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?

I cant say I've ever heard of it being trouble, and I live on a 1930's estate (and have done for over 50 years) where every house has shared drive, thousands and thousands of houses.

I think I’d be much more wary if the vendors were the neighbours. If they’re arseholes about any part of the process (including the agreement to share the drive) tgrn you have to live next to them (and share a drive) after the sale goes through.

SecondaryConfusion the house has been there for years but has recently been renovated. That's the appeal. Following the majority opinion I'm ready to walk away (and not even view as it would make it harder). Just need to get DH on the same page.

I wouldn't do it under the circumstances you describe.

We have a shared drive but there is enough room for us all to park without any one getting in anyone else's way.

Best avoided I think. It's a house with no parking basically which happens sometimes. Period artisan cottages along a cobbled street for example. So people can live in a house with no parking. But you've got two cars.

I have no car and would happily rent out my space if somebody knocked on my door and asked. Not sure I'd be bothered looking but maybe cast an eye about and see if there's a house with no car in its space...........?

Ten Foot and Barge Pole spring to mind. We had a shared drive in our previous house and, although it was fine most of the time, sometimes it was a nightmare. I used to stress about it all the time. One of the main requirements for our next house was NOT a shared drive. We don't have one now, and it's bliss.

Unfortunately the parking agreement is watertight and part of the deal. The house has been on the market for some time.

^The parking agreement is the reason why the house isn’t selling.

I would run for the hills

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.

We do too, and we've never had problems. But I think the OP's issue is that's there's only really space for 3 cars to park, and most people now have 2 cars per household.

It does sound like the same house discussed a few weeks ago. Run for the hills.

We have shared access (three houses) but allocated spaces (NOT the spaces on the deeds, but it works). Been here three and a half years and I’ve once had to ask a neighbour’s visitor to move (he arrived to pick her up just as I needed to leave) and once had to squeeze past some knob of a workman who parked on the actual access. A situation where I was going to repeatedly need to move my car or ask others to do so though - no.

when you says it's watertight could you please explain

Not a chance in hell, keep looking !

A shared drive where both neighbours use the drive to access their own parking spaces but don't park on the shared driveway can be ok and wouldn't rule a house out for me.

But that doesn't sound like it's the case here, it sounds more like the parking is actually shared?

lostmyfeckingkeysagain I only know the parking deal is watertight from the EA but don't know the details. That coupled with the length of time sat on the market makes me think its true. If I were the vendor I'd do what I could to remove a red flag.

Avoid!

I live in a house with a shared drive. Will never do it again. Current neighbour ok. previous one gave me panic attacks

Why would anyone buy a house where they could only use 1/3 of their own drive?!

What kind of idiot thinks they'll sell a house with that clause?

The previous house thread it was in the deeds on both sides that the neighbours could park there.

dont
we shared with a neighbour. they were lovely. never had an issue either way cos we were all sensible nice people. we had no problem selling and handpicked who we sold to to similar sensible people.
we split the costs of maintenance equally and agreed never to block the shared part. we liaised about xmas and holidays to maximise the space available.
but i always worried about them moving and when we looked for a new house we ruled out ant shared driveways.

I feel a bit nosy asking this but if it wouldn't be too outing have you got a link we could see please OP? Then we would be able to decide.

We share a drive but has room for 4 cars side by side so it been an issue. My neighbour lives on her own so is happy for a visitor to park on her side if needed. I accept that may change if we got new neighbours but we’ll still have 2 spaces.

Should have said it’s not been an issue.

As others have mentioned, this sounds like the identical house from a thread posted a couple of weeks ago.

No way in Hell would be my advice!

Let alone all the massive issues I can envisage happening in the future, where are you going to park your second car if there is no on street parking and neighbours use 2 of your 3 driveway spaces? 🤔

The house has been on the market for some time

And will no doubt be for sale for a lot longer If the sellers have been foolish enough to set this in stone then that's their lookout, but they can hardly expect many others to walk into a bear trap like this

We share a drive with next door neighbours, one space per house, and it's totally fine - because we have one bar a few they don't have a car at all.

But in your situation, with two cars and basically one space that's yours, I wouldn't touch it.