Home owners blocking their driveways

mikemac

Not sure was this raised before but it's a relevant topic.
It realy applies to rural areas where most houses are one off houses on their own site.
Many have driveways meeting the road, say maybe 10 metres either side of the gate.

So if the road is narrow drivers can use this driveway and allow the other vehicle to pass.
But it seems to be a common thing now to put barriers and stones along the driveway to stop people doing this. A very petty thing to do and very dangerous is someone swerves onto the driveway to avoid oncoming traffic on a narrow rural road.

Suppose you drove onto someone's driveway, hit a stone and damaged your car. Can the house owner claim they own the land and you had no business being there. It's possible but there has to be some kind of contributory negligance here.
To be clear I'm not talking about entering someone's gate and driving up to the house. I'm talking about a space for a car to fit beside the garden wall along the road

I tried hard to get a pic but failed. I'll keep trying

GBX

I hear what your saying, but isnt the driveway their property and not a public highway. so therefore there within their own rights to do what they please. If your gonna take a chance on pulling in, its your own risk.

Our man in Havana

Yes, as a rural dweller, I get annoyed with strangers using my property to turn around. I installed a big gate as a solution. Never a problem since.

jdivision

This is one of the reasons why ribbon development should not be allowed. It leads to increased car accidents.

maidhc

Interesting question.

Possibly a breach of their planning permission to but obstacles there, I would be pretty certain of that.

It might be considered a nuisance too, and I sure negligence would work if you damaged your vehicle.

pete4130

Many years ago (late 70's/early 80's) an aunt hit a big stone that was placed outside a rural house near Ratoath. The house belonged to a Garda. He refused to pay for damages to her car so she took the legal route and he ended up being liable for the damages to her car and had to pay up.

caesar

Cars are always turning outside my parents house, we don't have any stones or barriers to stop people but it's a bit annoying I suppose when the person turning does damage.

Actually my father once wrecked a tyre on a block where there were blocks left outside a house to stop people pulling in, it was dark and he couldn't see it. He payed for the damage himself cause he felt it was his own fault.

ChowChow

OP, our site frontage is about 100m and we had to remove the existing boundary hedge and put in a hardcore surface as part of our planning permission. The council have not maintained it and it's gone to muck from cars pulling in or people parking there. While this is frustrating I'm not complaining. However a bin lorry has started to use our driveway to turnaround - the cheeky bugger reverses into our tarmacadam driveway and is starting to damage it. So perhaps you might see why some people take measures like you've mentioned.

Wishbone Ash

GBX wrote: »

but isnt the driveway their property and not a public highway. so therefore there within their own rights to do what they please. If your gonna take a chance on pulling in, its your own risk.

Bond-007 wrote: »

Yes, as a rural dweller, I get annoyed with strangers using my property to turn around. I installed a big gate as a solution. Never a problem since.

micmclo is referring to the piece of land between the property boundary and the actual road. Some people park along there while others have a strip of lawn or gravel there. AFAIK the owner of the property does not own the piece at the front and should not place obstacles there. They could be liable for any damage done.

The reason that stones are placed there is fairly understandable all the same. It's usually to prevent trucks from messing up the lawn on a narrow road when they meet another vehicle.

mikemac

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

micmclo is referring to the piece of land between the property boundary and the actual road. Some people park along there while others have a strip of lawn or gravel there. AFAIK the owner of the property does not own the piece at the front and should not place obstacles there. They could be liable for any damage done.

Hmmm, I realy wish I had a pic.

To be clear, this is only rural areas where the homeowner built on the site and if they hadn't you'd see nothing but a ditch and a field behind it.
So the homeowner cleared that land and were 100% responsible for development, the council did not build footpaths or lay down tarmac or gravel.
Most likely there are no neighbours nearby either.

I can also understand why they do it and yes it's their land and they built on it but it is realy is dangerous to put down a row of blocks that someone would find hard to see at night and with oncoming traffic dazzling them on a narrow road

eamon234

The piece from your front wall to the edge of the road
is your property and you have every right to block access. It's also your responsibility to maintain it. If it was the property of the council they would maintain it - which they don't - they resurfaced my road recently and left that bit out on all the houses on the road. I would imagine that any obstacles placed there should have a reflective surface though (this is the case with most houses I've seen. I can see your point there OP.
It is very annoying having people parking there though - especially the horsey a$$holes who seem to think it's their private car park every time they decide to go hunting - 4x4's trucks horseboxes dogs I cleared them the last time had to call the Gards just got sick of it - they also seem to like parking on bad bends for some reason but there's a whole other thread there!

jrar

As I understand it, the legal definition of a "road" in this country is the full width of the carriageway from hedgerow/ditch to hedgerow/ditch which includes any strips of grassy/tarmacadamed areas outside dwellings or otherwise - so in effect anyone placing breeze blocks outside their property are in fact laying them on a public roadway and as such would technically be liable for any damage caused by them to passing vehicles etc.

Wishbone Ash

micmclo wrote: »

I can also understand why they do it and yes it's their land

eamon234 wrote: »

The piece from your front wall to the edge of the road
is your property and you have every right to block access

Any of my friends who live in one off houses say it's not their property. My brother, who is a builder, also states that the homeowner does not own that piece of land. and that building regulations specifically state that the walls must be a certain distance back. He also claims that, strictly speaking, placing a lawn there is not permitted.