Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New Jersey

Re: Shared Driveway Dispute!

The driveway is shared access, presumably to your garages and not for your exclusive use. If it does not provide access to garages and can only fit 1 car, this is a matter you need to resolve with your neighbor. If parking a car denies your neighbor access, in or out, it cannot be done. Each of you is entitled to the use, without restriction by the other and if parking denies the use, it cannot be done, by either party.

Re: Shared Driveway Dispute!

From your description of the problem, it seems to me that you have an access easement over your neighbor's land. That easement is presumably for the purpose of passing over that land in order to reach a parking area or garage which is wholly on your land.

It is the usual rule in drafting such access easements to provide that neither party will use the easement in a way that interferes with the other party's right of access. Parking your car on the easement area would violate that term except in special circumstances such as when you know that your neighbor will not be home and no one else will need to get through.

When you bought your house, you should have received a title report. That report would have described all of the encumberances on your property. An easement is an interest in real property and would have had to be in writing. It also should have been recorded and therefore, it would show on your title report. This type of easement is usually mutual, meaning that your predecessor granted your neighbor an easement on the same terms that your neighbor granted in return. That all means that you should have the exact description of the easement restrictions in your file from when you bought your house.

Look in your file for the title report. Somewhere after "Schedule B," you should find a copy of the easement document. That will tell you the restrictions placed on your neighbor's use of your land. It is a very good bet that these are the same as the restrictions on your land.

My guess is that you will find that you each have the right to pass over the land of the other and that both of you are obligated not to obstruct the passage of the other.