Neighbour blocked shared drive deliberately, AIBU or are they?

[WoesFromAuntFlo]

We moved into our new home around a year ago and have had nothing but weird vibes from our neighbours who we share a drive with. Our front doors face each other up a steep drive and we both have garages at the end of them, kind of backing onto our separate gardens.

We have been nothing but pleasant with them and have kind of just let them use the driveway as there isn’t a lot of room for two cars so we never really pushed it.

They have always been a bit odd. A lot of curtain twitching when we leave the house and barely looking up when we say good morning etc. Other neighbours have told us they’ve had issues with them but we have just assumed they’re quirky and let them get on with it.

ANYWAY, we had a rubbish clearance man come to collect some rubbish from our side of the drive and the garden yesterday. He called us after (we are currently away seeing family) to say he couldn’t do half of it because the neighbour said he couldn’t pull up the drive - he did knock to ask. And then used his car to completely block off access to the driveway, so the rubbish clearance men struggled to get the rubbish past the car and didn’t want to cause any damage so abandoned the job.

For avoidance of doubt, the rubbish guys we use are really lovely and polite, we used them on our last home refurb, and they’re not the type to argue or whatever. They just said okay then, took photos to show off, and left the job when they couldn’t do anymore.

WIBU to ask my neighbours what they’re playing at?! It’s cost us money as we have had to (rightfully) pay for the full clearance even though they couldn’t access it all.

Or AIBU for wanting to be able to use our shared driveway?

I wouldn't be stressing myself out to sort anything in any rush now - if the wind blows some of the rubbish into their garden, tough tits. Time to start playing them at their own game and blocking them on the shared drive. If they start complaining I'd follow the pp who advised talking to them as if they are stupid.

'I'm confused Greg. Until yesterday I thought that it wouldn't be fair for one of us to block the shared drive so the other house couldn't access their own garage. But when our rubbish collectors came yesterday, that's what you did. So I assume that's how you wanted to do it going forward?"

Omg please park there! And wait for him to knock on your door. Say oh but that’s what you did the other day so thought it was ok? ETA if you park on the street usually anyway you don’t lose anything.

Hi op Did the previous owners let you know they had issues with them prior to you buying the house? As for the ring bell if it is illegal then surely most people will be affected lots of houses face other houses. Just get a cctv cameras facing your property and drive way you are entitled to protect your home. You do have very unreasonable neighbours. I wouldn’t even give them courtesy to acknowledge them tbh. They are very rude and obnoxious and entitled people no wonder the wife never speaks she’s either embarrassed by him or terrified of him.

I would wait until you are back, knock on their door and ask why they obstructed access to your shared drive.

Tell them they cost you money and it is not acceptable to block access.

Hopefully the Deeds have a line to this affect?

I would tell them that you have been giving them a bit of a leeway but would now like to establish and stick to the legal boundary.

Any more fuckries: invest in a Solicitors Letter Before Action. Equip Solicitor with all the info, Deeds etc to keep costs as low as possible

Are they retired? He sounds like he has little else to be at than being an ass. Time to reclaim the drive. Maybe get a little trailer to leave in front of your garage..the way you won't get blocked in by him at any point. Start stopping on the shared bit to unload groceries. Nothing nefarious, just annoying to him.

we had 2 years of hell with a neighbour over a shared drive that only resolved when the police told her they were going to prosecute her under the prevention of harassment act. She moved after that. She believed that because her house effectively owned the easement that she could prevent me and another neighbour accessing our properties. It started with her blocking access similar to what you’ve described and descended into her digging up part of our drives and trees, letting my tyres down and blocking us in repeatedly. We tried to resolve but she was utterly unhinged so the police were involved. I’d ask nicely once and then start keeping a diary. Who owns the easement?

God, I hate these sorts of neighbours. How can he think he owns the whole drive. Why would he do this? As a pp says, maybe he thinks he does own the whole drive.

Selfish git!

What a twat. You should knock on his door, get the photo out and ask him”Why did you do this?”

I’d leave the rubbish there for him to look at every day.

I'd be politely chapping on their door & then asking them 'wtf they're playing at'
We also had a house with shared driveway, never had an issue with our neighbours 😀

Legally the sellers should have disclosed their issues with said neighbour.

I would issue the neighbour with a bill and remind them of the legalities of the situation.

Well he’s shot himself in the foot now hasn’t he, as you’ll be parking all the time in front of your garage!

I’d be doing that no matter how inconvenient it is for me. Principles are worth fighting for…

Yes.....but it was cross posted and then I was unable to edit to say "oops cross posted" 😂

YANBU at all, in the slightest. We have this exact same situation (share drive) with our neighbour. Our houses are staggered, however they have a rear side door that opens on to the drive, and we had our front door open on to the drive from our porch. We had several occasion where they would leave their car outside the two doors and we couldn’t actually get out of our door to leave the house. It got the point we have now had to move our front door to the front of the porch. And coincidentally, they rarely use the side door now!
Really feel for you, as it can make life difficult.
We always have the mindset of, at least we can close the door and forget about them.

Tbf it was a very good diagram

Why did you buy the house, knowing you had difficult people living next door? Did your sellers not declare any disputes when the house was sold to you?

All the neighbour needs to say is that he wasn’t told about the collection and he was stopping some random bloke nicking the OPs things.

That’s terrible that you had to give up your car. These people are bullies. Why can’t they grasp the concept of a shared driveway? It’s a form of domination. I wonder if it’s done to acquire land?

I'd be billing him for the cost of the rubbish collectors, you have photographic evidence that he blocked their access.

But this is exactly why my mum told me to NEVER buy a house with a shared drive.

I've just accepted it sadly. I saved for years and used inheritance from my grandparents to buy my first house and discovered it the day I got my keys.

There's really nothing I can do. I have tried.

The solicitor who checked the access rights for me said they could send a letter to the neighbour, but they could ignore it, and the only other action I could take would be to go to court to get an injunction and it would cost a minimum of £100,000.

Neighbour disputes are supposed to be declared for this very reason. Even just the scaffolding issue would have to have been declared. In regards to ring doorbell, can you mount it sideways, so its looking down the drive if you have enough space? Or attach it to the garage, The viewing angle can be adjusted in the app which can be shown to anyone that wants to check i.e. Police.

Block him in. Just keep doing it until he stops parking like a cunt.

This^^. After having the chat and dropping off the deeds and the discussion specifying shared ownership of the driveway, I think it would help them to understand the concept, if you park at your garage for the next few weeks it will underscore the point. If you enjoy using your parking space, continue to do so! If not, it would be worth parking there ever few weeks as a continuous reminder of the concept of shared ownership. This set of CF's seem to need some gentle education and reminders.

It’ll cost your more in solicitors fees and a lifetime of bad relations with your neighbours.

Your neighbour is a petty difficult human but this isn’t the answer.

Fit a ring doorbell so there is evidence of the ridiculousness. Establish your boundaries - start parking on your own side leaving them no room to overlap your space.. aren’t people ridiculous. Hope you can get it sorted without too much hassle OP!

You can set zones on a ring doorbell. Ours only films if anyone enters the zone