I'd imagine it's fine to put a fence up between the two driveways, just put a gate in. Do the two padlock on a chain thing, one for you, one for him.
Then in six months time....:p
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I'd imagine it's fine to put a fence up between the two driveways, just put a gate in. Do the two padlock on a chain thing, one for you, one for him.
Then in six months time....:p
Mr Happy was adamant that nothing could be put there. The gate option had crossed my mind when the problem first arose & I was planning on discussing it with him in a civilised manner but he didn't hang around long enough :mad:.Quote:
Originally Posted by abaddonxi
I've also read that he has no obligation to re-lock or even close the gate which is a worry too.
I'll be talking to my solicitor again this week to get the all clear just to be on the safe side.
So both parties have easements in their titles for access on either side of the boundary?
Is access necessary or just a weird arrangement?
I guess you could spend a lot of time driving up and down his side and then suggest you both remove the easements. Wonder how much that'd cost.
You have what is called reciprical rights of access. He has an easement for access on his property that benefits you and you have an easement for access on your property that beneits him. This situation is usually in the form of say 2*2m wide strips that gave a total 4m wide driveway access to two properties, battle-axe style. A 20m wide access is VERY wide, I could not give you a reason why it may have been done that way without seeing a DP (survey plan) etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scouse
You cannot extinguish the easement on your property without the beneficiaries agreement (ie your neighbour) and he cannot do likewise.
Why do the properties have common driveways? Is is too steep for each property to get access directly onto the street? Was it a lot with two houses on it (say owned by members of the same family and therefore the common driveway was acceptable) that was subdivided and one lot sold? (Have come across a few situations like this over the years where a family breakup saw a property subdivided and when one party sold, the other party made life difficult for the new property owner as the properties were never really set up to operate as separate dwellings.)
Property law can get very ugly. Hope it works out.
Cheers,
Chris
Just a weird arrangement.Quote:
Originally Posted by abaddonxi
Both driveways from the road (his on the left):
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment...3&d=1291677479
Part the way down my driveway:
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment...4&d=1291677574
And the house end of my driveway:
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment...5&d=1291677663
Up & down his driveway. As you can see, his is a lot easier to drive along:
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment...6&d=1291677721
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment...7&d=1291677757
I'd always wondered why someone would make a grand entrance at the end of a driveway. Now I know.
As you can see, access is quite easy & virtually level for the first 100m or so. It then goes to a gradual slope down to the main part of his block.Quote:
Originally Posted by cjc_td5
Both lots were subdivided off the original lot that faces the main road (originally had approx 75 acres) at the same time in 1987.
Mr Happy told me that he's lived there for 20 years but a search shows that he only bought his land in 1999. My house was there long before that.
There is a dividing mound/garden between the driveways down to my house so I can only assume this was there before he bought his land.
From the photos, it looks like 2 seperate driveways divided buy a row of trees. Why can you not put a fence up between the two rows?
I once avoided buying a property because of a "shared" drive way, The property I was looking at was off private drive way and was owned by the dairy farm a bit further along. I could see potential problems down the track if and when the dairy was sold off .
I'm hoping that I can but I'll need to give him access via a gate between the two driveways.Quote:
Originally Posted by crash
I can really see no reason why on earth he would need access to both driveways but I'll see what the solicitor says about the fence with a gate idea.
Hi there Scouse,
It certainly looks an unusual arrangement.
It might be worth going and seeing your local Council to see if they can give a reason why the recipical rights of access leg is so wide. They may also be able to give you some advice of managing access etc.
Are we talking the Sydney basin or up in the Blue Mountians?
A thought is that they created a wide access leg to leave room for a potential future road. Is there developable land at the rear? Another reason could be some sort of Bushfire requirement (APZ etc) thought is looks like it was never physically created.
Cheers,
Chris
The local council seems to be worse than useless. On every map I've seen, there's a Lanhams Rd running off 'mine'. It doesn't actually exist so I thought I'd ask council what was planned.Quote:
Originally Posted by cjc_td5
Council knew nothing about this road. There is a clearing for it on the affected property so it's been planned by someone.
[ame="http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Wedderburn,+N ew+South+Wales&sll=-25.274398,133.775136&sspn=99.673192,155.917969&ie= UTF8&hq=&hnear=Wedderburn+New+South+Wales&ll=-34.127517,150.814519&spn=0.006279,0.013604&z=17"]Wedderburn, New South Wales - Google Maps[/ame]
Eventually they said it wasn't in their council area & I'd have to speak to the adjoining council. WTF - the whole residential area of the suburb is part of Campbelltown Council !!
There's no real developable land behind the properties due to the creeks & associated terrain.
I doubt it's an APZ. The lot that Lanhams Rd is on is actually just a paddock with a few small fruit trees so I doubt an APZ would be needed there.
Thanks for the link, gives me an idea of layout etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scouse
Lanhams Road, while shown on the google map, is does not appear to be a formal road reserve as there is no road reserve boundary around it like the other roads. I don't know where google get their mapping data from, but the Council may not be privy to why it is there. Compare this to the road reserve that continues east from the cul-de-sac at your driveway. This appears to be a formal road reserve but the creek means it will likely never be built.
I fear that extinguishing the recipcial rights of access would be very difficult if the neighbour does not agree to giving up his right of access. Your options appear to be:
- Fence up your side of the combined driveway and to the garage door, leaving the garage door facing directly into the access leg. This secures your property but leaves the garage door facing directly into the access leg.
- Run a fence up the centre of the access leg and providing gates at both ends to allow the neighbour access through if they wish. It would appear that they would only do this to be vindictive as they have a better standard access on their side of the access leg, but there could be other reasons though. There would have to be legal precidents for this type of activity, you may need some legal advice to work out what is "reasonable".
If you are hemoraging costs getting legal advice, it may be worth seeing a local legal advocacy group as property & access issues would their bread & butter work and they should know what is required.
Cheers,