Neighbours and access

[Gramaphone]

I live very rurally. To get to my house it’s about a third of a mile up a narrow lane to my gateway. Our driveway is basically a track and total length is about 50m. The first half is gravel and we have parking to the side. At the end of our driveway the track continues to our only neighbour. Hers is about 40m up to her house and is mud all the way with grass in the middle.
we occasionally get tractors using the track/driveway to reach fields beyond. In summer, the mud is hard and there is no problem driving. But it’s also a bit ‘up and down’ the lowest point being just at the point between the two properties. So when it rains, water collects there and she has to drive through two muddy puddles.
She came round yesterday evening and said that our garage gutters are leaking water all over the track and making it muddy. It had been chucking down all day (storm darragh!) so yes lots of rain and the gutters were overflowing a bit. But the garage is over 30m from the start of her driveway.
She started saying that we need to get lots of hardcore or gravel to fill in the lowest part so it’s not a puddle. But we never drive on that part of the track so why should we do that?
So - aibu to not be bothered about the puddles as it doesn’t affect us or should we be paying to fill in the potholes?

What do both your house deeds say about the maintenance and upkeep of the shared driveway.,if it's jointly owned I'd split the cost of filling in the pothole, it could cause damage to vehicles or an accident.id also get the gutters cleared but the storm isn't anyone's fault.

IANAL but presumably it'll depend on who owns the land. Are you obliged to maintain it?

Yeah this.

It depends who owns it legally, if you both do then you’re both responsible for upkeep, if you each “own” your section then she is responsible for fix her bit.

That said though if there is an issue with your gutters that are contributing to this problem regularly then you do need to resolve that. However I wouldn’t take a storm as the measure of that, I imagine most people were having issues during those times!

Think we need a diagram

"...our garage gutters are leaking water all over the track and making it muddy."

How old is the garage? Has it been there for at least 20 years?

If it as least 20 years old then it is likely that you have gained the prescriptive right to have the gutters discharging water there regardless of who owns the land.

"But the garage is over 30m from the start of her driveway."

I'm a little confused by this (a diagram would help). I think that you own a 50m driveway over which your neighbour has a right of way to get to her own property. This is partly gravelled. The garage is near the part that is not gravelled.

There is then a 40m stretch beyond your driveway that is on the neighbours property?

She is now asking you to fill in a pothole on her land or yours?

If it's on her land then it's down to her to sort it out.

If it's on the part of the driveway that is on your land but she has a right of way over then it's still down to her to maintain it. You don't have to maintain it as the landowner.

However, if the water is discharging onto her property and the garage has not been there for 20 years then she may have a claim to get you to stop discharging water onto her property.

Yes depends who owns it - my parent live down a track and their house is actual the first off the track but 2 houses are further up but the important thing is that parents own the track and the 2 houses have right of way - so mum and dad did pay for gravel to even it out for 40 years and just recently got it paved at great expense

If your parents own the land that other people have a right of way over then they are not required to maintain the surface in any way at all.

It is entirely up to the people who have the right of way to maintain it if they wish.

Your parents can always choose to maintain the track but they are not required to do so.

"But we never drive on that part of the track so why should we do that?"

Agreed - tell her to fuck off and fix her end of the driveway/route that she uses.

(Caveat being whether your deeds say that both households are jointly responsible for upkeep/maintenance).