Neighbour and her fence/access

[Tohaveandtohold]

Hello, please I need some advice with regards to this as I don’t want to be a cf and bring this up if I don’t have to.
We own an end of terrace house with a shared driveway. The driveway is shared between the 3 houses on the terrace. We’re responsible for the maintenance, etc if anything comes up.
Neighbour on the other end has her own driveway and drive however she drives into her house regularly from our driveway but this has not been a concern really. Now the issue I now have is that over the weekend, she has started building a fence in front like trying to create a front garden and private driveway for herself meaning the only way for her access her property/ drive would be through our own shared drive way.

I feel we should say something to her now as she is indirectly creating a right of way to her house from our shared driveway but dh does not want a confrontation or anything.
I feel that if we need to do any maintenance, etc, we would be the ones bearing the cost but she would just be enjoying it and if she sells, all this will just continue. How do we go about this.
Sorry this is long.
I’ve attached a picture.

is she allowed to cross your drive? Surely hers is big enough that she should be accessing her own drive via the front of her house? You need to bring this up & explain that you are not allowing the drive to become a right of way. What do your deeds actually say?

Oh yes you need to tell her she can't block her access and just use yours

Why don't you speak to the owners of the other two houses? She could pay a nominal sum for maintenance. Is that what you all do now.

I think it's key to find out what the others think as it's not just your drive.

Also check your land deeds, often one house owns it and the others have right of way. Maybe you own in or one of the other two houses?

No way should she be using your drive. What if she damages it ? You'd all have to pay

Check your deeds.

Then, assuming she has no right of access across your driveway, put a line of bollards/rocks/plant pots etc on the edge of your drive where she's trying to cross. Bonus points if each bollard/pot/rock has a laminated copy of your deeds attached to them.

How's she going to damage the drive ?

The issue is it's not just the ops driveway, it's shared by two other houses. She can't just erect bollards or any other such shit.

Who actually owns it does need to be confirmed though.

I think you need to find out if she has the right to use your drive and start from their.

As others have said you need to check your deeds. Who owns that land and who has access.

Does she even have legal right to use your shared access? It doesn’t look like she should.

That doesn't look like she should have access through your driveway. As others have said you need to check and bring this up asap

Thank you all for your replies. In the deed, she does not have any right to use our shared access. The shared driveway is for the use of the 3 houses based on the deed. Basically, she just drives straight in from the road, through our driveway into her drive. We’ve never complained as we just wanted to keep the peace as we just moved in last July. Now that she’s building the fence now makes it obvious that she’s a cf

agree. i would be checking access rights. you may find that she technically doesn't have any over your drive way at all. so by blocking up hers she may well have shot herself in the foot.

this happened with a property i manage for a client at work. the neighbours blocked their own access round the back as it wasn't convenient for them, then proceeded to use "our" access. my client wanted to build a gate on his property, got relevant permissions etc, the neighbour kicked off and said it would block his access. turns out he never had access rights anyway. he was made to pull his fences/wall down.

Check her deeds too and then let her know she cannot have permanent access to your drive. She'll reduce the value of your home and increase the value of hers, a great big fat CF.

No no no. Definitely confront her about it. Will cause huge issues when you come to sell due to rights of access issues. My sister nearly couldn't buy her house because her neighbor put a padlock on a fence to a shared path at the back of the house. They were all fine with it but the mortgage company would not let her mortgage with them until it was removed. the neighbour was reluctant due to problems with kids and she nearly lost the house. Don't let her do it. Even if you don't actually mind

You and the other neighbours that use the shared driveway need to go and tell her she can't use the driveway as its not her right of access. It's very cheeky of her to put a fence up that blocks her own access. Can you show on your diagram how/where she is supposed to access her own drive?

This will become a nightmare when she has large deliveries, building work, a skip, or anything else that would cause hassle if it had to be brought in and out via your drive. Squash it now. Put up a fence on your property to block access to her house. When she whinges tell her she doesn’t have a right of access over your land.

We are the only owners, the other 2 houses have been rented out so they might not say anything unless the owners come and visit so it’s left to us to talk.
When DH gets home then we will have to go and speak to her before she’ll finish erecting the fence. Thank you all for confirming what I thought.
@bluntness, it’s not that she will damage the driveway but the 3 houses here contribute towards its maintenance (though we’ve not needed to do anything major yet) but she’s just using it and basically now trying to claim it, benefit but not bear any cost.

I came on to say exactly what Raptor has said. If she has any large deliveries/a skip/building work done, then the contractors/suppliers will also have to access via your shared drive. I'd definitely put a stop to this now.

You don't have to be confrontational about it, if that's worrying your DH. Explain that you have noticed she is using your driveway and probably doesn't realise that she doesn't have right of access over it (of course she does!).

You thought in the interests of being neighbourly you'd forewarn her your terrace is planning to put locking gates across and that's going to leave her without an entry point if she completes the fence without leaving herself a gap.

Remember that all three houses have to agree to let her use the shared drive. Even if she gets round the landlord she can't override your refusal. The only way she could gain a right of way is if her use of it went unchallenged for a number of years. So challenge it.

It's not the damage/cost issues tha are key - it's her blocking her own driveway and establishing rights of access through yours. If you have free legal cover with your home insurance, you should call them.

put a fence up along the side of your garden so she can't drive into hers through yours. Or some nice big plants in pots. If I was feeling nice I would warn her in advance. (If you're 100% sure she has no right of access)

Why isn't there a wall/hedge between the houses? Randomly sharing someone's drive is odd. Tell her to use her own.

Thank you all.
We actually have legal cover through our home insurance but hopefully speaking to her will resolve it otherwise we’ll have to take it further.

I hope it is sorted out by a chat but I'd be surprised if it was. She's just bought her house and it's very likely she had her rights of access explained to her at the time. Good luck.