Front Garden Boundaries for Driveway

RedvGreen

RedvGreen

RedvGreen

Soldato
Joined
2 Dec 2009
Posts
4,017
Location
Midlands
I'm after some suggestions for our front garden situation. As may be apparent by the influx of threads, we've recently moved in, and am due to receive some inheritance shortly. As such, with two cars, we are looking to convert our front garden and single concrete driveway into a blockpaved and landscaped front, accommodating 2-3 cars.

I've had a local top-rated landscape/driveways company around, Wilkinsons, who have provided several drafts, however there is a bit of a stumbling block.

Our front garden has a tiny sliver, which according to the neighbour and boundary plans, belongs to them. What this means for us is that there is a quite literal 1.75ft wide and 5m long strip of grass down the side of our house up to their fence boundary. On the neighbours side of this strip is a public footpath, and the neighbour's block-paved driveway. I've attached a very crude sketch of the boundaries under discussion here:


The current neighbour has agreed to let us block-pave or landscape this section to match with our own driveway at our own expense, which is fantastic as it would look really odd block-paved up to a strip of grass. However. HOWEVER...

They are elderly and are going to be moving out and selling up soon, which therefore would permit the next owners the ability to change that land however they see fit. They do not wish to sell us the land, or modify the boundaries at all either.

So as we had planned to block-pave all the front, it looks like we will either have a very odd looking front, or will potentially have a waste of money down the side of the house, or a ticking timebomb if we get an antagonistic neighbour.

For the record, we pay to have this grass and land maintained as it flows directly from our garden, and to the untrained eye, looks to be ours.

What do you think we should do?
 
It's the luck of the draw, just do it if it bothers you but always remember it can be changed to what ever the new neibours like if they feel like it.

If it was me I would notice things like that from day one, if it works i would more than likely leave it, but unfortunately not everyone is the same good luck.
 
As with everything like this you need to refer to your original deeds and the associated drawings. If it isn’t clear, consult a solicitor and/or local council and get it 100% correct in writing before doing anything.

If it isn’t your land, put in a metre wide flower bed and plant some medium sized evergreen along (in an odd number, which is way a landscaper will tell you to do it) to separate the two areas and forget about what’s on the other side.
 
samurl said:
As with everything like this you need to refer to your original deeds and the associated drawings. If it isn’t clear, consult a solicitor and/or local council and get it 100% correct in writing before doing anything.

If it isn’t your land, put in a metre wide flower bed and plant some medium sized evergreen along (in an odd number, which is way a landscaper will tell you to do it) to separate the two areas and forget about what’s on the other side.
Click to expand...

I can see where you’re coming from there, unfortunately the bit of our land that adjoins the yellow area is basically a single width paving slab that is our only access to our back garden and external tap so we can’t really stick a separation border in there on the side of the house as we would lose our path.
On the front garden we could, but we would infact lose some of our potential driveway space by doing so.
 
A clear boundary and edging to your drive will be better then blockpaving your neighbours bit of land that could potentially be changed when the new owners come along.

My view would be don't blockpave that bit, make a clear distinct boundary line when you do get yours done, the strip of grass wont make your driveway/frontage look odd at all, and then for your sake just keep mowing that bit of grass for your neighbours so that it doesn't make your driveway look a mess.

This way you aren't dealing with any unknowns.

The worst thing you could do in this situation is block pave over that bit of grass to match in with your own driveway, as you can guarantee that if a new owner wants to do something with their own driveway, they wont go out of their way to make sure your driveway pattern of any kind is match if they want to take up the bit of your drive that is on their land.
 
Burned_Alive said:
Buy the land.
Click to expand...

Neighbour refused.

Perhaps this may explain the issue better:



The tiny yellow rectangular outline is the neighbours land. In total, that strip is around 1.75ft wide. Our land alongside is around 1ft wide, so we really can't do too much with it. It is on the cusp of being too narrow already for a lawnmower, so when we have blockpaving, it will further narrow to a pointless strip.
 
Ok a better solution would be to ask them if they are happy for that bit of grass to become a gravel edging. You get your block paving done and edged up to your boarder and then you have the grass replaced with a gravel section that is also edged.

Stops any future boundary disputes and wont ruin your drive if a potential future owner comes along and wants to change things.

Also when I say gravel you can use any kind of aggregate, slate, blue stone, gravel etc etc. Just don't incorporate it in to your own driveway block paving, its the hardest thing option to change in the future.

I assume you would be replacing all your slabbing as well with block paving as it would be silly to block pave up to old slabbing. Then you would just incorporate your 1ft wide strip of grass in to the then wider area of paving that would be replaced.
 
Sorry not to sound disrespectful here, but it really shouldn't be this difficult

It is either their land, or yours. Please go and find out the correct way by either referring to deeds drawings, local county council to see what they have, or a solicitor that can do some digging.

If it isn't your land, build your new drive + access way right up to the boundary and forget the other side. If it is yours, make sure the neighbor is in clear alignment about that, and then do whatever the hell you want with it.
 
Block pave your land up to the strip, but gravel the grass strip at your expense. It will look better than leaving a grass strip there, wont require maintenance and wont be a big deal if the new owner decides to change it.
 
Why not ask your neighbours if they would allow you to convert it to stone chippings so it doesn't look odd and doesn't mean you have to block pave all the way up?
 
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