Shared driveway - my driveway is their turning circle

[IglesiasPiggletheSecond]

New neighbours are complaining that we are parking on our driveway which is making it difficult for them to manoeuvre their car. This wasn’t an issue with our previous neighbours but with a shared drive something was bound to crop up at some point!

My boundary is edged in red with the cross hatched area being my driveway. The cross hatched section isn’t on the land registry so not sure where this was first filed? There is an ordnance survey reference on the document?

The overall cross hatched area is a shared drive between 3 houses. We’re not supposed to block it etc. The house at the top (not in the picture) has a driveway that matches my neighbour’s.

I have contacted my solicitor to get the cross hatching removed from my driveway so there is no issue when I sell the property but am waiting to hear.

Does anyone know if I will be able to get this resolved in my favour? Should it be possible to update this?

In reality I am happy for my neighbour to reverse their car into my drive so they can drive out but they are requesting I don’t park there at all. This is my land!!

They are not reasonable people before anyone asks, for example, my daughter has an EHCP and is picked up for school at 8 am every morning by taxi, they have complained that the taxi wakes them up. They both work a 9-5 job and often leave at 7:30 so aren’t even there to hear the car arrive!

if they have right of access to the cross-hatched area to enable manoeuvring, then unfortunately you cannot park there. you are lucky that the previous people did not complain, but the cross hatching means you do NOT have the right park on your own land. sorry.

The area you think is your drive isn't your drive.

I really think this is the crux of the matter.

You need the document that transferred the property to you which will set out your rights and obligations re the hatched area - contact your solicitor

The bit I want to change is the little cross hatch in my boundary, not the overall cross hatch area

Good plan because you wouldn't be able to get to the bit you think is your drive if the other bit lost it's cross hatched status and the person whose deeds it was s on claimed it. You wouldn't be entitled to drive on it at all.

You'd have to turn your bit into a helipad.

It's very weird to have the cross hatched bit go right into your property like that. The main cross hatched driveway runs alongside properties. Not into anyone else's boundary. I would def look into it incase an error was made during cross hatching

You don’t have a drive. Part of your land has right of access across it for your neighbours, so you cannot park there. It might be your land but you cannot block it by parking due to your neighbours having a right to cross the land.
It is a turning circle for them and it is access to your garage for you. It is not a drive and you cannot park on it.

It does not matter if your old neighbours didn’t complain. It doesn’t matter if the new neighbours could manoeuvre around your car. They don’t want to. It isn’t your drive. You can’t park there.

What is the exact status of the cross hatched area? What do the deeds say?

Found the TA6 form completed by the seller that states parking is garage with two parking bays (my driveway). I am chasing my solicitor but yes, it would appear that my driveway is not my driveway.

No one is getting heated - they’re just simply stating facts.

Usually in this situation, houses sharing the access, do own the land opposite to their house as it’s easy to maintain the land by each house. I assume your neighbour ‘s boundary will be in blue.

The seller can say what they like. It was your solicitors job to check that stuff.

Seller lied it was just wrong because they also got away with using it.

You don’t have a drive. Your neighbour has told you to stop blocking the shared access so stop parking your car there.

Yes, they have the blue section.

Agree with PP, you don’t have a driveway, it’s shared access.

Yes but you don’t have the right to park on the crosshatch area at all OP, including the bit inside your boundary.

Do you understand that even though they own the blue bit, they cannot park on the hatched area? Because that would block access to your garage. It’s their land but they can’t park on it. Same as the hatched area in front of your garage. It’s your land but you can’t park on it, just pass over it.

I agree that the people who sold you the house either lied or thought it was a drive, possibly because the old neighbours thought it was OK for them to park there.

But in reality you have no more right to park there than your other 'blue' neighbour has to park on the park on their deeds.

Thanks all, I will pick up with my solicitor.

The hatched section can’t be parked in even if it’s your land. We used to own the whole driveway into a parking area for 8 homes, didn’t mean we could block it, the land just had to have ownership. To change it on the deeds you’d have to purchase the land rights from the other home owners and cover solicitor’s fees. You’d have to have full agreement of those whom have rights over the piece of land. What the previous owners said is meaningless compared to what the deeds show.

From what you’re saying, your neighbours have right of way. In which case, no you can’t park there. You should definitely get onto the solicitors if this wasn’t raised. We have a very similar set up: we own land but there is a ROW over it so can’t use it or park there.

It's an easement so it's irrelevant whether it's within your boundary or not. I also have a shared drive and my property is at the end of it similar to your set up (except I have parking on my property as well) The neighbours next to me became obsessed with the easement on their land and tried to claim as it was within their boundary neither me or the other neighbour could use it and therefore couldn't access our homes - completely failing to understand what an easement meant. It took 2 years of solicitors and eventually police involvement to sort it out. It was finally resolved when the neighbours moved. Your neighbour will never agree to remove the easement and this should have been picked up when you purchased the house.

If it comes to it, is your strip of grass next to your neighbours driveway big enough to park your car on? Would it be a solution to turn that into your parking area, leaving the access to your garage (and turning circle) free? Or the bit to the left hand side of your "drive" bit?

Thanks Conkered - yes, I have someone coming over tomorrow to quote for works so that is how we’re proceeding.

In the meantime I have contacted my solicitor as there is obviously a discrepancy in what was represented and it wasn’t picked up.

In my experience, it is hard to amethe deeds and land registry entry even if clearly wrong.

You definitely need the correspondence from the sleep and the actual outcome. It looks like this crosshatchinf is done in pencil, so it might have been something the seller added. You can check your entry on the land registry website (might need to pay a small fee for it).

How/where do you turn your car around? Do you reverse around the corner and use your neighbours drive? Or is there space to turn on the hatched area not owned by you?

That's a good point @Napmum, where is your plan from? The hatching and the 'T' are not Land Registry quality (even when I worked there and it was done by hand, it all had to be immaculate, even before computers made it even tidier).

It does make sense that next door have somewhere to turn, but it doesn't make sense that you don't have a corresponding right to do the same over their drive.