<p>I hope you relocated the brush to block his driveway when you moved it.</p>
<p>I know it’s totally annoying to have these problems, but it seems that you should call and then go over and talk person-to-person. The goal is to agree to a solution that allows you two to live side-by-side amicably. You have two issues:</p>
<p>1) who pays for the snowplow?
2) what to do with the gravel when it doesn’t get evenly plowed? (I vote you pave it!)</p>
<p>They probably won’t want to get it paved if they’re moving out soon, but you can come up with a temporary solution. Let him know about the surgery. Should make him feel really guilty.</p>
<p>Maybe during the time between when he moves out and the new neighbors move in, you can pave that part? </p>
<p>I hate when neighbors do that kind of thing. It’s so obnoxious and so unneccesary. How difficult is it to be civil? It takes more effort, imho, to be uncivil.</p>
<p>Glad they are leaving.</p>
<p>You said the deed indicates that the costs are “shared”, but you also (I think) said that they don’t NEED their part plowed. You really need the part closer to your house plowed, but I guess the plow can’t get there without plowing the shared part. </p>
<p>If I’m even close then it doesn’t makes sense to me that they would pay when they don’t need the service. They do benefit and of course, they should be NICE! </p>
<p>I would put that aside and go over (not your husband, just you). I would say “Somehow your brush ended up on our property. I am recovering from surgery and my husband is under doctor’s orders not to stress himself. I know we were in chaos with this storm, but if you could please help me avoid anything like that happening so my husband doesn’t have to risk his health…blah blah blah…if you could just make sure any workers know that they shouldn’t throw stuff on our property we would appreciate it!”</p>
<p>I find that most people when directly confronted like that will be reasonable. If NOT you can always put out a sign that says “KKK meeting (or Occupy protest meeting) cancelled tonight” (or something equally obnoxious) on your property. See how much that helps their house marketing :-).</p>
<p>To all who may be considering it–avoid buying property with a shared driveway at all costs! As indicated by OP’s story, everyone’s interests and desires are going to be different when it comes to deciding what kind of work should be done. At one time we shared a private drive with 6 other homes. (Yup, Connecticut.) Everyone’s deed specified that costs of maintenance and repair were to be shared. Every winter one neighbor groused that we had the steep hill sanded too frequently, and when it was their turn to manage the process (it rotated annually), we often had to leave our car at the bottom of the hill because they were too cheap to call for sanding. When it came time to re-pave, H foolishly offered to get bids and make the arrangements. The wrangling among the families took forever. We are sooo happy to have sole custody and control over our driveway now!</p>
<p>Shared responsibilities can bring people together or push them apart. MommaJ’s and the OP’s cases are obviously the latter, unfortunately. It doesn’t have to be that way obviously. And it’s really nice when a community comes together. I found a couple quotations that may help:</p>
<p>“It takes a village to plow a driveway.”
“Unshared driveways make good neighbors.”</p>
<p>CP—take some proof of what you pay for plowing, the deed that states “shared” expense and go to his house. Start by saying you know he is aggravated about the moved gravel. And empathize that you would be too if you had to rake it or drive over it. Now pull out the bills and deed. Let him know that you have never come to them for their half (ie, 1/12) but you feel since his level of aggravation is increasing, you feel it is in his interest to have some skin in the game and therefore have some leverage with the plow guy. Tell him you won’t go for “back charges” but that you expect future plowing to be shared and with that shared responsibility, he has the right to call the plow company directly and vent his frustration instead of taking them out on you.</p>
<p>collegeshopping- that sounds like a very good solution. This is such a difficult situation. I feel for the OP.</p>
<p>That is a good solution, but what happens if the neighbor annoys the plowing company so much for his small portion of the payment that the company decides that it isnt worth the aggravation and quits? OP- do you have another company you can comfortably hire?</p>
<p>cnp - When choosing a response, please try to balance the downside risk against the up-side potential. Right now you have a surly, unneighborly neighbor who hasn’t been asked to contribute to snowplowing expense. On one occasion he (probably) left a few downed limbs across your driveway. OK, he’s an a******. Do you really want MORE face time with this guy? Do you really think Mr. Surley will view you more positively when you suggest he change his behavior AND pay you cash each time YOU decide to have his portion of the common driveway plowed?</p>
<p>I think you’ve handled your driveway situation exceedingly well with the current and past neighbors. Why change that (other than because you’re really annoyed at Mr. Surley’s rude behavior)?</p>
<p>I think I agree with NewHope. You won’t get anywhere with this guy. He’ll say, “I’m not paying for any plowing, because I don’t need or want plowing. That’s your problem.” He’ll deny putting the brush in your way.</p>
<p>You might consider this–stock up on supplies, and the next time it snows, wait a day before calling the plow guy. That way, he might not have to plow the neighbor’s gravel at all.</p>
<p>My read on this:</p>
<p>Don’t under any circumstances get involved in informing anyone about the easement. These are recorded and are public information. Often buyers learn about them from their attorneys at the closing, because the attorneys know the realtors but don’t know the buyers, and the realtors may be afraid that some issue may arise to mess up the sale. </p>
<p>However, it would seem that anyone who had seen the property would see the shared driveway and would have asked about it. He probably is happy to know that he owns the land.</p>
<p>If you do bring this up with the realtor, your current neighbor will think you’re trying to screw up his sale. </p>
<p>I wonder if, in addition to his being a jerk generally, your house might be worth more than his, or your income may be higher. For many people, nothing makes them more angry than the idea that someone else has life “easier” than they do. It seems to be especially annoying if they live next door.</p>
<p>I’d lay low and hope like mad that he sells his house. There is a good chance that he’ll feel he got a raw deal on the sales price, and it sounds like he’ll invent reason to blame that on you. I’ve seen people who think everything that’s imperfect about their life is the fault of their neighbor. Steer clear of him and pray that he leaves. Conflicts are what jackasses like this thrive upon.</p>
<p>If he does sell his house, you might be able to convince the new owner to pave his part of the driveway. You could split the cost of paving the shared part.</p>
<p>I really don’t want anything to do with him. I do not trust him to be a normal, rational person and actually feel that it might be dangerous to attempt any sort of discussion.</p>
<p>I was particularly upset Tuesday because he <em>clearly</em> had piled brush IN the driveway to block my access and my incision was hurting just looking at it. I was there by myself, the street is dark. My friendly neighbors weren’t around, I had to go in and get my dogs and leave for our temporary housing arrangement.</p>
<p>But yeah, I am not sure why one would <em>try</em> to upset the neighbors when one’s house is on the market.</p>
<p>to the OP , I know what it is like to have a neighbor that has animosity…have one myself. My sister and her husband have a property that is similar to yours. The driveway is owned by them and it is very long . The neighbor who has a house just beyond theirs has access thru their property though I do not know the legality of it…luckily my BIL is an attorney and has knowledge and practice in RE laws…and they do not have an issue . Paving sounds all well and good , and I know that my relatives struggle with it every winter when the plowing bills add up. Still cheaper to plow . The paving it would take would be very costly , so she bought an SUV instead.</p>
<p>It also isn’t that easy to confront someone who clearly has a problem with you</p>
<p>Either way , I feel for the OP. It isn’t easy</p>
<p>I agree with Hunt. The neighbor will just play the card of “I do not care if it gets plowed.”
So, since your part of the driveway NEEDS to be plowed, you get stuck plowing it all. (Even though this unpleasant guy then complains that the shared portion is not plowed or shovelled quickly enough- now that is the MOST outrageous part…)</p>
<p>Lesson learned: with the next owner, do not wait till the first snowstorm to happen. Set it all up in advance.</p>
<p>dadx has a point regarding the easement. Can’t remember if you said you live in CT or not. If so, when we lived in CT and sold our house, hiring an attorney for the sale was mandatory, so they will deal with easement issue.</p>
<p>^^ It’s not really going to help cnp if the new people buying the nasty neighbors place get a survey, get a title search done, check legality of any easement agreement, etc. If I were cnp I’d have my own attorney double check now that any easement in place is sufficient and will allow continued adequate ingress/egress for her property. If the nasty guy is able to cut off access to cnp, her property will be next to worthless if it’s only accessible by helicopter.</p>
<p>A friend of ours in OH had neighbor problems over an easement. His solution: he erected “ToiletHenge” in his backyard, using old toilets as planters where the neighbors could admire the “view.” It didn’t resolve the issue, but he felt much better. :D</p>
<p>12rmh18
Hope he planted** Rubus Cockburnianus<a href=“white-stemmed%20bramble”>/b</a></p>