AIBU to think buying a house with a shared drive is asking for trouble?

[CourtsControversy]

There is a fantastic, outstanding house for sale in a good area but I've discounted even viewing it as it has a pre-existing parking agreement with neighbours that they can park 2 cars on the drive. There are 3 parking spaces where cars can easily park, then it gets tricky. We have 2 cars so may need to shuffle around each time a neighbour wanted to park. There is no on-street parking close by and no way to modify the drive. My argument is that it's a faff for all and the neighbours would get hacked off waiting for cars to move. My DH thinks the house is worth the sacrifice. If it was your dream house, would you do it?

There was a very similar thread the other day. Wonder if it's the same house. Think that one was in a town beginning with D.

No, not asked before, I rarely post as mumsnet usually already has advice for every eventuality but I appreciate opinions on this specific humdinger.

Nope no way.

there was a thread on this exact problem and nearly exact wording a few weeks back and someone posted a link to it. Does the house have a green garage door? If it is they looked into it and walked away from the house.

Maybe try to find the thread?

Nope. Too many variables.

Also I never buy a house that will be difficult to sell.

NO WAY. It be impossible to sell re that agreement. Avoid!!!!!

Nope. I work in property law and the potential for dispute unfortunately is high and costly to sort. I'd walk away, sorry.

Okay, just done a search on 'shared drive'. The first page of results were all complaints/issues. Christ knows about the rest of many, many pages. It's terrifying! Think I'll casually start reading off some thread titles to DH...

When you say the agreement to share the drive is "part of the deal" does that mean that it's legally binding in the sense that the sellers have actually don't have the right to change the arrangement or does it mean that they still technically own the drive and could do as they please with it but will only sell to someone who is willing to keep the existing arrangement going?
If it's the latter I would contact the EA and tell them that you're very interested in the house but the shared drive is an absolute deal breaker so would they be willing to reconsider?

I'm struggling to understand how you can be legally compelled to honour an agreement between the previous owner and their neighbours to be honest. Surely once the house (and therefore the drive) is yours, it's yours and you can do what you like!

No I wouldn't consider buying it.

No avoid we have a shared drive with a twat for a neighbour who thought she’d block the bottom with her wheelie bins to make it difficult for us to get off it other morning. She had to inconvenience herself to do it! Avoid like the plague. We’ve also noticed our vendors left the box blank on forms asking if there were neighbour issues... I suspect there were ...

Don't touch with a bargepole. Shared drive = trouble.

If you have 2 cars then why would you even consider a house that basically has 1 usable space? That would get very boring very quickly.

We have a drive which has a shared entrance but branches off to large areas at the front of our own houses so there's never any need to fight over spaces. They reverse onto our bit to go out onto the road forwards and we do the same. Never had an issue in 14 years, but we do get on very well with them.

No way, parking is a fucking ball ache-wouldn't even view it.
Be interested if the vendor has had anyone at all go & look.

Think the last thread was that the neighbours actually owned both houses and were trying to sell one.

We do and it’s no problem at all. The rights are clearly defined and everyone respects them. Our neighbours are lovely.

This sounds like the same house posted about before. OP is it a house that’s been built recently using someone’s garden or a sliver of land?

If so, the shared drive is part of the planning conditions. Consensus on that thread was no way would people buy it.

Sorry, but I don’t get this. It’s either your drive or not. If they have the right to park there and it’s legal and watertight, then it’s not part of what’s for sale, is it?

After living in a flat and house that both had major parking problems, I would say no way. There is a reason it's been on the market for a while! Parking issues cause so much misery, we have plenty of parking at our current house, makes such a difference.

Haven’t we done this one before?

I think someone else posted about this horse recently but I can’t find the thread. How watertight it the agreement?

Oh dear. I wonder whether it is the same house as mentioned. I don't know about whether the vendors are also the neighbours but that would make sense as to why the agreement is watertight.

Reassuring to hear some of you share drives without issues.

But I'm not sure I'm ready for wheelie bin wars...