shared access, who pays?

pink_muppet

we are purchasing a house that has a shared path with the neighbour, we have no problem with this at all and have asked our solicitor to find out in detail if there have ever been any disputes over maintenance etc and everything is above board

However, my concern is that this path is adjacent to our front lawn which when we move in we want to block pave completely to use as a drive, I want to incorporate the path into this otherwise it would look daft

My biggest concern is that if this path should ever fall into disrepair, as we would be jointly responsible for its maintenance, what would I do if the neighbour refused permission to fix it? or are they legally obliged to contribute to the cost of maintaining it and how could I enforce this?

we wouldn't necessarily ask them to contribute to the cost of having it blockpaved, although I would want them to relinquish the rights of access if they refused to contribute to the maintenance of the path?

sorry for all these questions but I have never owned a property with shared access before

BTW, the neighbours can still access all areas of their land without using this path

silvercar

generally it is written into the deeds who is responsible for maintenance. Sometimes it is one party, sometimes one party is responsible for arranging maintenance but the cost is split. You can't expect someone to relinquish access rights just because you want to put down block paving.

Raggie

pink_muppet wrote: »

we I would want them to relinquish the rights of access if they refused to contribute to the maintenance of the path?

to answer your question with a question....

what maintenance do you think may be required?

If you are talking about changing a concrete path to block the only regular maint needed would be cleaning..

unless there were subsidence to the path as a result of you driving over it/or near it (assuming its to the side of the garden).. as you said you wanted to convert a lawn area for parking..

at which point why should they pay for damage or repair when it was your veihcle that caused it.. ?

unless I am missinng something here..

jonathon

if its a shared path then you cant just rip it up without asking them

takoo

Hi Pink Muppet

Are the conveyance documents silent as to who owns the land under the shared path.

When you say "block" will it result in lots and lots of weeds etc?

You may get the neighbour to join you in a formal agreement about responsiblities and payment but if the concrete path has a good life left and is maintenance free why should the neighbour pay anything to a path which may be a liability from the start?

takoo

mcdelarich

pink_muppet wrote: »

we are purchasing a house that has a shared path with the neighbour, we have no problem with this at all and have asked our solicitor to find out in detail if there have ever been any disputes over maintenance etc and everything is above board

However, my concern is that this path is adjacent to our front lawn which when we move in we want to block pave completely to use as a drive, I want to incorporate the path into this otherwise it would look daft

My biggest concern is that if this path should ever fall into disrepair, as we would be jointly responsible for its maintenance, what would I do if the neighbour refused permission to fix it? or are they legally obliged to contribute to the cost of maintaining it and how could I enforce this?

we wouldn't necessarily ask them to contribute to the cost of having it blockpaved, although I would want them to relinquish the rights of access if they refused to contribute to the maintenance of the path?

sorry for all these questions but I have never owned a property with shared access before

BTW, the neighbours can still access all areas of their land without using this path

We are also buying a house with joint access down the middle - it has been a nightmare. It has held everything up by 2-3 weeks now, vendors have had to purchase indemnity insurance to cover our backs, and it still isn't sorted! Meant to be completing on 18th - fingers crossed!!

Just wanted to say be aware incase anything crops up, it can hold it up a while.

pink_muppet

I think some of you have misunderstood me, I don't expect them to contribute to the cost of block paving it or maintaining the block paving if we had it done, but I do expect them to currently contribute to the cost of maintaining it as it currently is

My point is, if the path as it is falls into disrepair (ie starts cracking ect and needs to be redone) where do I stand if the neighbours refuse to either contribute to the cost of repairing it or refuse permission to repair it?

SquatNow

The question you need to answer, in order for us to answer the question, is who's land is it on?

If you own the land the path is on, you can do what you like provided you don't block access, and that access is safe.

If the neighbour owns the land you'll need their permission.
If the council owns the land you can't touch it.
If the delevoper owns the land you'de probably need to buy it from them.

Richard_Webster

The reality with these shared access paths is that they do not need much maintenance and I find it it is almost the norm when selling a property that if there is such a shared path nobody has ever contributed anything.

The cost of maintenance is not likely to be great and therefore it is often not worth having the argument with the neighbour about it - ask him to contribute in the future if this is really necessary but if he doesn't the cost of going to court is probably a lot more than the half the cost of the work.

Debt_Free_Chick

pink_muppet wrote: »

However, my concern is that this path is adjacent to our front lawn which when we move in we want to block pave completely to use as a drive, I want to incorporate the path into this otherwise it would look daft

Essentially, you are looking to "upgrade" the drive by blockpaving it. You can't force the other party to agree to this, unless you actually own the land.

I think you'll store up trouble for the future, even if you pay for the drive to be upgraded as you'll then be "forcing" the other party to pay their share of maintaining the blockpaved drive, rather than the existing one. So future repair bills could be higher.

As a new neighbour, it's a bit cheeky to ask the other party to (i) agree to having the drive upgraded (ii) potentially contribute to that upgrade and (iii) agree to future more costly repairs to the upgraded drive. Currently, they probably face no future costs ..... how is the drive currently constructed?

You can ask them to relinquish their rights to access, but they don't have to agree. Their rights are in the deeds to their property and can't be changed without their consent.

If the drive is theirs and you simply have a right of access over it, it's a non-starter unless you have some very well developed negotiation skills

You need to confirm who owns the land and what your deeds say about your rights, please

julesangles

my house is exacatly the same plan.
i have put a block drive in but did NOT touch the path. the path did need a couple of slabs doing, we just paid for it between us. its just the fence issue that so many people have.
if we need a new bit of fence i just ask if its ok order it then we pay half.
we also have a flying freehold ove are passage(a bit of bedroom each) which we checked out throughly before we went into the property.