Shared garage through shared driveway, can I knock my side down?

theonenonly

Looking to put an offer down on the property below, and I understand that the driveway is shared. The shared driveway let's you walk upto the garage as the path is too small for a car to drive through. 

What's peculiar is the fence around my entrance to the garage. The fence implies the boundary begins from the fence, and the front of the garage is still in the shared area. I've drawn an arrow to the fenced area. 

IF the garage is in the shared boundary, does that mean I will not be able to extend the back upto the front of the garage?

I'm looking to purchase a title plan (costs £7) but having issues on the gov website currently and it's 2am and I can't sleep until I've posted this thread! Lol

david29dpo

Get the title plan an take it from there.
Whats the point of a garage if you cant get to it?
I would have thought the red line on the title plan would be right down the middle so the fence is "yours" to do what you like with.
I think the fence is there just for privacy 

Flugelhorn

david29dpo said:

Get the title plan an take it from there.
Whats the point of a garage if you cant get to it?
I would have thought the red line on the title plan would be right down the middle so the fence is "yours" to do what you like with.
I think the fence is there just for privacy 

I agree - fence may have been because of a 
dog / child etc - shortest length needed to close off back garden and not get in anyone else's way. 
Garage is probably just a giant shed 

Grumpy_chap

Until the OP has the title plan, there is nothing they can do with any certainty.

It seems unusual to have the garage without a car-width drive between the two houses.  It is hard to tell from the picture, but is the drive really narrow so only for pedestrian access, or is it just "tight" for a car (combination of original width, wider cars, drainpipes etc)?

It was quite common for 1930's semis to have a shared driveway to a pair of garages and that meant the whole of the driveway (including the two triangles in front of both garages) was shared access.

Section62

theonenonly said:

Looking to put an offer down on the property below, and I understand that the driveway is shared. The shared driveway let's you walk upto the garage as the path is too small for a car to drive through. 

What's peculiar is the fence around my entrance to the garage. The fence implies the boundary begins from the fence, and the front of the garage is still in the shared area. I've drawn an arrow to the fenced area. 

IF the garage is in the shared boundary, does that mean I will not be able to extend the back upto the front of the garage?

Cars used to be a lot smaller, so it was common to have a narrow shared driveway between two houses to access garages at the rear.

You'll need to check the deeds for the property (not just the title plan) to see what the position is with regard to the neighbour's right of way.  As Grumpy_chap says, it was common for not just the driveway, but also the area in front of the garages, to have a shared right of way.  This was needed because of the need for manouvering space to get a car in and out of the garage from the narrow driveway.

Assuming the legal boundary runs along the centre of the driveway and the centre of the garages, and assuming there are shared rights over this area, then you wouldn't be able to build on it unless the neighbour (and their mortgage co if they have one) agree to the removal of the shared rights - expect to pay a fairly substantial amount of money to do this.

Some people get round the problem by only extending up to the shared area on the ground floor (e.g. your fence line), but then extend full-width at first floor level by cantilevering the first floor out above the driveway/shared area.  Again, unlikely to be a cheap way of gaining extra space.

If you wanted to get rid of the garage completely then you'll also need to find out whether the neighbour's garage is integral to yours, or would be capable of standing on its own.  It was fairly common for builders to put up what was effectively a double garage with just a thin dividing wall between the halves.

bobster2

Section62 said:

Cars used to be a lot smaller, so it was common to have a narrow shared driveway between two houses to access garages at the rear.

You'll need to check the deeds for the property (not just the title plan) to see what the position is with regard to the neighbour's right of way.  As Grumpy_chap says, it was common for not just the driveway, but also the area in front of the garages, to have a shared right of way.  This was needed because of the need for manouvering space to get a car in and out of the garage from the narrow driveway.

This.

"Shared" in this context usually means shared right of access (and maybe shared obligations to maintain) not shared ownership.

So the property boundary probably runs right up the middle of the "shared" drive with each neighbour owning their side but with a right of access over the other half (so you can't build on it).

Likely the same with the paved turning area in front of the garages - each neighbour owns their side but likely has a right of access over the other half. The deeds will show this - rights of access may be shaded on the title plan.

The diagonal fence put in by the current owner may already be in breach of a convenent (not to obstruct access). It looks like it cuts off part of the rectangle.

Teapot55

It would appear possibly that the previous owner of theonenonly’s house has already built on a small part of the rectangular shared area as bobster2 said. 

Slinky

Given that the shared drive and area up to the garages is all paved in the same paving, which is different to the paving in the OP's front garden, could it be the neighbour owns the land and the OP has the right to pass across it?