightmare to get in and out.

Plus it never works for visitors and gatherings planned.

trickydicky4321

Many thanks.  I'll order a copy of the deeds and hopefully nip the whole idea in the bud.

Section62

Bendy_House said:

This type of split ownership of a shared drive isn't unusual. Not sure what the thinking behind it is - perhaps so that no one household 'owns' it all (in case it gives them silly ideas - like No 2).

It makes things easy for the developer and simplifies the legalities.

The alternatives to ownership being split would be either [a] one property (in this case ideally number 1) owning the whole area or else [b] another entity owning the whole area - for example the developer, an estate management company, or the residents together through an entity such as a limited company.

Some prospective purchasers would be put off by [a] - having ownership of that extra land and the responsibilities that go with it isn't something that everybody would enjoy (but for number 1 it would maximise the control they have over their own access rights)

[b] involves additional cost and legalities.  Either the developer has to retain responsibility (not on your nelly, unless there's something financial in it for them), or money has to be paid out for someone to take on that responsibility with some form of contractual relationship in place.

The simplest arrangement (from the developer's POV) is to allocate portions of the shared drive/road to each frontage freehold, and give them all mutual rights and responsibilities of access and maintenance.

After all, that was the reasonably successful arrangement which existed for centuries with 'highways'... until most of them became maintainable at public expense.