Shared Driveway AIBU

[PerryCombover]

Don't wanna drip so here is the saga

Neighbour whom I share a driveway with told me to use the driveway and keep my car beside the house when I moved in.
Her reasons were that she lived on her own and didn't have a car and at the time I had two toddlers and was heavily preggo. We also live on a main road.
I was very grateful.

We are v good to live next door to wrt noise, cleanliness etc..there have been no complaints. Except.. that the neighbours daughter decided to have a series of rants at me about abusing her mother and the driveway being shared etc.
I was clear that her mother had made the suggestion and I was very grateful.

Wind on a year and the neighbour has asked that I park my car on the footpath outside the house. She has examined the deeds and would like the driveway to be empty. I think but agree to do so as long as I can offload the kids and then move the car.
She then comes back to me and suggests that I simply move the car to the bottom of the driveway as it will be safer for us all.
Lovely, everyone is happy or so I think.

Today neighbour has come back and said although she understands it will be difficult she doesn't want me to offload children in driveway or park at the bottom of driveway

Better that we agree simply to use the driveway to walk up.

Even though I know I will prevent my neighbour from parking her non existent car in our shared driveway I think I'm gonna park at the bottom on my half, AIBU

Thanks for that..sounds about right in terms of coal lorry

i think I'll drop the kids off and then move the car until we can check the deeds

If it is meant to be empty I would query her garden and wall then. She's making life difficult for you why not do the same back?

Slightly, I like your style. We are in a similar position up to a point. We have a shared drive exactly the width of one car leading up to our front doors and then beyond that the garages in between our semis, where it fans out to allow parking. Years ago we got fed up trying to maintain our 50 foot front 2 level garden and so paved it all, we now have the lower part of it for parking as well. But on the other side, they chose to keep their garden. They don't have a car so don't use their garage except for storage, and we can't fit our current car in our garage so we just use it to store bikes etc. So now they reckon the drive is theirs, as we have a nice paved bit at the front to park on and we don't use the garage.

Sometimes they invite their friends to park in the drive, meaning there is no access on foot to either house. But that's ok, as we, and they too, can walk through our nice paved front garden. And sometimes their friends aren't very good at driving up the narrow drive, but that's ok, as they can use our nice paved front garden for a bit of extra manouvering room. If we so much as leave a toy or a gardening tool on the drive, they move it. They glare at us if we walk up the drive to our front door (after all, we have a nice paved front garden to walk through, tsk) and they smile indulgently at any suggestion we should get the drive repaid and split the cost - we're silly, must be confused, as we have a nice paved bit to walk and park on.

I feel I am rambling now ... anyway, this would seem to be an ideal solution for the OP's neighbour and her daughter, pave over their front garden and there's loads of space for everyone. A nice, paved bit ....!!

Yes I reckon Maryz is onto something as well there - it leads to nothing, there are no garages, so just take your side!!

please come back and tell us what you find when you see the deeds

thanks maryz and everyone for your contribution
you[ve been brilliant

Access includes deliveries and Access to an (imaginary) garage. It is a right of access so of course you can use it for this. Parking is a different issue and it prevents Access.

The poster up thread who suggested your neighbour's new garden boundary may be wrong has a point, depending on what the deeds say, she could be preventing Access.

If you're still reading OP ...

My friend had EXACTLY the situation you are describing: a strip between the houses leading from the rooad to a dead end, front doors opening on the strip. Strip not wide enough for 2 cars side by side. Yes?

During the dispute she found out (sorry to worry you) that in this case the deeds showed the neighbour in fact owned the whole strip and when my friend had purchased the house her solicitor had neglected to bring this up and warn her.

So ... OP if you can park in your front garden do so. None of the neighbour's business. If that means crossing some part of the 'drive/strip' to do so - fine. If parking in your front garden leaves part of your car sticking partly into the 'drive/strip' - be wary.

Check your deeds, and good luck :)