<p>Ok … let me try to describe. There are three houses involved – with two driveways – off one cul-de-sac.</p>
<p>You have to have 25 feet of road frontage for a legal lot. The original lot was 4 acres. When we purchased the land, the lot was split. We are in a 2 acre zone. The original lot had a driveway on its 25 foot frontage. We have an easement to use that driveway.
Our driveway comes into the shared portion 100 feet from the road. The unshared portion of each driveway is about 500 feet. Their house is approximately level with the road. Our house is 75 feet below the road – but fronts on a pond. </p>
<p>We do have 25 feet of frontage. To get that, we had to buy a strip of land that parallels the driveway from the neighbors on the other side. They did not want us to share their driveway, and they have an easement from us to use their own driveway, which we technically own. It would be extremely difficult to put a driveway into that strip due to the topography.</p>
<p>I will point out that the two original landowners cooked up this plan themselves, and then we purchased the building lot from both of them.This is not an unusual set up in our neck of the woods. We had cordial and friendly relations with both sellers, but the two subsequent owners of the driveway property have been difficult.</p>
<p>We require plowing because the driveway is so steep and long. The neighbors, because theirs is flat, do not plow. They sometimes shovel, and mostly motor on through.</p>
<p>Common driveways are not, um, uncommon in CT. Sometimes the municipality requires them as condition of subdivision (into building lots). Sometimes the developer choses to use a common driveway, usually due to topography. The arrangement usually works out fine … upon condition of reasonable neighbors of course. Oh, now I see …</p>
<p>going along on the driveway/highway there’s a house 500 feet ahead, and there’s an exit to the right. It slopes down. There’s a house 500 feet ahead down the exit. With pond frontage.</p>
<p>It’s also on the north/east side of the hill – so there’s no solar gain melting the snow. Has to be plowed or we’ll have ice forever.</p>
<p>What happened to the drawing? It was clever and very helpful to visualize. I still don’t get why the cranky neignbor doesnt ever shovel/plow the first 100 feet of his straight line driveway?</p>
<p>Cranky neighbor is cheap. He has some little garden tractor that came with the property that sorta pushes some snow around sometimes. He doesn’t want to have a plow contract. They intend to just motor on through.</p>
<p>These would be the people that called and yelled at their real estate agent that sold them the property because they decided it was too close to a busy street. It could easily be seen on a map … but ??? These would be the people that let their newly licensed driver out in bald tires on a snowy day to be rescued by neighbors such as myself. These are the people … I could go on …</p>
<p>“Their house is on the market. I can’t wait.”</p>
<p>^May or may not solve your problem. In this housing market, over the past few years, I’ve had one neighbor 2 doors down who took their home off the market after more than a year due to no takers. I had another neighbor across the street sell their home in 6 weeks. Both were comparable homes. Best wishes for a quick sale. Do make sure the new neighbors are aware of the easement.</p>
<p>I second the idea of being sure the real estate agent is aware of the easement, and possibly the approximate annual costs, which should be shared. I’d start asking cranky guy for his share of the plowing fees, etc. He may/may not pay (sounds like he wouldn’t), but at least you would establish the expectation that the expenses be shared.</p>
<p>I’d total up all the snowplowing bills from the last 14 years (or at least from the last few years that I could document), along with a copy of the easement stating that bills are to be split evenly between the two houses, and deliver them to the nasty neighbor. Ask him if he’d like to pay his share now, or if he’d prefer you to put a lien on the property and have it paid when the house is sold. </p>
<p>Good luck on a quick sale! These are exactly the type of reasons I always eliminated houses that didn’t own their own driveway…you just never know who will be your future neighbors.</p>
<p>The one thing that did catch my eye was the “gravel” issue. Are you saying they plowed gravel into the neighbor’s yard? Is this a recurring problem? Having a long driveway and having been the victim of overzealous snow plow men, I have sympathy for this issue. It’s a real pain to rake all that gravel back out, and in my circumstance, it could be eliminated if my H took a little more time and cared. Sounds as if your neighbor has a few other issues as well though :)</p>
<p>The shared portion of the driveway is not paved. It’s dirt/gravel. When we built our house, and put in our driveway, which is paved, the neighbors (not the current one) didn’t want us to pave the shared portion. We gravelled it, and IIRC have dumped some random gravel loads over the years. Last summer the current owner added more gravel. </p>
<p>Yeah the plow guy probably pushes some of the gravel around. It either becomes uneven in the driveway, or some of it’s into the street. I’m not thrilled, and wouldn’t be if I was Mr. Cranky, but geez – he’s had free plowing. He can take a few minutes to rake out the gravel.</p>
<p>LAFalum … that’s what I want to do. Lien the property for the unpaid snow plow bills. We happen to be friends with his real estate agent – in fact, she recommended our current plow guy!</p>
<p>I’m not sure I understand. IF the neighbor is supposed to pay a portion of the snow removal, how come he didn’t. It sounds as though you took the initiative to hire someone and pay the bill yourself. Have you ever submitted bills for payment from this guy? Or did you just take it upon yourself to pay for it. I’m not a lawyer, but I’m fearful that if you have assumed responsibility in the past, that you can’t ask for payment now. I hope that’s not the case. He sounds like a nightmare.</p>
<p>The deed indicates that the costs are “shared”. We’ve never asked him to share the cost. He would only be responsible for 1/12 of our total bill – or for the $300 this weekend, $25. (Our driveway is 600 feet. The shared portion is 1/6th. He’s theoretically responsible for half of that, or 1/12.)</p>
<p>All I really want is for him to be cognizant that he’s got a sweet deal and be nice about it. Coming home to find the driveway vindictively blocked when I am unable to move things is what sent me over the edge.</p>