We live in a semi detached house with a driveway running down the side. Our neighbour who lives in a detached house on the other side of the driveway has always allowed us sole use of the driveway as he lives alone and has a parking space in front of his house.

In the deeds the boundary line runs down the centre of the drive, so technically he owns half but as above its been ours to use.

He’s a good bloke who has decided to sell up and move. This poses a problem as we might get new neighbours who want to use it or restrict our use.

We work shifts so come and go at all times so being blocked in is a no no. The drive doesn’t give access around the back of his house as he has access on the other side.

Here’s the question. We want to ensure we continue to have sole use. What’s our options? He has indicated he may sell his share to us.

If you can, buy it. Half a drive is no drive at all if you have neighbours who might want to use it. Your new neighbours might be brilliant, but they might not. IANAS.

If you’d taken use of it without the neighbour knowing then you might have some legal claim but as the neighbour has knowingly given permission then that’s out. Buy it is one option. Not that tricky to then change the boundaries on the official register. Another is to rent it long term and get that written into the sale. TBH your neighbour would be foolish to accept unless there is a decent amount of money in it as it will impact his sale.

If you own half of it then any new neighbour can’t block it (this of course means you can’t block it either).

So do you park on it or just use it as access to parking behind the house?

The new neighbour could decide to put plant pots or something on it though, effectively making unusable as a driveway?

Just buy it.

Don’t mess about, buy it.

Do you park in the shared drive or just use it as access to a parking spot behind your house ? Either way you are not in a great position. I doubt if you will be able to buy his half of the drive easily as it will probably devalue his house more than any profit he might make on a future sale of his house a shared drive is no real use to either party as nobody can park there without using the other persons part of the drive . Your best hope might be to offer any new owner an amount of cash to rent their share of the drive asit is obviously more use to you than them . Alternatively buy a motorbike which you can park in half a drive or cycle .

Is it 2 car widths wide but one car length long or something?

You could probably arrange for both of you to have shared access rights over all of the drive rather than exclusive rights over half. But just buying it would be better if possible.

Buy the house next door, connect the two houses via a futuristic tunnel over the driveway styled on your favourite 80s sci-fi movie space station.

Shared drives are always trouble !

1 of the houses up the road has one as access to the rear.

War was declared when one of them left the car slightly too far to the left .

Have a read of your deeds. On mine there is in access servitude (this may be a Scottish thing) which is very clear that all three houses have a right of access but no one can block it at any time. There is also a shared responsibility for the maintenance of the access road.

Ownership makes no difference to these rights or responsibilities.

Buy his whole house and his drive.

If you can’t afford that, swap your car for a motorbike…..

C

Cheers folks. The drive is only for parking as we both have a fence at the end of the drive. The only access past the bottom if the drive is by foot through gates to access our gardens. As I said earlier, he also has access to his garden the other side of his house.

I’m leaning towards buying it, but we don’t have limitless cash so will have to see what the offer is.

don’t have limitless cash so will have to see what the offer is.

If you miss this opportunity your unlikely to get it again. How much is that drive access worth to you?

I regularly swear at the previous owner of my house who turned down the opportunity for a drive access to the back of the garden. It was a relatively tiny sum of money but the opportunity has passed now as the land has been developed.

You can have access rights without ownership e.g. to access my back garden I have to go down a passageway between two neighbour’s houses and then across a neighbours garden (right next to their house). I have a right of way, but no ownership. Works out fine.

I don’t think access to our garden would ever be an issue as we do own half of the drive. We want to be able to continue parking in it un hindered because of shift work and little Street parking.

I wish the previous owners bought it off the old lady who lived next door originally as she never needed it, but it’s by with now.

In situations like this, you should always ask … what would Putin do?

He’d annexe it using overwhelming military force! That’s what!

You know what you have to do….

We want to be able to continue parking in it un hindered

Yeah, that’s the bit you’re not permitted by default to do.

What access is there at the top to ‘his’ garden? Is it likely the new neighbours will want to use that?

I’ve already drawn up sass style breach tactics to occupy the house.

He has the same width as half of the drive the opposite side so good access. Only reason he would need to use the drive would be for heavy plant and materials if building an extension etc.

The most important question is if the drive you use has a legal access onto the highway via a Section 184 License? do you have a dropped kerb in front of the drive? Seems odd that a legalised drive would be put in which is across a shared boundary. if you bought it then this planning approval would need to be in place as selling your property at a later date could get messy otherwise.

Seems odd that a legalised drive would be put in which is across a shared boundary. if you bought it then this planning approval would need to be in place as selling your property at a later date could get messy otherwise.

Not unusual, although every house ive been in or seen with one had a covenant that said neither house could block it (and there was a parking space for each round the back.

We had a whole car park which was nominally divided up between the flats/shops in stripes but used as a free for all with parking on 3 sides, until one party started throwing their weight around because their strip of car park was the end wall, so claimed 1/3 of the parking for themselves. The logic that if we parked along our stripe it would block access to theirs didn’t work because the deeds say you have access across others but not the use of, so we could park 1 car on our stripe, and they could park 6 but never did, so all the rest ended up parked down the sides of the access road!

Read what the deeds say, don’t just looks to that plan – it’s possible that there is a servitude enabling you to use the drive which was established by the developer. Sole use may still be a problem though.

Before the new neighbours move in dig up their half and dump it in their garden?

I’ll get a picture up, that way it’ll be easier to see the scenario. There is a dropped kerb as initially the drive was used to park cars behind the 2 houses, but for over 20 years our house used the drive as both Houses stopped parking round the back and they reverted to gardens. Next door at the time either didn’t have a car or parked out front. We have no proof of this other than verbal agreement.

From what I know of the deeds the boundary line runs right down the middle but I can’t remember the small print. We’re meeting our solicitor this week about wills so I’ll ask her to look into it.

Short of it is – either you buy it or you strike a deal with neighbours.

Other wuse you have zero right to unrestricted access to leave your car on their propperty . Its not a drive its access to the back garden.

Could you widen your half of the driveway to make it wide enough to park on or is the bit in between the houses? You might lose some front garden but it would surely be worth it.

The space Is just wide enough for a car so can’t extend unfortunately.

So, you “come and go at all times” using a bit of your neighbours garden that’s only inches from their wall? I’d start making alternative parking arrangements.

If, as it sounds, you’ve both got right of access over it, can’t you just reinstate the parking area that you say used to exist in your back garden? They can’t then park on the drive without blocking your access, so they’ll either have to keep parking wherever the current owner does, or reinstate their own back garden parking.

Check that you’ve definitely got right of access in the deeds before doing any work, but I’d imagine that this would be your cheapest option (other than hoping that the new neighbours keep letting you park there).

In order of preference;

1. Buy it
2. Pave your front garden and park there
3. Pave your back garden and park there

As everyone says, you’ve got no firm legal right to park on the access between the houses.