Neighbours blocking shared alleyway - what can I do?

[ParkingTrouble123]

We live in the middle of a row of about 10 terraced houses.

Parking is a nightmare round here. The road is a busy main road so there is often nowhere to park out front. As a result, several of the houses in our row, including ours - have turned half of their back gardens into a driveway, accessible via a shared lane running along the backs of the houses, which opens out at both ends onto the side roads.

3 of our neighbours (2 on left and 1 on right), who have NOT put a driveway in their garden, frequently park in the lane, sometimes overnight. When one of them does it, it’s not a problem (well, it’s annoying as it means we have to reverse the whole way out, but we can get out). But a few of times a week we’ll be blocked in on both sides.
Most of time when we’re blocked in we don’t actually need to get out, so it’s only started to be an issue in the last month.

Most of the times we’ve been blocked when we’ve wanted to get out, ONE of the houses will answer the door and move their car, but there’ve been a few occasions where the first house we’ve knocked on hasn’t answered so we’ve had to go to the other one (adding 10 minutes to our journey). Then, last week, my husband needed to drive to work due to delays on the train line, and was knocking on both doors for 20 minutes (at half 6 in morning) until in the end he had no choice but to get the train to work because NEITHER of them answered the door!!!

At that point we left a note saying please don’t block us in, you’ve made us late for work, knocked on your door and no answer. For 4 days it seemed to have worked, until yesterday we awoke to find the lane blocked on both sides again!!!

Obviously we’re going to have to talk to them properly, but my question is, say one day we really need to get out and they’re blocking us and not answering the door, is there anything we can do ourselves (legally) to get it moved? Since it’s a private lane and not a public highway I believe the police wouldn’t get involved (I BELIEVE it is shared between all the houses but I’m not sure as we rent). Is there anyone else we could call? Or anything else we can do?

I would contact your landlord and explain the issue to them. See what they say first

What Landlord? I don't think the OP mentioned a Landlord.

I used to live in a set up like this where most of the houses were owner occupied. The OP's neighbours are blocking access for emergency vehicles. Would the Police deal with this? Or the Fire Service - they used to drive around places like this just checking they could get through I don't know if they still do this.

Apologies. She says at the end she rents but the others might not be rented or might have a different Landlord.

Yes, I rent although I believe the other houses are owner-occupied.

What could our landlord do in this case..?

It is a legal offence to block a highway. The law was changed a few months ago to increase the penalty to a criminal one.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/66/part/IX/crossheading/obstruction-of-highways-and-streets

Your road as it is not gated at last once a year is probably deemed to be a highway for the purposes of the legislation. Even if it is privately owned.

https://www.planninggeek.co.uk/planning/glossary/h/highway/

I'd make it clear that if it continues you'll have no option but to call the police next time.

Are the cars parked in the middle of the lane, or to the side and you still can't pass?

This may not resolve it or even be an option with modern cars. As a child there was a car oddly parked. My father gently pushed down on the boot and slowly bounced the back of the car out of the way! If nothing else, trying the door handle or bouncing it might set the car alarm off and hopefully the owner would come to investigate.

It might be easier to have the police contact then than have to give them the bad news yourselves

I BELIEVE it is shared between all the houses but I’m not sure as we rent

you need to find out for sure. You can get a copy of the Land Registry entry yourself.

We have a problem with people parking across our drive. I have found through bitter experience that the only way to stop them is to tell ask them to move every single time they do it whether you are going out or not. Sometimes I drive round the block when they move, more often than not I just go back indoors. I gave up saying please or thank you many years ago because the nicer you are the more they will do it.

Your landlord won’t want to have to get a new tenant through this issue and they will also possibly have the deeds to show what is owned. I would certainly tell them this is a real issue for you.

Maybe park your car at the very end of lane yourself, the exit end so you can get out easily. Asking them nicey has not worked. I'd stand and knock and knock loudly until they bloody answered. They are CF.

@SM4713 the lane is the width of a car so however they park, they block us from getting through.

@caringcarer I am very tempted to do that if they keep this up. I also thought I might invest in an air horn or something to poke through their letterbox to wake them up next time they can’t hear us knocking at 6:30 am...

@ParkingTrouble123 the first step is to establish if their is a Right of Way over the shared path - very likely.

Order a copy of the Filed Plan and Register for your property - freehold not just your leasehold. https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-property-and-land/copies-of-deeds

You can then send a letter to all 10 properties enclosing a copy of the plan and register politely pointing out that all the properties have a ROW and no one should be parking cars.

If you can get all the other owners who have parking in their gardens and are also being inconvenienced to sign. There is power in numbers.

If this doesn’t see the parking stopping escalate to your Landlord.

Could you ask them to park next to each other so you are not trapped between them? This would stop it escalating, best to start off with a solution, not a complaint and threats of legal action

Does anyone have the right to park in the lane? It sounds unlikely.

How? The lane is only one car wide.

If you lean on the horn at 6.30 am I bet you'd get some of your neighbours' attention!

Is it an access lane? There are terraced houses near to me who have an access lane at the back where there are garages, entry to back gardens and emergency services and it's not for parking vehicles.

I could be wrong but it sounds like they’re just doing what you are - parking in the lane - but unfortunately due to where your houses are, you’re getting blocked in?
if so - surely it’s no one parks there or it’s unfair? Don’t know about legally but they’ll have the same rights as you I’d think unless land registry proves someone owns the land.

Why can't you just park at one end of the lane, so that you are never blocked in?

The OP is not parking in the lane. They have converted half the back garden into a parking area, as have several neighbours. However some neighbours who haven't done so park in the lane. This prevents those who park in their back gardens driving out of the lane.

Ahh sorry - I wasn’t sure if I’d read it all correctly.

The OP can park off the lane on their back garden drive, the two cars that park on the lane park next to each other.

Is your 'driveway' an official drive, though? Surely they don't have to respect a driveway that is actually a back garden?

Like, there are people round here who don't pay to have the kerb dropped and just drive onto their gardens to park. I wouldn't care about blocking them in since it's not a driveway anyway.