Party walls and boundaries
A shared drive is used and the survey does not say who owns it. Where does that ownership question belong?
Ownership of the shared drive belongs with the title, not with this condition survey. The visit can record that a drive is used in common and can describe its surface. It cannot say who owns the land under it. That question sits with the title register, the plan and any deed of easement or shared-access wording, which the solicitor reads. The survey has not awarded ownership and has not drawn a legal boundary along the drive.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Use is not ownership. Neighbours can cross a drive for years while the paper title sits with one owner, or with both, or is split in a way the surface does not show. Kerbs, gates and a worn centre line are physical clues only. They do not settle the legal line. The inspection stops at what it could see. The register and the deeds are the place the ownership question is answered.
Ask the solicitor to read the title for this plot and the neighbouring title if it is available, and to look for an easement, a shared-access covenant or a statement of who repairs the surface. A lender may ask that the access is clear on paper. The survey will not supply that answer and should not be rewritten as if it had. Do not treat day-to-day use as a decided right.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which documents should the solicitor read for the drive?
- Does the report only record use, rather than ownership?
- Is any repair duty for the surface stated anywhere in the pack?
What are the typical next steps?
- Ask the solicitor to trace ownership and any right of access on the title.
- Keep the survey sentence about use separate from the legal question.
- Do not tell the lender the drive is owned jointly unless the title says so.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
Does driving across it each day create a right of way?
Not by this survey. Long use can be part of a legal argument about rights, but the inspection did not investigate how long the drive has been shared and did not decide that a right exists. Rights of way are for the solicitor and the title evidence. The report only notes that the drive is used.
Can the survey say who last paid to resurface it?
No. Fresh tarmac or gravel shows a surface, not an invoice history. The survey did not see accounts and has not named who paid. Who repairs, and who paid last time, belongs in the deeds or in what the solicitor asks the seller. The condition of the surface is the only part the visit could record.