Q: My neighbour has started renting out her drive to make money — but we share our drive.
There seems to be a different car parked there each week so I’ve got no idea who is coming or going and feel uncomfortable with strangers pitching up outside my house. Can I get this stopped? P.B. via email
Consumer rights lawyer Dean Dunham replies: It sounds like your neighbour owns the driveway and you have either a ‘right of way’ to drive over it or to park your vehicle on it. If this is the case you will need to establish exactly what rights you have, which you will find either within your property deeds or by carrying out an online search at the Land Registry.
Here you can obtain what is called an ‘office copy entry’ — an electronic document that sets out various matters to do with your property, including the rights attached to it such as rights of way, which you will find in Section A.
One reader said they felt uncomfortable with lots of random cars parking up on their shared driveway (stock image)
If you simply have a right of way over the driveway, it will ordinarily entitle you simply to pass over the driveway for the purpose of going to and from your land. This will not give you the right to park on the driveway.
Whatever rights you have, your neighbour must respect those rights and allow you to exercise them. So if your right is to pass over the driveway, you must be free to do this; if the cars parked are preventing you from passing over the driveway, it will be a breach of your rights. Likewise, if you have the right to park on the driveway and you are being prevented from doing this, your rights will have been breached.
In the first instance you should raise the matter with your neighbour and remind her of the rights you have. If this is ignored, you can apply to the county court for an injunction, which is a legal tool used to stop or compel someone to do something by a court order.
If you take this route, you will need to show the court that your neighbour’s actions are causing a substantial interference with your ability to take advantage of your rights in relation to the driveway.
Q: I was misled into believing I was buying jeans from a UK retailer via an online shopping platform but, in fact, it’s located in China.
I want to return the jeans within the cooling-off period but the retailer says this law does not apply to it, and my card provider won’t give me cash back as it says the retailer has done nothing wrong. L.J. Portsmouth
Consumer rights lawyer Dean Dunham replies: In the UK we have some of the best consumer protection laws in the world but they only apply, and therefore protect you, if you buy from a seller based in the UK or from an overseas seller that agrees the contract will be governed under English law, which is rare.
This is why I always advocate buying from a UK seller, as if something goes wrong with a purchase you make from an overseas seller your rights and routes of redress will be limited and often non-existent.
The seller here is correct — the Consumer Contracts Regulations do not apply — only Chinese laws will apply, as it appears it has not agreed to be governed under English law.
By way of note, if the seller had been located within an EU country, you would have been in luck, for while the Consumer Contracts Regulations would not apply, an equivalent law would have protected you, as all EU countries are required to implement laws that protect consumers when they make a distant purchase.
However, there’s some good news here as your card provider was wrong to deny your Section 75 claim.
Card providers obsess over the need for there to be a ‘breach of contract’ for there to be a Section 75 claim. But this is not the only ground under which you can make a claim.
The law — Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 — also makes reference to ‘misrepresentation’, and clearly states that consumers can also make a Section 75 claim where there has been a misrepresentation on the part of the seller or trader.
I often see overseas sellers and traders, especially those from China, deploying tactics to mislead consumers into thinking they are based in the UK. Common tactics are using English-sounding trade names and ‘.co.uk’ websites to mask the Chinese entity.
If you are on the receiving end of a tactic like this, it will amount to a misrepresentation and will, therefore, trigger Section 75 protection.
