Shared Driveways

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Shared Driveways

Solution 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.

There are two common situations in which
shared driveways exist. One concerns 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. The other
concerns more modern housing estates where the developers have had to economise
on space and either provide a single driveway to service a number of houses, or
provide an access route to a garage (usually in the front garden) that crosses a
neighbour's garden, usually with the neighbour enjoying a similar arrangement
over the first owner's garden.

A shared driveway is subject to exactly
the same rules that govern any other private right of way. The only difference
is that in the case of a shared driveway a landowner is both the owner of the
servient tenement (over his own half of the driveway) and the owner of the
dominant tenement (over his neighbour's half of the driveway). Most people who
use a shared driveway have no difficulty with the concept of exercising the
dominant tenement over their neighbour's half of the driveway, but some have
difficulty with playing the role of servient tenement and allowing their
neighbour access to their own half of the driveway.

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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Article details

Article ID:	30
Category:	Property
Date added:	15-02-2009 06:41:37
Views:	1760
Rating (Votes):	(34)

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