A neighbour’s new pickup is parked across the shared lane again. You cannot get your own car out to the garage behind your house, and you have a shift starting at 6 a.m. When you knock, you are told, “This half of the driveway is my property.” That may be perfectly true. It may also be beside the point, because owning a strip of land and being allowed to block someone’s right to pass over it are two different things.
Mutual driveways appear on some older streets in Brampton, while townhouse and subdivision developments sometimes include rights of way over a neighbour’s lot for access or for maintenance. Disputes over them tend to feel out of proportion to the size of the asphalt. People who see each other every day end up arguing over a few inches. The law offers real answers here, but they begin with paperwork, not with who has lived on the street longest.
This article offers general information about easements in Ontario and is not legal advice about your property. Title documents and survey details can change the analysis considerably.
What an Easement Actually Gives You
An easement is a right to use someone else’s land for a limited purpose. The land that benefits is usually called the dominant tenement, and the land that bears the burden is the servient tenement. In a typical mutual driveway, each owner owns a part of the strip and has a right over the other’s part, so each lot is both benefited and burdened.
The right normally attaches to the land, rather than to the people. When a house sells, a registered easement generally passes with it. That is why a new neighbour cannot simply announce that a former owner’s arrangement no longer applies, and why you cannot rely on a handshake with the previous owner to bind a new one. It also explains why an informal permission, which lawyers call a licence, may vanish when the person who gave it sells or changes their mind.
An easement does not give you ownership. You may pass over the land, but you generally do not get to take it over. The other owner keeps the right to use their own land in any way that does not substantially interfere with your right.
Look at Title Before You Knock Again
The most useful step costs little. Most land in Ontario, including Brampton, is in the Land Titles system, so you can obtain a parcel register for your property (identified by a PIN) and your neighbour’s through the land registry system or through a lawyer. Look for wording in the property description such as “together with” or “subject to” an easement or right of way, with a reference to an instrument number and sometimes to a plan.
Then read the instrument itself. Important questions include:
- Where exactly is the easement, and how wide is it? A reference plan or survey may be needed to translate the description onto the ground.
- What is the stated purpose: passage on foot, with vehicles, for utilities, for maintenance?
- Does it mention parking, repairs, cost-sharing, snow clearing, or fences?
- Who benefits from it, and does it run to all successors in title?
A current survey can settle more arguments than a dozen angry letters. Your purchase file may contain an old one, but the markers on the ground may need to be confirmed by an Ontario Land Surveyor, particularly where someone has moved a fence or widened the pavement. Do not assume that the visible edge of the asphalt is the legal boundary.
Keep in mind that a boundary dispute and an easement dispute are different questions. A driveway can sit fully on your neighbour’s land and you can still have a right to use it.
“We Have Always Used It That Way”
This is where the most painful surprises tend to be found. Long use can sometimes create a prescriptive easement in Ontario, but only under strict conditions. The Real Property Limitations Act refers to 20-year and 40-year periods of uninterrupted use, and the common-law doctrine of lost modern grant has also been applied. The use must generally have been continuous, open, peaceful, and without permission. Use that depended on the neighbour’s permission does not count as use as of right, so a friendly “of course you can use it” may in fact defeat the claim.
Land Titles changes the picture further. Section 51(1) of the Land Titles Act says no title to, and no right or interest in, land registered under that Act that is adverse to the registered owner shall be acquired by any length of possession or by prescription. In practical terms, once a property is in Land Titles, you generally cannot start accumulating a prescriptive easement. A long-use claim usually needs proof that the full required period was completed before the land was converted into Land Titles, and that the right was not lost afterwards.
For many Brampton homes, the required period would have to be proved from decades ago. It takes evidence such as old surveys, aerial photographs, and affidavits from past owners, and many claims based on long use fail for want of this proof. Some easements may arise in other ways, such as by necessity where land is landlocked at the time it was severed, or by implication from how land was divided. Those are narrow doctrines and need specific advice. If your only access depends on an unregistered use, it is worth having a lawyer review this before you buy, sell, or start a fight.
Who Can Park, and Who Can Block
Most driveway fights come down to obstruction. The wording of the grant matters most, and it should be read before anything else. A right of way “for all purposes” over a driveway usually authorizes passage, including with vehicles. It does not automatically authorize parking. Parking on a shared lane may well amount to a substantial interference with a neighbour’s right, even for a short time, if it blocks access. A courier or a contractor stopped for a few minutes is less likely to be a legal issue than a pickup left there every night, though the specific layout and frequency matter.
Other common sources of conflict include:
- Fences and gates. A locked gate or a fence that narrows the usable width may be an unlawful interference. Courts have ordered owners to remove obstructions from shared driveways.
- Garbage bins, basketball nets, and planters. Small items may seem trivial, but if they interfere with passage, they may be a problem.
- Widening the driveway. If you want to pave a wider area, you need to check the title as well as municipal rules. Brampton has zoning rules on driveway width and related permits, and a neighbour’s easement rights are a separate question from the city’s approval.
- Increasing the burden. Changing how the benefited property is used, such as introducing heavy commercial traffic to a residential right of way, may go beyond what the easement allows. This can arise when a home-based trucking or landscaping business uses the shared lane. Your rights depend on the wording and on what was reasonably contemplated when the easement was granted.
- Blocking utilities and maintenance access. Easements for utility or maintenance purposes can be just as enforceable, and some exist on title without anyone remembering them.
Paying for Repairs and Snow
A well-drafted mutual driveway agreement spells out how costs are shared. Many old easements say nothing about it. As a starting point, the person who benefits from an easement generally has the right to maintain it and the responsibility to pay for that maintenance, while the owner of the burdened land usually isn’t required to repair it for the benefit of someone else. Where each lot uses a mutual drive, a shared arrangement makes practical sense, but a neighbour may not be legally obliged to contribute to it without an agreement.
Practical solutions usually work better here. Get two written quotes and share them. Propose a simple written cost split for paving and snow clearing. If neither side is using a part of the lane, say so openly. Keep receipts. If you want the arrangement to bind future owners, ask a lawyer to put it into a proper registered agreement. A signed handwritten note may help between you and your neighbour but may not bind whoever buys the house next.
Calming the Dispute
Most of these disputes do not need a court. They do need a clear record and a measured tone.
Start by writing down the actual incidents: dates, times, photos, and how each incident affected your access. A dated photo log is far better than general complaints. Keep your messages short and factual, and avoid threats, as they may appear later as exhibits. Do not tow vehicles or remove your neighbour’s property on your own initiative without advice. Self-help can expose you to a claim for trespass or damage, and Brampton by-law enforcement or Peel Regional Police are unlikely to solve a private easement dispute for you, although safety concerns are another matter.
A lawyer’s letter that explains the title position, with a copy of the instrument attached, often resolves the issue. So can a proposal for mediation. A mediator can help with practical matters a court order might not address, like agreed parking arrangements, snow routines, and how to handle visitors.
Going to Court
If talks fail, the usual route is the Superior Court of Justice in Brampton at 7755 Hurontario St. The Small Claims Court has jurisdiction over money and the recovery of personal property, not an order declaring easement rights or requiring someone to remove a fence. A claim for a small amount of property damage might fit there, but it would not resolve your long-term right to use the driveway.
Depending on what is in dispute, the proceeding might be an application under Rule 14.05 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, which is often suitable where the question is the interpretation of a deed or other instrument and the facts are not seriously disputed. A full action may be needed where there are important factual disputes, for example about long use. Our real estate and mortgage litigation page describes this type of proceeding.
Remedies can include a declaration of the parties’ rights, a permanent injunction, an order to remove an obstruction, and damages. Where the situation cannot wait, section 101 of the Courts of Justice Act allows the court to grant an interlocutory injunction when it appears just or convenient, although the moving party has to meet the applicable test and may have to give an undertaking as to damages. An emergency, such as blocked access for a person with a disability, is treated differently from general annoyance.
Be realistic about cost. Litigation over a modest strip of land can consume more than the land is worth, and the court may award costs against the losing party. A negotiated, registered agreement is often the outcome both sides would have chosen, had they talked sooner.
Buying or Selling a House With a Shared Driveway
If a shared driveway is part of a home you are buying, ask your real estate lawyer to review the easement before you waive conditions. Confirm what it says about cost-sharing and parking, and ask if there is an existing dispute. Sellers should disclose known problems honestly, since hidden disputes can lead to a claim after closing.
If you are selling, try to resolve any live conflict first, or be prepared to explain it. An undocumented arrangement could make buyers and lenders uneasy, and it is often worth converting into something registered.
If your neighbour’s vehicles, a new fence, or a planned paving project is affecting your access, gather your parcel register, survey, instrument, and photo log, then contact our Brampton office for advice. Our civil litigation page has more on how property disputes can be resolved.
A shared driveway requires two households to get along, indefinitely, over a very small piece of ground. Once you know what is actually written on title, the argument usually becomes smaller and easier to resolve. The goal is a lane everyone can use, and a neighbour you can still wave to.