Neighbour blocked shared drive deliberately, AIBU or are they?

Yes.....but it was cross posted and then I was unable to edit to say "oops cross posted" 😂

Well he’s shot himself in the foot now hasn’t he, as you’ll be parking all the time in front of your garage!

I’d be doing that no matter how inconvenient it is for me. Principles are worth fighting for…

Legally the sellers should have disclosed their issues with said neighbour.

I would issue the neighbour with a bill and remind them of the legalities of the situation.

I'd be politely chapping on their door & then asking them 'wtf they're playing at'
We also had a house with shared driveway, never had an issue with our neighbours 😀

What a twat. You should knock on his door, get the photo out and ask him”Why did you do this?”

I’d leave the rubbish there for him to look at every day.

God, I hate these sorts of neighbours. How can he think he owns the whole drive. Why would he do this? As a pp says, maybe he thinks he does own the whole drive.

Selfish git!

we had 2 years of hell with a neighbour over a shared drive that only resolved when the police told her they were going to prosecute her under the prevention of harassment act. She moved after that. She believed that because her house effectively owned the easement that she could prevent me and another neighbour accessing our properties. It started with her blocking access similar to what you’ve described and descended into her digging up part of our drives and trees, letting my tyres down and blocking us in repeatedly. We tried to resolve but she was utterly unhinged so the police were involved. I’d ask nicely once and then start keeping a diary. Who owns the easement?

Are they retired? He sounds like he has little else to be at than being an ass. Time to reclaim the drive. Maybe get a little trailer to leave in front of your garage..the way you won't get blocked in by him at any point. Start stopping on the shared bit to unload groceries. Nothing nefarious, just annoying to him.

I would wait until you are back, knock on their door and ask why they obstructed access to your shared drive.

Tell them they cost you money and it is not acceptable to block access.

Hopefully the Deeds have a line to this affect?

I would tell them that you have been giving them a bit of a leeway but would now like to establish and stick to the legal boundary.

Any more fuckries: invest in a Solicitors Letter Before Action. Equip Solicitor with all the info, Deeds etc to keep costs as low as possible

Hi op Did the previous owners let you know they had issues with them prior to you buying the house? As for the ring bell if it is illegal then surely most people will be affected lots of houses face other houses. Just get a cctv cameras facing your property and drive way you are entitled to protect your home. You do have very unreasonable neighbours. I wouldn’t even give them courtesy to acknowledge them tbh. They are very rude and obnoxious and entitled people no wonder the wife never speaks she’s either embarrassed by him or terrified of him.

Omg please park there! And wait for him to knock on your door. Say oh but that’s what you did the other day so thought it was ok? ETA if you park on the street usually anyway you don’t lose anything.

I wouldn't be stressing myself out to sort anything in any rush now - if the wind blows some of the rubbish into their garden, tough tits. Time to start playing them at their own game and blocking them on the shared drive. If they start complaining I'd follow the pp who advised talking to them as if they are stupid.

'I'm confused Greg. Until yesterday I thought that it wouldn't be fair for one of us to block the shared drive so the other house couldn't access their own garage. But when our rubbish collectors came yesterday, that's what you did. So I assume that's how you wanted to do it going forward?"

Surely they can't be in the right about the ring doorbell as that would mean everybody in all streets with buildings both sides of the road would be infringing on them - it's impossible to have them installed so that they only show your door and nothing beyond that as the whole point of them is they face outwards, so obviously they will show the doors of the house/s directly opposite as well?

I've have a similar issue and just wanted to sympathise.

It started on the day I collected my keys back in 2017 (my first house) with my Mum and Dad and when we drove there the bloke next door was blocking the shared access to my driveway and garage with his massive great works van.

I asked him several times not to do it. I eventually checked with a solictor what the legal status of that piece of land is and it is 100% clear in the deeds and covenants that nobody is allowed to park there and block access. But anyway - there's nothing I can really do about it.

It was eating away inside me and making me so stressed and unhappy for years that I've just accepted it now. That sadly meant I had to get rid of my car but it has taken away all the stress.

Amazing, even better than my idea! Do it OP.

Don’t move it! I would send a letter reminding him of shared drive access and telling him X date is when you require access to the drive for removal of rubbish. And I would park my car outside my garage. Even better if you have a car (family member?!) you can leave there for a while…

Theÿ say there's always one asrehole neighbour.

I don't know who it is down my road, because they all seem very pleasant.

😂

Great - so you have photographic proof that he purposely blocked access to your garage where the rubbish was. I’d copy it, give it to a solicitor and get them to write a letter to the neighbours, saying you’ll be taking them to court to claim back the money you wasted on the rubbish collection from them, and yes, here’s proof that you a) went out and moved your car to block the shared driveway when politely asked by the rubbish man; and b) purposely parked it in such a way that the rubbish couldn’t be carried past it.

And FGS park your car in front of your garage! I’d paint a line between them or similar personally.

I wouldn’t move the rubbish back to your garden I’d put it at end of shared drive ‘waiting to be collected’ if they call round as they can’t get on drive say it’s there because they wouldn’t move car off shared drive to allow men to pick up at your garage and so it needs to be collected from the bottom.

Well Tish, perfect, love it
Go with this op and let us know how you get on

I can feel my blood boiling on your behalf. What is wrong with people?

Last week a woman driver indicating left to pull out reversed instead almost hitting me and my dog.

As she opened the car door and I drew level I politely said we were behind you then as you reversed. She looked shocked and we carried on. A minute later she was running after me in the street shouting at the top of her voice how dare I speak to her like that and I was an F C. I'm afraid I burst out laughing.

I was wondering that. Surely you have to declare any neighbour disputes.

We’ve had arguments over our neighbours’ drive (we have right of way) and our parking space (which they have no claim to) for over 20 years! Original neighbour built over his parking space, used ours when he needed room for his truck and told buyer she was fine to use ours too. We soon put paid to that so he had to come back and try to make space. She wouldn’t take hers park on ours from time to time, especially when she had guests, and told a friend of mine not to park there (despite him saying he was visiting me!).

Last year she ambushed my landlord and got him to split the bill for resurfacing the drive, and pay extra for our parking space there despite her and her other neighbour including their spaces in the original cost. Upshot is that our space looks more like it belongs to them so more fights with their guests.

If I win the lottery I’m buying this house, building another entrance and building a high wall around the boundary.

I have a shared driveway with my next door neighbour. I don't own the driveway, they do but I have unlimited access across it, so they cannot block me by parking on the shared part and getting to the parking space outside my garage. I would have thought the same applies in your situation, check your deeds. Perhaps because the driveway is assigned to their house, they think they can do what they wish. That's not the case but perhaps they don't understand what access across their property meant when they moved in.

I wouldn’t have bought with a shared drive but you are stuck with it unless you move and you need to declare any neighbour disputes.
I think you have been too soft eg they are parking blocking your garage so you park on road wtf. Tell them to move across each and every time.
Blocking drive. I’d go round and ask why they stopped your tradesman accessing it will cost £x to come back are they going to pay. Remind them it’s a shared access.