neighbours!

knightstyle

We have a private drive and the final couple of meters are shared with a neighbour. He has pots on there and keeps moving them out a bit at a time to make it akward to exit our drive. The other day a pot got knocked over and broke, the neighbour says he has cctv footage of our car doing it, we both drive and neither of us remember hitting anything.
We probably did do it but he is quite aggressive and says we must pay £180 to replace it.
What should we do?

booneruk

Ask to see the CCTV! Then if you do feel like doing the generous thing, ask for a link to the pot online so you can validate the price, and then you could even think about having a conversation about how it can be kept more distant from your drive going forward.

elsien

£180 - is it gold plated or something?
The size pot that would cost that much generally speaking tends to be quite hard to knock over without noticing.

thegreenone

Definitely ask to see the footage.  Check your cars for damage because I'm sure a £180 pot (full of compost) would have, at least, caused scraping on the paintwork.  

Perhaps a polite letter saying you do not give permission for him to put his pots on your shared area and if he continues to do so, it is entirely at his own risk and you cannot be held responsible for any damage.  You will consult a solicitor for an injunction if he continues.

Abbafan1972

Yes, as a starting point ask to see the CCTV. 

elsien

thegreenone said:

Definitely ask to see the footage.  Check your cars for damage because I'm sure a £180 pot (full of compost) would have, at least, caused scraping on the paintwork.  

Perhaps a polite letter saying you do not give permission for him to put his pots on your shared area and if he continues to do so, it is entirely at his own risk and you cannot be held responsible for any damage.  You will consult a solicitor for an injunction if he continues.

I’d suggest escalating this much at this stage Is a huge overreaction. And given the costs, likelihood of success, et cetera not a route the OP would want to go down anyway. 

It tends not to be a good idea  to threaten things that there is no intention of following up on. 

otb666

I would print out the Land Registry showing the shaded access on Land Registry and highlight the keep clear at all times wording I would suggest he keeps his new pot (which I would buy for him as a gesture of goodwill) elsewhere.

elsien

I might buy him a cheap pot, but I certainly wouldn’t be replacing an allegedly 180 quid one. 

TELLIT01

The neighbour shouldn't be doing anything to obstruct the shared section of the drive.  However, if the pots are entirely on their solely owned part of the drive, and the OP has being going on there because it makes access easier it's a different matter.  There is a house not far from us where the drives run alongside each other but aren't shared.  Quite recently a row of pots appeared along the edge of one drive along the dividing line.  My suspicion is that this was done to stop the neighbour encroaching on their drive.

sammyjammy

Is it definitely shared or does one of you just have right of access to their property over it?  Evidence via CCTV and a receipt for the pot for sure!

ThisIsWeird

If their CCTV covers areas that capture you within your own effective land - like this private driveway - does the neighb have suitable 'CCTV' signage up? Cool - take some photos to show they haven't.

You say the last few metres are 'shared'? So, where do these pots sit? On this 'shared' part, or fully within their drive? How easy is it to determine this 'line'?

I am sure I saw a case recently (ie a few years ago...) where a homeowner who placed large rocks alongside their roadside verge was found liable for the damage caused to a car that had scuffed them. Although placed there to deter cars edging on to the grass verge, the owner would have had an awareness of the potential - likely - damage that could be caused if someone did. Eg, if a person cannot easily define where they should not 'go', where the road meets the home-owner's land, and stumble over obstacles placed there as a deterrent, or scuff their cars as a result, the person who placed these obstacles could very well be liable, as they 'knew what they were doing', and what the purpose of these obstacles were - to cause damage.

There's a road nearby that is too narrow to have white dividing lines, although two cars can usually squeeze past, although when a lorry comes along, one tends to slow right down and nudge the grass verge. Some homeowners have taken to placing planters on their driveway to prevent vehicles deviating in there to avoid cars coming the other way, and I'd be very interested to know just who would be liable if damage was caused to a car as a result.

Do you have LegProt on your house insurance? If you have an 'ole as a neighbour, then you should.

What to do? Nothing. The next time the neighb makes this claim for a new pot, smile and ask what the purpose of these pots were, and how precisely do they know their exact location in relation to their boundaries - most boundary lines are very hard to determine to within a foot or more going by deeds maps.

With a bigger smile, tell them that when they hire in land surveyors to try and determine the exact boundary line, if one of these pots was a quarter inch over it, you'll be sending them a repair bill. 

Oh, and ask them why they are such 'nuts.