- Jurisdiction
- Pennsylvania
I am a homeowner/landlord, owning the last rowhome in a row of four. There is a shared driveway behind the four houses, accessible by an entrance that runs parallel alongside the other end home, and turns and runs parallel behind all the houses. Each house has a garage in the basement that is accessed by a sloping downward driveway. The shared portion dead ends behind my house (another property's rear garage wall abuts my tiny backyard and the end of the shared portion).
Over time, 3 of the homeowners (myself included) have built decks over the private driveways. (The sloping nature makes it difficult to park modern cars.) We built our deck almost 20 years ago, and have been parking in the easement behind our house. In any other geographic configuration, we would not park there, because it would block the right of way of other houses. But since we are the house at the dead end, we are not blocking anyone. 15 years ago we began renting the house out, advertising the one parking space. We have never had any issues. The most recent tenants (began renting Aug 2023) told me that one of the other houses was parking in the easement, blocking their way in and out. After tense conversations with the owner/landlord and tenant, and finally a successful ticket from police, they stopped. I sent a short letter to all the houses with a friendly reminder about the easement, with my number for any questions. I provided a copy for my tenants for reference. In the letter I described a "12 foot easement", just to illustrate that parking a 6 foot wide car and leaving 6 feet for another car to squeeze by wasn't acceptable.
Now my tenants are arguing with the next door neighbor (not the aforementioned parking offender), to move their planters because they are 6" inside the easement.
The neighbor's feathers are extremely ruffled, and I tend to agree. I've advised the tenants to try to be more neighborly, and spoke to the neighbor.
Having said all that, the neighbor and the other tenant are interpreting that I don't have a right to park on the shared easement that dead ends behind my house. Obviously I would not if it weren't a dead end, but I am not limiting access to any other property. Also there is another neighboring garage to the rear of my property that overlaps the easement, it juts into the easement by at least 2 feet, reducing the width to 10 feet - so other neighbors can't use it as a turn around.
I feel like everyone is being petty because I have a deck and parking.
I'm willing to remove the deck and reestablish my private parking area but I would rather not if I don't need to.
Pic of the view of my parking area, standing in the common driveway. My deck is stained dark brown, the neighbors deck is lighter color.
Over time, 3 of the homeowners (myself included) have built decks over the private driveways. (The sloping nature makes it difficult to park modern cars.) We built our deck almost 20 years ago, and have been parking in the easement behind our house. In any other geographic configuration, we would not park there, because it would block the right of way of other houses. But since we are the house at the dead end, we are not blocking anyone. 15 years ago we began renting the house out, advertising the one parking space. We have never had any issues. The most recent tenants (began renting Aug 2023) told me that one of the other houses was parking in the easement, blocking their way in and out. After tense conversations with the owner/landlord and tenant, and finally a successful ticket from police, they stopped. I sent a short letter to all the houses with a friendly reminder about the easement, with my number for any questions. I provided a copy for my tenants for reference. In the letter I described a "12 foot easement", just to illustrate that parking a 6 foot wide car and leaving 6 feet for another car to squeeze by wasn't acceptable.
Now my tenants are arguing with the next door neighbor (not the aforementioned parking offender), to move their planters because they are 6" inside the easement.
The neighbor's feathers are extremely ruffled, and I tend to agree. I've advised the tenants to try to be more neighborly, and spoke to the neighbor.
Having said all that, the neighbor and the other tenant are interpreting that I don't have a right to park on the shared easement that dead ends behind my house. Obviously I would not if it weren't a dead end, but I am not limiting access to any other property. Also there is another neighboring garage to the rear of my property that overlaps the easement, it juts into the easement by at least 2 feet, reducing the width to 10 feet - so other neighbors can't use it as a turn around.
I feel like everyone is being petty because I have a deck and parking.
I'm willing to remove the deck and reestablish my private parking area but I would rather not if I don't need to.
Pic of the view of my parking area, standing in the common driveway. My deck is stained dark brown, the neighbors deck is lighter color.
