Last August we moved to a barn conversion.

We're the end property on a long range of barn, with a large central pedestrian courtyard and the old listed farmhouse, divided into two properties in the middle. All the garages are on the far side of the site and we have two in a block of eight that have no mains electricity. To get to them we have to walk through the middle of the mews and out the other side. Added to that, the deeds say we have right of way over the garage forecourt, but must not create an obstruction and the forecourt is actually owned by our next door neighbour who has just one garage in the block.

To make life easier we have a large drive at the bottom of our garden at the end of the barn. It has room for about six cars and we own it, but the neighbour has right of way into their garden and a right to park on their side of the drive, provided they don't cause an obstruction.

Previous owners of our neighbours property used to park their cars on their land, just off our drive. Effectively using our drive for access and occasionally for visitors. There was no gate between our drive and their parking area, but they did have gates between their garden and their parking. The new neighbours have removed those gates and erected new ones, between our drive and their garden and now the new gates are almost permanently shut and they park their cars on our drive.

So, by parking on our drive, when hitherto neighbours have parked on their own land, are they creating an obstruction?

If we park a caravan outside one of our garages, on their land, where we have right of way, are we creating an obstruction?

The thing is that the neighbours have a right to park there, providing they don't cause an obstruction', which, at the very least, is ambiguous. And by the same token we have the same right on the garage forecourt that they own. So it's a sort of quid pro quo, only at present they're pro quoing it more than our previous neighbours did.

I checked out our garage doors for height to see if I could get an Eriba inside but the max opening is 2m and then you have doorframe and the up and over door so max real opening is only about 1.9m and even a Puck is 2.1m tall.

There is a sort of precedent on the garage forecourt where somebody's mate's broken down enormous motorbike has been stood in front of one of the garages for at least two years and our neighbour hasn't raised an objection. An Eriba is about four times bigger than the bike, so may, just may, be more noticeable.

It would depend on the covenants relating to access.

Your new neighbours have the right to park on their side of the drive. What your previous neighbours did is of no relevance.

In all likelyhood, You have an easement over the privately owned access to the garages. Easements are rights over land, often electricity companies or water companies have easements to access and maintain their infrastructure on land owned by others. In this case I would think it is unlikely that the easement would include being able to park (anything) on that access as the easement is likely restricted purely to accessing the land, in this case the track or forecourt owned by another who can do what they want with it as long as it doesn't affect your access.

Hence, I would take them round a nice bottle of red and ask if they would mind you parking your small design icon on their garage forecourt.

Charlie

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Thanks for that Charlie
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Soon after we got here I took them a bottle of red wine to help apologise for our dog barking. The lady of the house refused the wine, saying 'we don't drink red wine'. Retreat of one rather deflated SDA.

I think the problem may be that their house is Grade 2 Listed and our place is in the curtilage, so similar restrictions apply. We invited the local conservation officer round to chat through what we could and couldn't do. Whilst here she spotted that they'd replaced a long length of fence at a foot higher than before and that the new gates were not of a style regarded as suitable for a listed property and consent hadn't been sought.

So I suspect they've had some hassle from the local authority, all down to us checking first. Maybe that's why they're not chatty and think we snitched on them.

Andy,

Unfortunately, it sounds as if you have rather churlish neighbours.

If it was me, I would just have a chat with the other garage owners and let them know what you are going to do.

Then just go ahead and see what happens.

Hopefully nothing.

Charlie