Does anyone own a house where you have to share a driveway with the adjacent house?

I have found the perfect house that has almost all of the features I wanted but I think the home has a shared driveway. What are you experiences and have you had any problems with this type of set up where you own the single property and the adjacent house is also a single property housed by one family.

Thanks for your response.

When we were house-hunting recently we looked at several properties that had shared driveways. I talked to a property lawyer about the situation, and I was warned to not enter into it.

This driveway would presumably be the only access to your property, and you would probably be "jointly" responsible for it. In the real world, that means that if your neighbor damages the driveway and won't pay to fix it, you have to. It means that if your neighbor blocks it with his cars you are going to have to have his cars removed.

You may start out with a great neighbor sharing your driveway, but then he could move and you'd end up with Billybob Deliveranceville with 30 vehicles in the driveway, children playing on it, etc.

Unless you have reason to believe you can have your own driveway installed if you need to (which means it's been approved by the county) I'd steer well clear of this type of situation, since it can end up impacting your ability to enter and leave you home.

The there are several issues: who will maintain, who will shovel the snow and do they park in the driveway vs the garage or street.

I wouldn't worry about value. I have a friend that lives on Mass Ave in DC, the house is valued around $4 million and they share a driveway.

One of you owns it, the other has an easement. It is important to figure out which of the two you are. While neither can prevent the use to the other it is the person with the easement, not the owner that has to maintain the driveway.

First, confirm it really is a shared driveway & not on one lot or the other. If it is, it all depends upon the neighbor with whom you have to share the driveway.

I don't myself but this is very common. There should be a shared driveway easement recorded with the legal description of the homes. I would hope that both owners would be considerate of the others.

I'm a realtor and this is very common in the area where I work.
99% of the time it works just fine, but there can be problems in that 1%. You do need to find out exactly what the situation is.

Here generally the ownership is down the middle of the driveway and both parties have an obligation to maintain. If one party refuses, the city hires the work done and adds the cost to the property taxes. The driveway is a right of way and neither party is permitted to park on it - merely drive over it. But people make deals like park there every other month, or one side just doesn't use it.

problems can vary - but you have to have a very clear agreement with your neighbor on issues such as
who shovels snow?
who is going to pay to have repairs made - how will the cost be split
my opinion - problem

Personally I would avoid it if possible. Others have given you the caveats about whether one owner owns the whole thing or is it actually split, etc. Most of the time it will work out fine, but if you get a wackjob of a neighbor things can go downhill fast.

Just make sure that you have a deeded access or easement to your property and you will have no problems.

I did have one client that had the back property of a shared driveway. The front house had a large bush that they refused to trim that was growing into the driveway. They tried to be nice about it, even offered to pay to have a service come trim it. When they threatened to make the front property pay for any damage to the vehicles, the front property eventually trimmed and later removed the bush. But I think problems like this a pretty rare.

I grew up in a place like that and shared it with an elderly couple. But I don't remember any problems. We knew to be considerate of them and they of us.

I have a shared driveway! And for the last 4 years I HAVE BEEN the oNLY one to shovel! EVER! The last two winters I have been preg. What can I do? I am getting tired of these lazy people!

Man, I have this neighbor that lives in the back house and I live in the front house, When I moved in (22 years ago) I lived in the back house, oh yeah, we rent by the way and we have a single driveway, I lived in the back where he lives now for 10 years, I rented from a totally differant person at the time and there was a family of 7 in the front, and I was single, the landlord never fixed anything so the people in front moved out about 5 years later, my landlord came about a month before they moved.My new landlord GREAT GUY by the way, but he is getting on in age, and doesn't speak up much, just a real quiet guy, and because he's getting on in age, his nieces are taking over as half landlord, and do the speaking for him, well I just met these ladys just a couple days ago. Ok, to get to the point, when I moved in 22 years ago the rule was the front house gets the driveway simply because it doesn't work to try to share it, believe me, I no, and so I agreed, what else could I do? But thats beside the point, so when my new landlord took over and those ppl in the front moved out a month later, didn't even give the new guy a chance, they were fed up, so poof, they were gone, and lo and behold, the new landlord granted me the driveway simply beacause the front house is now empty. So 5 years go by, front house still empty, so a friend ask me, becuse it's a much bigger house, do you think the landlord woul'd rent it to us, I said, I bet he would, so I asked, and we got it. A nd like a dummy, I put a good word for this guy, and got him in the back house, big mistake, the guys obsessed with having a driveway, so we've had these tiffs, we'll just call them that, and now all hecks broke lose, well I bought a MotorHome, cleared it with my landlord before I bought it about 4 months ago, cleared it with the city to park it in my driveway. OK, he calls the landlord, he comes out, the guy in the back comes up and knocks on my front door, ask me , whats the situation with the parking, I say, what ya talkin about, and it got a little heated, so the landlords nieces jump out of there car, because they have to drive him around, and basically sided with him and there makin me move the MotorHome, so I'll probably lose that, just bought 4 months ago, but there alot to store. So basically I just gave up the driveway, because they said eventually we both have to go, so I gave in because a few cars aren't worth loseing my home, a place that i've had for a long time, so the MotorHome is on the street, and i have to move every three days. He also uesd to park over the sidewalk and would'nt move the car so I could get out, been puttin up with his crap for a 10 years, the guys bypolar or something, It's not like we haven't talked, he's been up in my place many times, never got mad, nothing. All of a suden he snaps and want's a driveway again, plenty parking on the steet, right out front, I just don't get it, It must be the jet ski's and the 1939 Studabaker I have in the back of the driveway, who no what he's think, but I sure would like to know how to deal with this guy, It's frickin crazy I tell ya. Well I'm done, If anybody has any suggestions, please please summit it THANK YOU Oh did I mention i've never been late on rent the whole time I've been there, the other guy can't say that. lol

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