House with Shared Driveway - What do we need to know/ask?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my biggest concern with this would be resale. There are a lot of buyers out there where this scenario would be a complete deal-breaker, including myself.

+1 It's a complete non-starter for me. I lived enough years in a townhouse with shared drives and have no desire to do it again, especially without a formal HOA that spelled out everyone's responsibilities and collected dues for that purpose. I won't look at pipestems.

[Anonymous]

It wouldn’t be my dream house but I’d do it if I had no other options and if it was to be a temp move. How’s that for a
recommendation?

I wonder if you are looking at the house in my Fairfax County neighborhood? Consider how the houses are sited. Are you facing the front of the neighbor’s house? Could be very close quarters with zero privacy. Also, PPs have mentioned parking. Is your front yard mostly asphalt? Lots of pipestems need adequate space to turn around so that you don’t have to back down so by design, there’s a need for turnaround and parking.

You’d better hope that one neighbor isn’t a car buff, or a hoarder, or has frequent parties, or a constant stream of visitors or deliveries or contractors because none of those people will park at the bottom of the street and walk up.

Also, if the long driveway is paved like the roadway, consider that residents and visitors alike will go racing at high speeds up and down. If it looks like a residential street, drivers don’t usually slow. Consider putting up a “private road” sign.

The pipestem neighbors and others bought in for a snow blower but then one neighbor has to store it. Recently replaced so a new one was purchased.



Builders devised pipestems to make the most of otherwise unsuitable lots and to maximize development.

[Anonymous]

Oh! And it’s an attractive nuisance. All the neighbor kids will want to ride their bikes and skate boards and scooters down your driveway.

[Anonymous]

I've never known anyone who didn't have a problem. My aunt rants on and on about the feud she is always in with her neighbors over the driveway. They both now will intentionally block each other in -which takes effort. My aunt will be late to things because she is busy blocking Ida in for a few more hours.

One of my kids parents friends is driven crazy with hers. She is at the farthest end of the shared driveway. Her neighbors further up realized that if they just waited then she and her husband would have to get it plowed all the way to the street to get out. The other neighbor would agree and then not pay giving her a quizzical look that they just didn't understand what she was asking them for and never paid.

She would be furious every time it snowed. The other neighbors would wait until she had the whole thing plowed and then they would come out and plow the small strip from their own garages to the shared driveway going on their way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never known anyone who didn't have a problem. My aunt rants on and on about the feud she is always in with her neighbors over the driveway. They both now will intentionally block each other in -which takes effort. My aunt will be late to things because she is busy blocking Ida in for a few more hours.

One of my kids parents friends is driven crazy with hers. She is at the farthest end of the shared driveway. Her neighbors further up realized that if they just waited then she and her husband would have to get it plowed all the way to the street to get out. The other neighbor would agree and then not pay giving her a quizzical look that they just didn't understand what she was asking them for and never paid.

She would be furious every time it snowed. The other neighbors would wait until she had the whole thing plowed and then they would come out and plow the small strip from their own garages to the shared driveway going on their way.

I live in a pipestem heavy neighborhood here in NoVA. I don't know anyone who has a problem. My neighbors aren't the friendliest, but haven't had one single pipestem interaction.

Mailman is the one who hates it the most because there are so many trash cans out on trash day that they block the mailboxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never known anyone who didn't have a problem. My aunt rants on and on about the feud she is always in with her neighbors over the driveway. They both now will intentionally block each other in -which takes effort. My aunt will be late to things because she is busy blocking Ida in for a few more hours.

I realize I'm not helping answer OP's question but I had to comment and laugh about your aunt blocking Ida for a few more hours. Gotta love a feisty aunt!

[Anonymous]

We share with a bunch of folks...never had a problem and never expect one. Lots of communication and also lots of money (each of the 4 homeowners lives in a $3 million dollar plus house) and everyone understands its in all our interests to get along and work with each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never known anyone who didn't have a problem. My aunt rants on and on about the feud she is always in with her neighbors over the driveway. They both now will intentionally block each other in -which takes effort. My aunt will be late to things because she is busy blocking Ida in for a few more hours.

One of my kids parents friends is driven crazy with hers. She is at the farthest end of the shared driveway. Her neighbors further up realized that if they just waited then she and her husband would have to get it plowed all the way to the street to get out. The other neighbor would agree and then not pay giving her a quizzical look that they just didn't understand what she was asking them for and never paid.

She would be furious every time it snowed. The other neighbors would wait until she had the whole thing plowed and then they would come out and plow the small strip from their own garages to the shared driveway going on their way.

I live in a pipestem heavy neighborhood here in NoVA. I don't know anyone who has a problem. My neighbors aren't the friendliest, but haven't had one single pipestem interaction.

Mailman is the one who hates it the most because there are so many trash cans out on trash day that they block the mailboxes.

Same - we are the rear house in a pipestem and I honestly love being so far off the street and having privacy from the neighbors. No problems with our neighbors ever, and one of the houses is a rental, so the tenants change every couple of years.

Honestly, we are thinking about moving and we are definitely open to other houses with shared driveways because it has been such a non-issue for us.

[Anonymous]

We did it and only lasted 2 years. We did not lose money as this was new construction in N. arlington enclave. Every home had a 2 car garage and zoned parking on main street. So every homeowner parked their cars in garages and lent zone permits to friends/family/nanny.

We share a driveway with one home, they were nice enough however after their nanny blocking the driveway many times and us having to ask to have car moved we were done.

Final straw was when neighbor had HVAC repair van block driveway and no one would answer door and we had to Uber to work.

NEVER AGAIN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You also need to take into account that you’ll be pulling your trash and recycling containers up and down that pipestem and most pipestem houses have the mailboxes in a central location on the street near the driveway entrance, so mail is further too.

It just depends on the trash cans. I am on a pipestem and we leave our trash cans at the end of our driveway and the trash truck backs down the pipestem to collect.

I agree with checking the HOA docs to see if they are supposed to be escrowing for future repairs. If they are not, I would ask for a closing cost credit equivalent to the amount they are supposed to have contributed to the escrow.