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Shared driveway issues

8K views 32 replies 18 participants last post by  Mrklaw 
#1 ·
Hi all sorry if this topic has been covered before but I was wondering if anyone had experienced the same

I am in the process of purchasing my first EV and I am having some real difficulties in getting an installation sorted with the company I have been assigned to.

the issue is that I share a drive with my neighbour, but because we are not the drive adjacent to the house we are going to have to cross their land to charge the car. They are completely happy with this as the point will be on the house, but the installer say as we are having to run a cable over the neighbours drive (which can be done safely) that we are unable to proceed without making changes to the deeds.

has anyone else experienced anything similar?
 
#2 ·
I'm sorry to say this, and I'm not in any way saying I have any specific knowledge, but it sounds to me like you're not going to get anywhere with that. I cannot understand how you ended up with what appears to be the drives being swapped around, and I suspect, without some explanation on that you may not get a lot of help either - it's a very unusual situation if you ask me ?
 
#6 ·
I cannot understand how you ended up with what appears to be the drives being swapped around, and I suspect, without some explanation on that you may not get a lot of help either - it's a very unusual situation if you ask me ?
It seems to be happening more and more as the miniscule spaces in new developments try to cram ever more houses in whilst also having to fulfil the obligation of at least one space per house.

Very creative solutions are employed to wedge as many houses+spaces into a given development boundary.

I am renting a house which is likewise, although my house is the one with the space next to it, but in turn if the people whose space next to mine wanted to do something like that, they'd have to cross 'my' drive (not my issues as I rent this house for work purposes).

Meanwhile, the house I own has a shared driveway with one other house in that the deeds say we each own a particular part of it but can drive across each others without parking. Suffice to say the neighbours have got it into their heads they can park there which occasionally means we can't manoeuvre in/out of our own spaces.

My strong advice is just to avoid owning properties with any sort of shared usage land and/or that is split into fragments. Consider it a red flag that has to have seriously good mitigations to justify tolerating it. Just IMO.

I can't really see the problem in the OP's case for just burying any connection in a shallow cutout, if the neighbour accepts this (get another contractor to lay 'just' the connecting cable in the driveway, if the EVSE fitters are arsy about it). It doesn't need to be part of the deeds, but written as a letter of comfort/easement which 'may' give some rights if they move on and new owners want to cut the line, but if they do, figure out the solution then and don't over-think it for now, is my advice.
 
#4 ·
Map Rectangle Slope Schematic Font

Here is an image of the property we are in the red borders

By allocates to I mean the company I am buying the car from use a specific supplier and they have now passed me onto a third party installer who are now saying they are unable to provide the works due even though I have paid the supplier as per their instructions
 
#9 ·
I assume plot 1 (your neighbour) is a semi immediately to the left of your house just showing on the left of the drawing? Now when they want EV's (within 10 years no doubt) they have an even bigger problem as how can they get power cables to their spot adjacent your property without crossing your property?

If your neighbours are not luddites (who will declare they will never own an EV) then i suggest a sit down dinging table coffee chat session to come up with a plan and split the costs, that gives both houses power cable routes to the parking spots, and get it legally agreed via a solicitor. Maybe a 3 way chat with a sparky on how EVSE cabling can be run to both drives for both houses, before any OLEV grant companies are involved. More cost for sure, but if they refuse because of "deeds" you need to cut this part of their install out of the picture.

For sure, long term in 20 years time, every one coming to view these properties looking to buy will walk away if no home charging solution for their EV's is possible, both you and your neighbour, so it's in your best interests to sort it now before it's an issue and cheaper, or you will both devalue your houses long term.

I would say in the future, having a Parking space that cant be powered for an EVSE would be like buying a house with only 1800's outside toilets at the end of the garden, yes you have a flushing toilet, but its very inconvenient in the 21st century.

My suggestion short term would be to have the EVSE fitted to the outside east wall in the drawing at the "fall 1:40" corner, but have an "untethered" one. Then shell out for a "custom" type 2 cable say 20m ? that can reach across the garden, along the back fence, across the back of yours and your neighbours drives at the back and round to a wall hook on your drive.

Then figure out a fitted and legal solution later when your neighbour wants EVSE charging across the back of your garden.
 
#7 · (Edited)
The problem will arise if your neighbour subsequently changes their mind about the arrangement, or a future owner of next door is not happy. The only way to guarantee the right forever is to arrange a deed of grant granting a specific legal right to pass over the adjoining parking space for car charging. This would attach to each house rather than be a personal licence between you. This would then be registered at the Land Registry. No idea what doing all that would cost, but if you intend to live there long term it might be worth doing while the neighbour is on side and willing to sign a legal deed.

As an alternative, why not see if your neighbour would be interested in a deed of exchange, and legally swap parking spaces so you have direct access for charging. Looking at your deed plan the neighbour does not directly adjoin their current space so likely no disadvantage to them if you paid their legal costs.
 
#11 ·
As an alternative, why not see if your neighbour would be interested in a deed of exchange, and legally swap parking spaces so you have direct access for charging. Looking at your deed plan the neighbour does not directly adjoin their current space so likely no disadvantage to them if you paid their legal costs.
If the Neighbour was dumb enough to agree this i would bite their hand off, it would be a steal, forever solving the OO's problem. But they would be screwing themselves over for EVSE charging from their house in the future, in fact the OO would then be at a massive advantage to the the "access giver" and could "extort" the neighbours to agree them to lay cables over "their" land. Say ask £5k plus they pay all the legal deeds costs.

But then, i am an evil thinker like that, where there is no choice, there is big money to be made.
 
#12 ·
Thank you all for the messages has been really useful.

Luckily my neighbour has been really helpful and supportive, but the installer have become unpleasant from the exchanges we have had so far. They asked for plans for the OZEV grant as this was required and where this has escalated from.

I will find a working solution if possible with the supplier/installer hopefully but difficult when they are becoming difficult.

thank you
 
#13 ·
Can you upload a photo showing the back section of the parking spaces. Is there a fence at the back that a cable could be clipped to at high level. Then the cable drops back down to your space where you mount the charger. It's not as if the neighbours could build a single garage there - there's not enough width.

Or you could join with your neighbour to build an enclosed covered area/garage over the rear two spaces. Then you add security and could bury a duct through to your side while walls are going up.
 
#15 ·
What permission can you get from neighbour? Will they allow you to put a duct under that gravelled area?

Something like this
 
#16 ·
Could always do like me, sod the olev grant, it doesn't actually save that much in the long run, and get a sparky (approved) to just fit it, come to agreement with neighbor and no one else needs be involved. If your car has management to start stop charging done even need to get a smart charger then either, save a few Bob.
 
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#18 ·
This is the correct answer. For anything other than a very straightforward install, a local electrician will be at least the same price, if not cheaper, and far easier.

Our detached garage required its supply upgrading from the main house in order to fit a charger. Cheapest OLEV grant price was £1,300. Instead of paying that we got a local company to upgrade the supply and install a charger (fully compliant with regulations and certified) for £880. That also came with the benefit of them just turning up and doing the work, no OLEV paperwork to manage.
 
#20 ·
We have a similar setup with the extra complication of not owning the land where we park, nobody else does - well it’s probably on some liquidators books from about 40 years ago - so not only is it not technically ours, we can’t get permission from anyone for a charge point install and we have to cross the neighbours property with a cable. Just made a casual arrangement with our neighbour. Anything else requires legal work to make a conveyance on the deeds granting an easement. Aside from the cost of this it would likely have scared the neighbours off and I don’t think they’d have gone for it.
Our installer, local company, were prepared to do the grant application on the basis of sending photos and not asking too many questions. The only query we had was providing further proof it was private off road parking, which was weird because the houses are down a private lane so definitely off road.
 
#24 ·
Only reading the Conveyance / Transfer the above plan came from will explain what the T marks denote in terms of ownership of the fences. There should be either provisions or personal covenants in the deed explaining the T marks. Usual convention would suggest the outward T on the back fence would mean the neighbour at the back has to maintain that fence. If you attach a cable to it and they decide they want a new fence and the cable was in their way to do so you might have to pay to remove and reinstall the cable.
 
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