Driveway/Parking Dispute

HaX

HaX

HaX

Associate
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
2,080
Location
Berkshire
Hi there,

Just after a bit of advice really ;

My girlfriend and I purchased a new build end-terraced house the year before last.

There is a double garage built onto the end-side of our house with a shared driveway for access to the garages. One garage belongs to my next door neighboour, and the other (closest to our house) belongs to my girlfriend and I.

Some other houses on our estate back onto our driveway, and have rights of access to use the driveway as an entrance to their back gardens.

There is a clause in our deeds which states that we are not allowed to use the driveway for parking our cars, and it is only an access way to our garages etc. The ony places we are permitted to park are our garages and the designated parking spaces in front of our houces.

Although it is nearly the size of a double driveway and can (only just) fit two cars side by side, having somone parked in the drive makes getting my car out of the garage extremely difficult reversing out onto the road. (I am sandwiched between an exterior wall of a house and a car).

Just before we moved in our neighbour was advised of the contents of the property deeds and stopped parking there.

However she just has started parking there again, almost obstructing a path for me to reverse my car out of my garage. This is despite there being more than at least two of the designated spaces in front of the houses being free at the time. She doesn't park in her garage because she has lots of furniture etc stored in there.

Obviously I would like to try the diplomatic approach, however the fact that she is already aware of the deeds indicates that maybe this will go unheeded.

What are my options in this scenario>
 
Just remind her in writing.

If afterwards, she repeats it, write a letter of intent / letter before action or similar warning of taking the legal route.

None of your business if she has furniture in her garage - her problem.
 
DB_SamX said:
Just remind her in writing.

If afterwards, she repeats it, write a letter of intent / letter before action or similar warning of taking the legal route.

None of your business if she has furniture in her garage - her problem.
Click to expand...

The trouble is, is that ironically we get on well with her. I just don't know how to react to this blatant disregard to the property deeds etc.

We have been thinking of selling our house, but she wants to buy it off us, whereas we'd rather go through an estate agent, so I'm almost half wondering whether or not she is trying to reduce the value of our house by creating a boundary dispute!
 
Im sure your neighbour isnt as nasty as mine (putting nails in 3 of my tyres) just have a talk with her
 
I would just have a quiet word about it, e.g. "it was close getting out yesterday, were you unloading something?" or similar. Writing a letter looks a bit snooty imo.

Or you could do what that wheelchair did on here and just damage her car by barging past it :p (not advisable).
 
DB_SamX said:
Just remind her in writing.

If afterwards, she repeats it, write a letter of intent / letter before action or similar warning of taking the legal route.

None of your business if she has furniture in her garage - her problem.
Click to expand...

That's so passive-aggressive though. Just talk to her. If she carries on, then take it higher. I really don't understand why you've resorted to asking an online forum, it's a no-brainer.
 
Some real words of wisdom here, very much appreciated.

I'll try and appeal to her better nature, however by some of the fallings out she has had with our other neighbours, I'm not sure she has one lol! She has told me in intimate detail about some of the disputes she has had with people!
 
Nix said:
That's so passive-aggressive though. Just talk to her. If she carries on, then take it higher. I really don't understand why you've resorted to asking an online forum, it's a no-brainer.
Click to expand...

I am a bit of a cynic; I have been known to write some passive-aggressive letters before. I don't like to be messed around anymore.
 
I take it that this is private land?

Employ a parking enforcement company to clamp all unknown registrations. At least you get a cut of the clamp release fee :-)

In the old days you could clamp them yourself :-)
 
We had some fun like this a while back, the drive to our garage and hardstand/carport is shared between 5 houses, we own half the drive (only house on one side), the other 4 own an 8th each.

One of the them (the furthest from the road) had taken to parking on the bit we needed to use to get onto our carport/hardstand and was very shirty about it.

It ended up after my dad trying the reasonable, friendly, neighbourly approach going to the soliciters and getting them to send a letter, which was ignored, so another was sent, which resulted in a snotty reply completely ignoring the issue at hand.
I think it was the third letter which basically said "stop talking rubbish and wasting my clients time and deal with it, or we'll see you in court" (the next step would have been court enforcement of the right of way) that sorted it.

Basically the police can't do anything unless it looks like there is going to be a public order problem, the council won't do anything as it's private land, so it's down to asking politely a few times, then going to see your lawyer.
If you do end up having to see a lawyer pay the extra to keep the notes/letters on record at the legal practice in case of future problems (you can show it's been an ongoing problem if it flares up again).

It's this sort of thing that is the reason my dad has copies of the original documents showing the properties of the street, the extent of our property and the covenants etc (as well as copies of the planning permission we got when we built the garage, as the neighbour at one point was going on about how his deeds only showed the houses were allowed one car to be parked -I don't know how he thought we had a double garage:p)
 
Get your girlfriend to go knock on the door and say she's struggling to get the car in and out because of the driveway being blocked :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom