Legal Assistance with Driveway and Garden Conflict

Questioner

In April this year, my girlfriend and I bought a house in Hilversum. We have adjoining driveways with the neighbors, which are not closed off from each other. Our garden is closed off, the garden of the neighbors ends at the driveways. In consultation with the previous residents of our house, they have partially extended the tiles of their garden to our driveway. They also have some items on our driveway, such as a bench with some planters. Now the question is whether continuing to lay their tiles on our plot and placing their stuff on our driveway can cause problems? Can this be considered appropriation of our land and can there be a long-term prescription? I hope my question is clear and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you in advance.

Lawyer

You are wise to record the usage agreement with your neighbours in writing as soon as possible or to confirm it in writing. This prevents them from taking the position (legally) at any time that they have become the owner of the land through long-term 'possession'. If you get new neighbours, agree on the usage with them again and record it. Also state that you can always cancel the use (with a reasonable notice period, of course).

Lawyer

There has been consultation and therefore there is a verbal agreement between the parties. You can now do two things: you reject the transfer of this agreement to you, or you state that you will take over the agreement, but only as long as you have ownership. This means that the agreement is not transferable and, if you put this in writing, an argument of prescription can never arise. Previous ownership breaks a claim of possession by prescription.