Shared drives are common in Kent, from pairs of cottages down a single track to small closes off a private road. When one household wants electric gates, the question is whether the other can stop them. The law has a clear starting point and a lot of case law on the details, most of which comes down to one idea: your neighbour must still be able to use the drive about as conveniently as before.
The Basic Rule
A gate can be put across a private right of way. The courts established that more than a century ago in Pettey v Parsons, and have applied it ever since. The test is whether the gate causes a substantial interference with the convenient use of the right of way, compared with the position before the gate was put up. It is a question of fact and degree, so the same gate can be fine on one drive and unlawful on another.
Gates can even be locked, as long as the person with the right of way is given a key. What they cannot do is make the right of way substantially harder to use. This applies to private rights of way between neighbours. Public footpaths and bridleways are a different matter and cannot be gated without the highway authority's consent.
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Why Electric Gates Are Judged on How They Open
With electric gates, the courts look closely at how a neighbour gets through. In Page v Convoy Investments in 2015, a farm owner replaced wooden gates with electronic ones that opened only with a fob or a four-digit code, across a right of way used by large vehicles. The neighbour refused the fob. The Court of Appeal said the right comparison is between the drive with the gates in operation and the drive with no gates at all, and made the practical point that fobs get lost or dropped, codes are forgotten and changed, and visitors may not have been given a fob. Falcon Chambers summarised the case.
Two years later, in Kingsgate Development Projects v Jordan, the High Court held that an electric gate opened by a simple push button was not a substantial interference, because in a car it was easier than opening a manual gate. Fob-only or code-only gates are more likely to fall foul of the rule. The same case found that a third gate within less than 100 metres was a step too far and had to go, as Gatehouse Chambers explained.
A Cautionary Tale: Bradley v Heslin
In Bradley v Heslin in 2014, a dispute over a pair of gates on a shared drive in Formby went all the way to the High Court. The court accepted that a right to hang gates over a driveway can exist, but refused to allow them to be closed at all times. The judge observed that sensible neighbours would have agreed closing hours, or fitted remotely operated electric gates that might have cost around £5,000, and suggested overnight closing as a reasonable compromise. The legal costs dwarfed the cost of the gates.
The court also weighed the drive's position next to a road, where stopping to open gates created a traffic hazard. That links the legal question to the practical one of how far back the gates are set.
Designing Gates That Work for Everyone
The cases point to a clear design. Give every household with a right of way a means of access at least as convenient as before. That means remotes for each household and their regular visitors, a push button or vehicle detection to exit, and a keypad with a code for visitors and deliveries. A video intercom that rings every household lets each of them let their own visitors in.
Plan for the failures the Court of Appeal mentioned: lost fobs, forgotten codes and power cuts. Agree who holds spare remotes, how codes are changed and shared, and how the manual release works. If large vehicles use the drive, such as farm machinery or delivery lorries, make sure the gate opening is wide enough and opens quickly enough for them.
Put It in Writing
The best protection is an agreement made before the gates go in. A written gate agreement, ideally drawn up by a solicitor and recorded against both properties, should cover where the gates go and how they open, who gets remotes and codes, when the gates may be closed, who pays for installation, electricity, servicing and repairs, and what happens when a house is sold. Where the deeds need changing, a deed of variation signed by everyone with an interest is the formal route, and it comes with legal fees.
Without an agreement, a neighbour generally cannot be made to pay towards gates they did not ask for, unless the deeds or the benefit of using the drive say otherwise. Sorting out costs at the start avoids the arguments that tend to follow the first repair bill.
Planning on a Shared Drive
The normal planning rules apply, so most gates within the height limits do not need permission, but planning permission is needed at a listed house, under an Article 4 direction, or above the limits. If an application is needed and the gates sit on land you do not wholly own, the application has to notify the other owners. That is another reason to agree the plan with neighbours first.
If Your Neighbour Wants Gates
If you are the one with the right of way, you do not have to accept gates that make your access substantially harder. Ask to see the plan, ask how you will open them, and ask for remotes, codes and an agreement in writing. Most disputes are avoided by talking early. If gates go up that genuinely obstruct your access, take legal advice before acting, because removing a neighbour's gate yourself can put you in the wrong.
Handled well, electric gates can make a shared drive more secure and more convenient for everyone. The key is agreeing the design and the rules before anyone digs a hole, and choosing an automated gate system with access options for every household. On rural shared tracks around Maidstone and the Weald, that usually means a push-button exit, a keypad and remotes for each home.
Common Shared Drive Situations
A pair of semi-detached cottages sharing a single track is the simplest case. Gates at the road end, with a remote and a code for each house and a push-button exit, usually work for both, provided both owners agree and share the running costs. Gates part-way along the track, serving only one house, are more delicate, because the neighbour must be able to pass without waiting.
A farm track used by a neighbour's machinery needs a wide, fast gate and a means of opening it from a tractor cab, which usually rules out fob-only control. A private road serving several houses works best with a residents' agreement that sets out the gate, the access options, a fund for repairs and how decisions are made. In every case, the question to ask is whether each household can come and go about as easily as before.
If you are buying a house on a shared drive with existing gates, ask the seller's solicitor for any gate agreement, check the deeds for the right of way and any rules about gates, and find out who holds the remotes and codes. A clear arrangement at the point of sale saves a difficult conversation with new neighbours later.