Do the council have to provide access for me to my property?

Question

I can only gain access to my property by walking on to my neighbours drive. I would like to install dropped kerbs (I think thats what they're called) to allow me to drive onto my drive without going onto my neighbours. A friend believes the council have a duty to provide access to my property without me having to go onto my neighbours property. I would be grateful for any information. Can I require the council to carry out the work free of charge? Thanks in anticipation.

Answer 1

That all depends on the council and the region/state that your property is in.

In many places, a street (even if it's a dirt road) has to be cut in order for the property to be usable and is generally part of the zoning agreement. If there is a street which borders your property, but you don't have a driveway entrance, you might be able to request that they put one in. There aren't any real guarantees of that occurring.

Your best bet is to call up the council, be nice, and ask who is responsible for road repairs and new roads. Reach out to that person or department and see if you can get a friendly person to talk to (sometimes this will take a couple of attempts). Just pose the question as "what can be done" and you're likely to be told to submit a request in writing, or something similar.

Particularly if your street hasn't seen any improvements in a while, it's possible that that is all there will be to getting them to change the curb for you. If they aren't prepared to, or you're in an area where roads aren't well maintained or tax revenues aren't available, you'll probably end up having to pay for it anyway.

It's always worth asking the question however.