Building an extension onto Shared Driveway

Building an extension onto Shared Driveway

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Freckle

Original Poster:

10 posts

114 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
All, often find myself on these forums and have valuable insight to many of the daily grind of me and my castle idiots. I think I have the answer but want some reassurance from you guys. lots going on with this one so ill keep it short.....

New neighbour moves in, has tried to take over the entire boundary of his property. The latest concern, an extension, right across his part of the shared driveway at the back. So, he's taken down his garage and built a gate across the shared access bit, we disputed this as it prevents us from doing the same if we wanted to. He has now had plans to extend right across the back of his house, over what would have been the access to his garage. The bare cheek of the man plans to start building work very soon and he's not even told us about the work. He'll be building right up and over the boundary line (boundary being his land, over boundary being the 'shared driveway'). What on earth can I do about it?

Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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The only thing you can do that will actually stop him (as opposed to sending impotent letters) is to get legal advice and an order/injunction with all haste, for the interference with your right of way and failure to abide by the Party Wall Act too probably. If you are deemed to have acquiesced, your position will be weakened.

Busa mav

2,556 posts

153 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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In addition to the above,

If you have right of way over the shared part that he intends to build on ,

then he should have served a notice on you during the planning stage.

if that is the case , then you could argue with the planners that the application was actually invalid and the permission revoked.

barryrs

4,376 posts

222 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Taken from my LA website.

"Implications of incorrect certificate
If a local planning authority determines an application and grants planning permission and the
correct certificate has not be served, then the permission granted will be invalid and there would
be a real risk that the High Court would quash the permission if any person aggrieved by the
grant of the permission brought judicial review proceedings.

If a certificate is inaccurate as a matter of fact, a correct certificate will need to be signed and/or
served before the application is determined. We will not determine the application one way or
the other until a correct certificate has been received. "

If your neighbor submitted a certificate A with the planning application and it relates to land that you jointly own the approval may well be invalid. He should have submitted a certificate B and notified you 21 days prior to submitting the application.


Piglet

6,250 posts

254 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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What do you mean by a shared driveway? You don't jointly own the land I imagine so who does own it? If he owns it, is there a documented right of way for you to access your property?

You need decent advice pretty swiftly.

Marlin45

1,327 posts

163 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Do you jointly own the land or you have easement rights to use the land for access?

Little Lofty

3,275 posts

150 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
Take a trip down to your local council planning dept and ask their advise, take some photos and dimensions and try and get a copy of the neighbours and your own properties boundaries from land registry.
People like this boil my piss, good luck.

Edited by Little Lofty on Monday 1st September 15:04

Freckle

Original Poster:

10 posts

114 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
Wow thanks everyone for your replies. Firstly they did not need planning permission as it's under the 'new permitted development incentive'. We've been told by the council they don't deal with boundary issues. Secondly his deeds states the following under restrictive covenants. "That he will ever afterwards maintain boundary fence highlighted in red, And will it not erect or suffer to be erected at any time on the said premises any building or structure of any kind ( other than a bay window or feature first approved by a surveyor). The land is subject to rights of way, no specific details. This info is on my deeds too. On 1 plan it clearly shows the boundary line right down the middle of the driveway, however,non another plan it shows the boundary around his house only. At the end of the day I'm looking at it for a car perspective. If I was to drive my car down the alley to my garage I would need the space he's building on to manoeuvre my car in my garage. However, it's an Edwardian house so there is no way anyone would ever use it as the alleyway was obviously built with small cars in mind. Nevertheless, in my opinion deeds are there for a reason. If we were to do what they are doing, access for both of us to our garden from the alleyway would be stupid. Plus the guy is a 't&@t and needs taking down a peg or two. Plus there are other aspects to this that I'm afraid to divulge in case he reads it lol.....

Piglet

6,250 posts

254 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
Have you downloaded the title documents from the Land Registry website or are you just looking at documents you have to hand?

You really do need advice, I'm surprised that the right of way isn't documented fully if one exists. When did you buy the house? If you have no expressed right of way and you need to use your neighbours land that ought to have been flagged at the time you bought.


Freckle

Original Poster:

10 posts

114 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
I have documents from land registry. We don't need to use the land he's building on, merely a 'have you checked you can build on land that doesn't state you have the specific rights to do so scenario' plus when we go out the side we will have to look his extension. It's a bit tit for tat, he's the tit I'm the tat lol.... Basically if it came to it we would not be able to do the same plan if we wanted to as this would adversely impact both properties. Surely if someone wants to change how the land lies effectively rendering the deeds inaccurate that we could have problems down the line if we sell? If we had a mini say and wanted to use the garage we wouldn't be able to, that's not to say new owner of our property would but is that the point, you don't use it so we may as we'll build on it? Damn boundary's.

Spare tyre

9,457 posts

129 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Freckle said:
I have documents from land registry. We don't need to use the land he's building on, merely a 'have you checked you can build on land that doesn't state you have the specific rights to do so scenario' plus when we go out the side we will have to look his extension. It's a bit tit for tat, he's the tit I'm the tat lol.... Basically if it came to it we would not be able to do the same plan if we wanted to as this would adversely impact both properties. Surely if someone wants to change how the land lies effectively rendering the deeds inaccurate that we could have problems down the line if we sell? If we had a mini say and wanted to use the garage we wouldn't be able to, that's not to say new owner of our property would but is that the point, you don't use it so we may as we'll build on it? Damn boundary's.
i feel your pain

your house is less valuable if you cant get the mythical mini in the garage i'd imagine


Busa mav

2,556 posts

153 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
I would be interested to see a sketch plan of the properties and the position of the proposed extension .

Spare tyre

9,457 posts

129 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
Busa mav said:
I would be interested to see a sketch plan of the properties and the position of the proposed extension .
me too

knock something up in mspaint smile

Little Lofty

3,275 posts

150 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
Pretty sure he should have served you notice under the party wall act, I think even foundations within 3m of your property need a party wall agreement, if he hasn't served you one then he may be stuffed. I also can't see how it comes under permitted development if its on shared land. Try posting this over on speed, plod and the law and see if any of the legal folk can help.

twokcc

815 posts

176 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Freckle said:
Good stuff - ok attached map for reference. I had added bits to it but it doesn't show on the map. Extension will be at the back the full length of the property (note: 2 garages at the back). The house on the left border in red is the culprit. His garage (small one)is gone now he built the gate at a 45 degree angle from edge of his house (red)to edge of our gate on the right, this has been is dispute for over a year. The extension will come straight out from his outside wall, a small encroachment but one none the less. He also parks at the front of the house claiming its his land so tough. Another battle for another day.

thanks everyone!!!

That looks like a map from planning site,really need land registry maps for both properties which show boundaries you mention in your earlier post together with wording for row for each property. As others have said you can get plenty of good advice on here but you will almost certainly need to see a solicitor who if you are correct can issue letter to put neighbour on notice if he decides to proceed.Been in a similar situation when proposed to build garage at back of my property when neighbour advised that my ROW didn't extend as far as seller said it had(and deeds not clear). Fortunately solicitor I used to purchase property got seller to swear affidavit that he had full ROW and was than able to obtain indemnity insurance. Turned out neighbour was right cost insurance company £10k(paid to neighbour) plus 2 lots of legal expenses to sort out. You may have some comeback on your solicitor but without knowing full circumstance it is difficult to say.

Freckle

Original Poster:

10 posts

114 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
super stuff, it may help to know that the council have confirmed that it is all on his land according to this map, I'm not convinced. I may go back and get them to clarify that actually. He should have definitely served us notice but he's tight as a nats ass (sorry but funny)and wont pay for anything that doesn't directly benefit him. He knows we will get our own surveyor and the other neighbours refuse to use his so he's out of pocket 3 fold. It maybe useful to know that the land lies exactly the shape of a rectangle at the land registry, but, this map shows the land how it looks today.

Piglet

6,250 posts

254 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
I'm really not clear on what is what and more to the point what is where. Party Wall Act notices are one thing and yes I'd imagine he should serve one but that isn't relevant to his use of land which doesn't belong to him and/or land over which you have a documented ROW which he is planning to obstruct (potentially).

If there is a documented ROW it will be contained in your Land Registry title documents. If you don't you need someone to consider whether you have gained a right of way through long use (as said above with the previous owner making statutory declarations dealing with this).

You mentioned a covenant relating to fencing, you'd need to know who the beneficiary of the covenant was and to trace whether there is any current beneficiary, I'd guess from an Edwardian house the likelihood is that the covenant is no longer likely to be enforced but again without seeing the deeds it's difficult to say.

It's impossible for anyone to advise in more detail without the full information. I'm going to hazard a guess that this isn't a shared driveway and that there wasn't a full ROW granted as at the time with smaller cars it wasn't necessary, you have two side by side pieces of land (as I do with my neighbour). That leads to whether a ROW has been gained and you'd need proper advice on that based on the correct details.

Freckle

Original Poster:

10 posts

114 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
.

Freckle

Original Poster:

10 posts

114 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
super advice piglet, that makes sense considering the land registry map and deeds detail (i.e. not being specific with ROW), does my last post, transcript from the deeds help clarify? I'm hoping it's as straight forward as that. All we ask is that he has done his homework and not just decided to build without due consideration to the deeds/property value etc...

blueg33

35,574 posts

223 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
I have come to this a bit late, but will try and read through the title and the benefits and restrictions, sometimes they do not mean what they apparently say.

In essence the title plan would normally show shaded areas where you have rights of way and then those rights would show as restrictions on your neighbours title. Some titles are irritating and do it by verbal description, making the vague even more vague.

If you have rights and your neighbour is preventing you from exercising those rights then you need some legal advice ASAP. This is not a planning matter at this stage its about property law.

Firstly, your neighbour needs a leter preferably from your solicitor setting out the rights and they way in which they are being breached by your neighbours actions.

Secondly, the letter should set our your potential actions/remedy. The obvious one being an injunction to prevent work from taking place which would cause a derogation of your rights.

You could also point out that any breach of your rights could create a significant loss of value to your property and this plus costs would be the minimu that you would seek to claim in damages.

Ideally you need a good lawyer with a property background, unless you are confident with titles and rights and restrictions do not attempt to do this yourself.