Coach house Garage (Leasehold) - driveway…..

Bub1234

Hi everyone,
We own our house freehold, however, our garage is leasehold as it is located under a apartment. New owners have moved in to the apartment, who are currently finding problems with most residents of the estate & now it is our turn. 

We have a leasehold agreement that states work cannot he carried out on vehicles under the agreement. However outside of our garage we have a ‘driveway’ which is on our deeds, does the leasehold cover this driveway too? Or will that be freehold to ourselves, and in turn we can do whatever we wish on that ground?

They are threatening to go to the solicitors ‘as they own our garage’ and we are trying to sort out our broken car (no drills, no machinery etc purely body work and only during daytime hours etc) . They also have an issue that we run a extension lead by over the fence was to wash the cars power washer etc. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, but let me know if you need more info. 

mrschaucer

The freehold property and the leasehold property are two separate things and the lease paperwork on the garage will state what you can and can't do there.  Your freehold property will be outlined in red on your deeds, so if the drive appears there then it is freehold and not subject to the restrictions in that lease. 
HOWEVER, there still might be covenants common to the whole estate over the freehold property which you should abide by, so you need to check all your legal paperwork for any info you can find. 

user1977

Bub1234 said:

We have a leasehold agreement that states work cannot he carried out on vehicles under the agreement. However outside of our garage we have a ‘driveway’ which is on our deeds, does the leasehold cover this driveway too?

What do you mean by "on our deeds"? Do you mean it's part of your freehold, or part of your leasehold title?

In any event, I would expect there to be conditions about what you can do with your freehold property. Didn't you get a report on title when you bought explaining all of this?

NameUnavailable

The lease for the garage almost certainly says something along the lines that the garage can only be used for storage of a vehicle and not for any other purpose (storing goods, home gym, drummers practice room etc.) which is fair enough when you consider that people live above it.

Are you actually allowed to park on the driveway or is it there just for access? There may be a covenant about not working on vehicles (or even washing them) within the estate.

If the garage is leasehold I doubt that the driveway is part of your freehold, more likely a right of way to access the garage (albeit that you may be able to park on it in practice).

All that said, if you're not creating noise/mess then it seems very petty of your neighbour to be making a fuss. I would be offering to help you as I enjoy working on cars!

Bendy_House

You need to check the terms in your deeds carefully, but I suspect the driveway will have similar restrictions to that of the garage.

The new owners do sound a bit precious about their rights, but I can certainly see it from their point of view - it is outside their house, even tho' they are a floor up. Just imagine your neighbour working on their car in your driveway.

groovychick69

omg this is the exact situation as a house i am buying - im going to make sure i check the deeds albeit im newly single so their defo wont be anyone working on cars on my driveway ;-(

AnnieB2018

Could the whole estate have a blanket ban on repairing vehicles/ storing caravans/etc?

980233

Bub1234 said:

Hi everyone,
We own our house freehold, however, our garage is leasehold as it is located under a apartment. New owners have moved in to the apartment, who are currently finding problems with most residents of the estate & now it is our turn. 

We have a leasehold agreement that states work cannot he carried out on vehicles under the agreement. However outside of our garage we have a ‘driveway’ which is on our deeds, does the leasehold cover this driveway too? Or will that be freehold to ourselves, and in turn we can do whatever we wish on that ground?

They are threatening to go to the solicitors ‘as they own our garage’ and we are trying to sort out our broken car (no drills, no machinery etc purely body work and only during daytime hours etc) . They also have an issue that we run a extension lead by over the fence was to wash the cars power washer etc. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, but let me know if you need more info. 

These owners will have a fun time selling their apartment with their 'threaten with solicitor' attitude very quickly.

Bub1234

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your comments. I have dug out the paperwork this morning and the lease for the garage does advise you cannot maintain vehicles in there - which is fine as we do not do anything inside the garage - it is purely storage.
 Our numbered parking spaces outside of the garage are on our deeds as part of our freehold (fully marked out in red too). I have also checked the ‘rules’ of the estate and it does say that on our own property we can maintain cars (changing tyres, oil etc). 

The car will be fixed in the next few weeks, so we shall continue to sort that and hope that the new neighbours appreciate the fact that it isn’t going to be a regular occurrence. 

Needless to say he is off the Christmas brownie drop off list and we will not be offering to wash their car for them, like we do with our other neighbours! 

Thanks again! 

diego_94

They are just trying to flex their muscles a little. You have the documentation to prove that you are able to work on cars on your drive, so if they say anything, just politely ignore and carry on with what you are doing. On the other hand though, remain doing what you are doing, and try to be considerate of noise etc when working on the car.

seems that they don't realise what it is like to own a coach house! 

Bendy_House

Bub1234 said:

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your comments. I have dug out the paperwork this morning and the lease for the garage does advise you cannot maintain vehicles in there - which is fine as we do not do anything inside the garage - it is purely storage.
 Our numbered parking spaces outside of the garage are on our deeds as part of our freehold (fully marked out in red too). I have also checked the ‘rules’ of the estate and it does say that on our own property we can maintain cars (changing tyres, oil etc). 

Wow! Such detail! That is great, and I didn't expect that :-)

Magnanimous as always; print out that section, and - no smirking, now... - "I understand why you may have been concerned, but here's proof that we are doing nothing wrong." Optional; "...and please be assured we have no intention of taking the mick with carrying out excessive repairs to our car on our driveway...".