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Neighbor owns driveway, wants me to pay 100% of maintenance.
I bought a house last year and gained an entitled neighbor.
The neighbor, we'll call him Rick, and I have been in an ongoing dispute over the driveway.
Here's the sitch:
Rick owns the driveway. I have a legal right-of-way through it to access my property.
Except Rick doesn't just casually use this driveway. He uses it constantly. For his business.
Deliveries. Trucks like UPS and FEDEX. Visitors. USPS Mail truck comes up it. Daily use. I've literally documented him using it multiple times a day. I have a Nest cam on the driveway 24/7 because I felt like I was entering some alternate reality where facts were becoming optional.
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At first glance, this sounds like one of those boring little neighborhood disagreements that should take five minutes to solve. Shared driveway, shared maintenance, everybody contributes fairly, end of story. Unfortunately, the situation immediately became much stranger once the homeowner realized the neighbor was treating the driveway less like private property and more like a full-time business loading zone.
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Now here's where the entitlement enters the arena in a Subaru Outback.
First, I ask that he pays 50% for plowing. We're in a city in Vermont. Snow problem, yea?
He claims I'm demanding too much because he uses the driveway so little and I have 2 units on my property.
Yeah, I had to buy a duplex; it was going to be sold out from under us. I don't make any income from my tenants; they're my friends, and one of them is battling cancer.
I'm not a slumlord. However, Rick owns 4 properties. One a condo, a private pond cabin, plus his house, and his personal little man-child cave next to my place.
He counter-offers "a fair 15%". I say no. He's got deliveries and pickups for his kid, and he has his one and only friend come over and sing horribly at 9:30 at night.
He reaches out again to ask if I accept his offer. I don't respond.
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He responds that, since I didn't respond to his 15% offer a second time, he's decided I should be responsible for 100% of the maintenance. Not 50/50. Not proportional to actual use. Not just plowing.
The wildest part is the entitled confidence. Not a discussion. Not a negotiation. Just bypasses my pointing out he GETS DELIVERY TRUCKS. Just this energy of "I have decided reality works this way now."
Has anyone else had a neighbor operate with this level of "the rules are for everyone except me" energy?
PS:
(I'm attempting to find a lawyer; there's nothing in the deeds other than right of way, and the previous owners never got anything in writing) - 02
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Once the homeowner shared the story online, commenters immediately became obsessed with the neighbor’s confidence more than the driveway itself. Plenty of people pointed out that using a shared driveway daily for business traffic while demanding somebody else pay all the maintenance costs takes a truly impressive level of entitlement. Others immediately started urging the homeowner to lawyer up before things escalated even further.
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Calverish
You're going to need that lawyer.
I would record or get video/photos of him using the driveway for business and deliveries and just access to his property.
Depends on the state and what the deeds say. If youre the only one using it, it would be on you. If you both use it, it would typically be 50/50
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Solomos-marbles
Sell the house or build a new drive. Shared drives are hard no for me.
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Typical_performer412
A neighbor behind me is dealing with the same issue. She had to hire a real estate lawyer, there was a cease and desist order on the owner of the right of way, and the owner now has to pave it because it is an icy mess in the winter (mass.) It was worth it for her because he would block her and her family in with all of his cars, pile wood, branches on the right of way to make it nearly impassible. I called the fire department on him because emergency vehicles could not access her house, guys a cop, they did not do anything to help.
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Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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Imezz00
Definitely get a lawyer, and until you do, minimize any interaction you have with him. If he continues harassing you, call the police.
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HMTAA186
I mean... it's his driveway... his responsibility... when he doesn't maintain it, slip on it in front of your camera and sue for injuries... play his game of pettiness. I usually hate the "sue happy culture", but that guy sounds way too entitled for any kind of logic or reasoning. Good luck to you and prayers for your friend!
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Ken120
Save up your money and build a driveway on your property for your own use drop the easement entirely. Be costly but mo ey well spent in the end.
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The strangest part of the entire situation is how confidently the neighbor seemed to ignore the obvious reality of his own driveway usage. Between the business traffic, delivery trucks, visitors, and constant activity, it was never really a question of whether he used the driveway heavily. The argument somehow became whether basic fairness still applied once entitlement entered the conversation.
At this point, the homeowner is probably realizing the driveway itself is only half the problem. Once neighbor disputes reach the stage of security cameras, legal research, and people casually rewriting reality to benefit themselves, things rarely become simple again. Hopefully, a lawyer can eventually settle what common sense apparently could not.
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