Shared access on drive...help please!

Rcp6068

New Member
Oct 24, 2016
1
0
0
Hi. My neighbour and I have a single narrow drive between our houses that leads to a double garage, his on the right, mine on the left. Neither use the garages for cars as access is a bit tight (although possible ). Before I bought my house 11 years ago, he had put up a large double gate between the 2 houses at the front of the houses leaving the parking area from front of houses to the pavement open. There is a deed of grant which states we own our side, he owns his but each must allow access with or without a vehicle over whole drive at all times. Up until 2 years ago he used to park his car in front of the gates so not only blocking access but also parking half on our land. After a minor dispute (we wanted to out a smaller gate within the gate to allow my children to get their bikes in and out) his wife asked us if we'd agree to doing away with the access and let them.put a fence dividing from the garages. We said that was fine. Then came a dispute about where the boundary should go. I said I assumed straight down the middle between the garages but they were adamant their 'half' was 2/3 and ours only 1/3 as on the land registry doc theirs looked a bit wider. Anyway...long story short...they put up a fence in December 2014 to the front of the houses leaving the front drive bit unmarked. We continued the chalk line to the pavement and she knocked asking what the line was fir. We explained it was a continuation of the line they had marked to the edge of our properties. They had obviously intended to keep parking as they had before on our part of the drive. Well they then fenced to the pavement (coming further across on a slight diagonal. Relationships broke down completely with him being physically and verbally threatening. He now has to park his car on the road but has made a point of partially blocking our driveway when he does (on purpose as plenty of room to pull further forward ) He saw me last weekend and said the fence was coming down. The deed wasn't changed but the divide has been up for 2 years now (photo evidence available ) what can we do? After promises from his wife they wouldn't take it down, we altered our back garden so this fence is our security now as well as spending a lot of money rejigging our garden to include the garage within it. We don't want the fence down and feel sure he's planning on going back to blocking the access and parking on our land again. Will the fence standing for 2 years stand for anything if we try to legally end the deed of grant and he objects? All advice really appreciated. This has caused us so much stress and I can't face going back to all that again. Thank you for reading and I hope it made sense!
 

Tony

What Consumer Founder
Apr 7, 2008
18,307
3
38
Bolton
Hello, there is nothing worse than disputes with neighbours and I really feel for you. I think you need legal advice on this matter as this will probably cause problems when you come to sell. It is difficult to visualise, but if the deeds state that access has to be provided then any boundaries that have been erected would need to come down if a new owner insisted. Sorry that is not much help