Advice appreciated on establishing use of shared courtyard.

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Thanks for reading on!

We live in a mews style development with a shared courtyard. Four houses have garages within the courtyard with parking for one car outside of their own garage. Now that one house has been resold the new owner insists that he purchased the house with two parking spaces in front of his garage. If all house park two cars outside of their garage we will be unable to turn our cars (set of another four houses) to be able to drive in and out. With the additional cars we woukd be able to drive to our house but woukd have to reverse out.

How can we establish what the agreements are over the shared courtyard? Is it possible that the new neighbour has been misled and does think he has two spaces? We wouldn't be able to check his deeds would we, so how can we sort this?

Can you ring the estate agent he went through and ask?

I think you can check the neighbour's deeds on the land registry site for £3?

What do your deeds say about access and parking?

We own our drive but 3 other houses have rights to drive over it so we can’t park all the way along it to ensure there’s access. It’s in our deeds but also their deeds.

I would also ask them to show you exactly what their deeds say about it because it is different from yours (assuming yours says what your current understanding of the parking is).

It could be he was told that he got two spaces even if he didn’t and he didn’t check it so he genuinely thinks he has the right - if it was something he specifically checked out before moving as a condition of sale then he might be feeling very defensive if this extra space looks like disappearing.

If he’s not amenable then maybe a solicitors letter to clarify the situation. Or a courtyard meeting to discuss first.

Hopefully you have legal insurance on your home insurance as this is exactly what you need it for..,

Check title register and plan for his house - £6 to download both documents from the gov.uk Land Registry website.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I will follow it up through my deeds and land registry. I didn't know I had the right to access someone else's deeds. I am assuming that these cant be changed from when the house was first built, without there being notification to other affected properties?

If you all have access to a shared area then no. I think this guy just thinks that because he can fit two cars there he will. He's not thinking about the impact on everyone and possibly thinks it's an informal arrangement he doesn't have to go along with.