To ask neighbour to stop parking on shared access driveway?

[Elsiebear90]

So there is a shared access driveway in between our house and our next door neighbour’s, it leads to some garages at the back of our houses which neither of us to park cars in and we just use them as storage units. Since we moved in our neighbours frequently park their visitors cars on the shared driveway and basically use it as an extra parking space, this has never been much of an issue to us as like I said we don’t use the garage in our garden.

As such we very infrequently sometimes also use the shared driveway for the same reason (we might use it a few times a month where as they use it multiple times a week), however, the last two times we did this our neighbours have complained to us and asked us to move our car as they want to use it.

First time their brother came round and was quite rude and complained he wanted to park his car further down the drive near the garage to do work on it. We apologised repeatedly and offered to move it and he just went on and on about it. The next time my wife parked my car on it briefly to get her car off the drive and the neighbour came out and asked how long it was going to be on there and could we move it asap.

I was happy for us both to use it as overflow parking since we both don’t use it to access our garages, but they seem to be under the impression they have the right to use it whenever they want and we don’t, so I would like to stick to the rules and neither of us park on it at all, as I’m feeling the situation has become unbalanced. Would I be unreasonable to ask this?

Have you asked them why they think it's ok to park on it?

Are there just garages? Ours leads to garages, but we also each have space to park one car in front of the garages.

None of us park in the shared access unless its extremely briefly while we wait for a roadside space to clear when the parking spaces are occupied.

Either way, you're not unreasonable, its not a parking space, its access and shouldn't be parked on.

Tell the cheeky buggers to sling their hook.

Next time they park there go and do the same and ask them to move.

It totally depends on the house deeds. You may actually find they do infant own it and you just have access. I find people rarely pick an argument like this unless they're sure of their legal right.

Infact*

I need a diagram.

Why didn't you say that to them the first time they asked you to move? There should be one rule for all

It’s just garages, there’s no room to park a car in front of the garage without blocking the shared access for both houses as it’s very tight. What annoyed me the most about the brother coming to complain was he doesn’t even live here and he is the one that parks repeatedly on the shared access way all day when he visits multiple times a week.

We have the deeds, it’s shared between both houses, no one owns it outright.

You should ask them to move it, every single time (and never park there yourself). If this continues, with them parking there with no opposition from you and you not parking there or moving whenever asked to then, over time, it could create a right for that property to park in that space. Ask them to move their car every single time. What exactly do the deeds say on this? Is parking explicitly prohibited or is it simply that, by parking there, the parked car blocks access to the garages?

The deeds say no one should park on it as it blocks access to the garages, we were happy for them to do it initially as we could see the benefit of us both having an extra space as the road is quite busy and full of cars, but they use it much more than we do and as I said the last few times they’ve seemed to insinuate they have more of a right to use it than us and asked us to move our car or complained because they wanted use it and couldn’t.

I think they think because sometimes they park a car further down the shared drive close to their garage to do work on it (still blocking access to our garage and breaching the terms of the deeds) that this gives them the right to ask us to move, but by doing this they’re still blocking the shared drive.

It’s just causing problems now and I think the fairest thing is for us either both to use on a first come first served basis (as I believed we were) or neither of us use it. As they use it more often and seem to feel entitled to I would prefer to second option, but don’t want to cause a dispute as we will probably sell in a few years.

You could the neighbours that the deeds show you both have equal right to share the driveway FOR ACCESS to the garages, not for parking on. As convenient as it may be for occasional parking for you, I think this needs reinforcing and no-one should park there.

Of course, your neighbour will still continue to park there like they own it as an actual parking space, and then you'll have to decide whether or not to reinforce correct use of the driveway via some kind of legal action, but you don't want to do that in case you want to sell in a few years and are then legally bound to inform any buyers of issues with your neighbour.

If I were you, I'd continue to use the shared access as my occasional parking space, too, and not be bullied into moving my car on the much less regular occasions that I park there than the neighbours - just continually reminding them that if they don't want me to park there, then they won't be able to park there either if any sort of legal remedy is enacted because it's not meant for parking on anyway.

They'd have to get used to not being able to use it exclusively, and I'd have to get used to them having a whine and a moan at me when I did use it.

You could REMIND the neighbours - is the word missing in my reply above!

I'd very strongly recommend you not imply that you're ok with any kind of "first come first served basis" - especially when you know from their conduct that they're hoping for sole control of the parking space and you know they work on cars. You should, in order to protect your rights, insist that they do not use the space for parking, as per the deeds. And, I'd also ask them not to leave a car further down blocking your access unless they're actively working on it (i.e. not left there overnight) - it can go in their garage, not blocking your access on a shared space.

You don't want to end up in a position where they try to assert that they have a right to do this because you've allowed them to do it for so long.

Are you sure they don't own it? We own our driveway but our neighbours have shared access to go through a pedestrian gate in it so they have access to their back garden that isn't through their house. We can park on the driveway as it is huge and parking cars there doesn't block their access. They cannot park there as they only have the right to use it to access their garden, not for any other purpose.

Your neighbours still can't block your access if they do own it and would have to park in such a way that you could still access your garage.

You're right, it either needs to be fair shared use or none. Can you go round and have a friendly chat about it?

We have a similar set up. Our old neighbours gave us exclusive use as he was worried about someone parking on the dropped kerb, preventing him getting to call outs. This really helped as we had small children who would have otherwise been getting out onto the road.

The next neighbours seem to think it's theirs. Ok with me, we tend to park on the road except for if a disabled relative visits. They have to be prepared that they may get blocked in every now and again and that it may take time for the car to be moved due to our guest's limitations.

I think the issue with you is that they make you feel uncomfortable when you need to use your shared drive, rather than their use for it?
I think I would present two options. Either that you need to be able to use it without being made to feel uncomfortable OR stick to what's in the deeds.

I guess before you start making ultimatums you need legal advice to figure out how you might enforce what's on the deeds if they push back? .. And think about how far you've prepared to take it.

I think you should nicely remind the neighbours that the deeds say no one is to park on the drive and then say you would like a mutually beneficial solution. Then, and this is key, ask for their ideas. People are often happy to propose the thing you want, whereas they may feel they are losing face by agreeing to something you propose.

PS. If they are then unreasonable of course that is a different story. At that point I would probably prefer to go with no parking on the drive, owing to a lack of trust, but that is not to say that you should.

Shared access driveways. Been there, done that, discovered we were living next door to neighbours from hell. We "weren't allowed to park with even a wheel touching the shared access area" but they could do whatever they liked 🙄 😒

He was a real nasty bastard, threatened me with violence. Whole catalogue of bad stuff done to us and people who bought our house after we couldn't take any more and sold up - threats of violence, threatening letters, spying on us, shouting abuse, trying to get us arrested for faked criminal damage (he did it himself).

Some people just think they own everything and have the right to do whatever they want.

@Elsiebear90 Like others who have posted, I have also gone through parking issues. I think there are a couple of steps to consider:

1 - what do you want to get out of it?

2 - to achieve this, are you prepared for there to be a breakdown in relations with your neighbour?

3 - are you prepared to play dirty? (e.g. start using the garage to park your car so you can say the access always needs to be clear)

4 - would you consider taking legal action to enforce the deed?

It sounds like your neighbour considers the shared drive exclusively theirs or is trying to create situation where that is the case. Are they aggressive or intimidating in any way? If not, I would suggest speaking to them, setting out that this is clearly creating problems and needs to be resolved amicably because their conduct and that of their guests is not fair and implies they want exclusive use of the access where that is clearly not allowed.

If they are belligerent I guess that is where you decide whether you accept things or take the fight on.

I don’t want to end up in a dispute, I just don’t want a situation whereby they can use the drive whenever they want and we can’t use it at all as the deeds say it is shared, like this morning as soon as my wife moved my car onto it to swap the cars around the neighbour came out and asked her to move it asap, it’s been three hours and they’ve not even used the drive at all.

So it seems to me they’re now being deliberately awkward to try to establish their right to use it over ours. They’re not intimidating, but her brother was yesterday, I think because we are two women they feel they can take more liberties and send over a man to intimidate us.

They have also built their wall to their front drive so that it only goes half way down to the shared drive so they use the shared driveway to drive onto their drive so they don’t have to swap their cars around which is fair enough but then they will demand we move our car straight away if it’s ever parked there so they don’t have to move their car, which feels a bit unfair. I just feel like for some reason they view the shared drive as sorry theirs and that’s what’s annoying me.

I would definitely speak to them about it. I would probably first of all go with the angle of you had no problem with them using the shared area as extra parking as it seems like a mutually beneficial arrangement but you've started to notice that every time one of your guests use it that they get annoyed and ask you to move. Tell that seems very unfair considering they themselves use the shared area far more frequently. See what they say to that and if they argue against you using it/deny that they do that all the time then say "look, I think it would just be better if neither of us block the garage access anymore and leave it at that, both our guests will have to park on the road in future"

They don’t sound like they’re going to be reasonable or share, do they! Next time they ask you to move a car I’d point out that they don’t move theirs and nobody is supposed to be parking there. I think you could easily end up with a neighbour war here.😄