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Question Title: Shared drive
| Question: 406 |
| I have been left a semi-detached house by my aunt. It was built in the 1930's and, whilst it has a garage, it shares a driveway with the house next door. My aunt hasn't had a car for years and the neighbour has taken to leaving both his cars in the drive all the time. Indeed from the amount of junk that you can see in his garage it would not be possible to get a car in there. I want to let the house with the garage as this will increase the amount of rent that I can charge as parking is really at a premium in this town. What can I do?
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| Answer: |
| A shared driveway is an access way, standing partly on one owner's land and partly on an adjacent owner's land, over which both owners enjoy a right of way. For houses built in the 1930's or earlier, before motor cars became commonplace, it takes the form of a driveway passing between two houses to give access to garages or hard-standing sited in the rear garden. Usually the boundary runs straight up the centre of the drive. A shared driveway is subject to exactly the same rules that govern any other private right of way. Neither neighbour has a right to park their car on a shared driveway. The half of the car that is on the neighbour's land has no right of parking, and the half that is on its owner's land is obstructing the neighbour's right of way. Neither neighbour has a right to store anything (such as dustbins, stocks of garden or building materials, tool stores, etc) on the shared driveway as this would obstruct their neighbour's right of way. As with other rights of way, it is possible to extinguish a shared driveway, but the owner who wishes to do so would be expected to compensate his neighbour for inconvenience, loss of utility and diminished value of his land.
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