Neighbour blocked shared drive deliberately, AIBU or are they?

by law, the person who sold you the property had to declare any issues within the past 5 years. its strikes me that they didnt and therefore you have to take this up with your solicitor and with them. its despicable of them really, they knew his behaviour would put you off so dumped and ran.

as far as a camera is concerned install cctv rather than a ring doorbell because that way you can angle it so as not to disturb his peace.

but you really must, starting today get your car onto that drive and either make him move over or make him to knock for you to move.

i have 20 years experience dealing with neighbour nuisance. this is how it starts. it then escalates and you will want to move. so dont let it.

Leave the rubbish where it is. It was there choice to make it impossible for it to be collected. You could look into getting a camera which doesn't cover their front door.

Take this up with your solicitor if it was not declared at the time of purchase. This clause is vital on purchase documents and you could, in these circumstances, have a very good claim against the person you bought from.

If there have been previous disputes which have escalated shouldn’t the previous owner have disclosed them on the conveyancing forms ?

There is no absolute definition of a "dispute" though. If it's a minor disagreement (such as neighbour asks for doorbell to be taken down, neighbour agrees) or a one-off like a noisy party that doesn't have to be disclosed.

The stuff about the scaffolding though, or any official involvement from legal representation/police etc. does.

This. You should have spoken to him about the driveway as soon as you moved in. Absolutely no way would I park on the road when I have paid for my own driveway!

Remind him the shared drive is part of the property you purchased and you will pursue the matter legally if he continues to behave in this way. Follow through with a solicitor's letter if he ignores you.

OP in the nicest possibly way, grow a pair. Get the cheeky fuckers told, I’d be pulling in and out of that garage multiple times a day until they get the picture and get the ring doorbell up, let them take it up with a solicitor if their bothered. Sometimes you’ve got to react to cunt with cunt unfortunately.

I would do one of two things (after sending a letter).

1. If he was blocking my side of the drive I would just park behind him - blocking him in so he had to come and ask you to move it
2. Knock and ask him to move his car so you can get yours on the drive.

I’d also be leaving the shed panels out too hopefully they end up through his windscreen when this storm hits, karmaaa

Ask them why they moved the car and blocked the rubbish clearance before you put anything in writing. You may not get the truth but you will be better able to address the issue if you know more about their motivation.

Just be aware once you start sending solicitors' letters you would probably have to declare a dispute when you come to sell. It's possible the previous owners avoided having to declare it by not doing anything formal. Formal might be the correct way forward but weigh it up before you proceed. And I think letting them feel they are "win'" territory by parking at the bottom is probably not helping unfortunately.

And in future you join the hordes of people who won't touch shared driveway homes with a bargepole.

Can you mount the doorbell sideways so it captures down the drive instead?

I'd be livid about the whole situation btw. But I'd also be wary about having to live next door to such unreasonable people.

Again, get legal advice.
Their behaviour is vexatious, and their refusal to allow a video doorbell is to conceal this.
Put a discreet camera immediately in your windows upstairs and downstairs, with a wide range. They are inexpensive.

Let THEM take you to court over it.
I think their behaviour definitely warrants legal advice and recording.
Take a picture of your letter and of you putting it through their letterbox. Or get recorded delivery.

They are used to their own way.
Time to push back calmly but hard.

How on earth have you managed to make this the OP’s fault.

THIS

With bells on.

What a nightmare situation, totally understand wanting to play nice and not fan any flames.

However you are dealing with loons so quite frankly so needs must.

Firstly, CHECK THE DEEDS. Get a printed copy with clear markings showing your property boundaries and shared areas. Photocopy it.

Pop over with said deeds in nice file. Big, winning, slightly patronising smile. Speak as though addressing a toddler; nice, clear, simple words. Slightly louder than necessary if possible.

“Hi Derek, thought I’d pop over to see you to clear things up after the rubbish man debacle. Here are a copy of our deeds, which is like an official legal drawing of our houses and land. Can you see those lines marked on it? Those lines show where YOUR house is, and where MY house is. So those lines mean that we can put things on our side of the lines, and you can put things on your side. Do you see? So, if I were to put my car on your bit, that would be really NOT allowed, and against the law. So that’s why we don’t do it isn’t it? Because it’s not allowed. And then some bits we SHARE. Like the driveway up. Cos otherwise we’d have to fly our cars OVER the top if it was yours or mine which would be ridiculous. So to make it easier, and not have to fly, we can BOTH use those shared bits. Is all this making sense now? I do hope so, isn’t it all so much clearer when there’s a nice drawing to look at? No no no, I made THIS copy for you to keep at your house Derek, just in case anyone forgets where those lines are. And on the back is the email address of our solicitor in case you need any more information. He knows A LOT about this sort of thing"

Regarding the camera, forget a Ring doorbell as it will point at their house. Get a regular motion sensor security camera that records, and mount it on the far corner of your house (nearest the garage) half way up, sticking out into the drive enough to angle at 90 degrees so that it records across the front of your house and down the drive, but not their house.

Good luck!

OP I have voted you are not unreasonable, but wonder whether a chat beforehand with neighbours to let them know what you were planning would have been advisable. I get on well with my neighbours but always let them know if I am planning something on my side e.g. resurface of drive this year and cutting down tree branches by their fence. Also, you should perhaps have arranged the removal when someone was at home. Sadly, you will have to talk to them now.

i live in a similar setup only its 3 houses who share the access....luckily my neighbours are lovely and if we do need to block the access, we just say so BUT given that the narrow part of the drive is access only, its seems likely that your neighbour is within his rights to say no to the rubbish man pulling up the drive unless he was only going to use it for access and would fit at the front of your garage to load his van/lorry. Not saying he should have done it, only that he might be entitled to...sorry.

It can be stressful. Both my neighbours are lovely now but a previous neighbour was unwell and her older teenage children used to run riot with their friends. It wasn't unusual to wake up in the morning to find the whole area in front of all the house blocked with cars and have to knock the door and require them to be moved so we could get out to go to work. While my current neighbours are lovely, I don't think I'd ever have a shared access again...which is no help to you of course.

The mistake you made was not saying anything right at the beginning and allowing them to get away with it.

I live opposite two houses with an almost identical setup. The couple living there have 4 cars (despite being able to only park 1 in front of their own garage). They've spent years getting away with parking lots of cars on the shared driveway - and always telling various neighbours who lived next door that 'they hoped it was ok, just tell us if it's in the way and we'll move them ' - making the poor neighbour feel like an arse for asking, so they never did. Until the latest neighbour moved in and installed an electric charging point outside their garage, meaning they need to park there every day. This has absolutely outraged the CF couple who see this as their own private driveway...it's been fun watching it unfold...

I imagine that's what's happened with you, no doubt they've done this shit for years!

I’m learning that shared access is something I won’t do again, we have shared access for a strip of 4 houses, next door are territorial and encroachy at the same time.
They told us in no uncertain terms to keep our things on our side, yet they were happy to leave their visitors parked across our space and asked if I was ‘going out’ and told me I was ‘making a scene’ when I reminded her that she needs to also keep her things on her side.
Don’t tolerate them parking over into your space! Ours park on the shared access now right up to the dividing line to prove a point, if I hadn’t challenged them when they parked across our space then they deffo would have interpreted that as their right 🙄

I would try to approach them civily to try to resolve the situation. If that fails you could refer the matter to mediation but they would not be forced to participate. As I understand it, you are still able to install a ring doorbell, it's better if it doesn't capture their property but if it does then you have to comply with the rules laid out on the ICO website.

Someone will be along to collect it is very different to saying some workmen are coming in a van, they’ll need access to collect the rubbish.

Why couldn’t you just arrange it for when you were there?

Personally I wouldn’t put anything in writing if you might want to sell at some point as that’s a dispute.

Might well come to that but best avoided, have a chat first.

And fgs start using your garage and parking area, no more off road parking.

You need to park at your garage, if they block the way park as close as possible until they get the message.You're being too cooperative.

You need to crack down on them parking too far over or it will become harder and harder for you to make use of your right of accesss. Dont pander to them by parking on the street