Skip to main content
Clean Best logo
Menu
Call 02 5839 30120485 000 860

Leichhardt NSW 2040

A Leichhardt driveway easement crossing between two separate buildings

One building's driveway runs across another building's land under an arrangement recorded on title decades ago. Both properties use it, one of them owns it, and neither committee has ever had a conversation about who is responsible for keeping it clear.

Request a fixed quote Call 02 5839 3012

In short

Where a driveway, path or access way in Leichhardt is shared between two properties under an easement, the land usually belongs to one of them while both have rights over it. Responsibility for maintaining and cleaning it depends on the terms recorded on title rather than on who uses it more.

Clean Best asks who is responsible before quoting rather than assuming, and states in the scope which party is being invoiced for the shared surface. Where the position is unclear, the scheme's strata managing agent is the right party to confirm it. Guessing at the position is how a scheme ends up funding a neighbour's asset for years.

Rights of use and obligations to maintain are separate questions

An easement gives one party rights over another party's land. It does not automatically follow that both share the maintenance, or that the owner of the land carries it alone. The terms recorded on title set out what applies, and they vary considerably between arrangements made at different times and for different purposes. Two neighbouring properties can be subject to quite different terms. Nothing about the way the driveway is used indicates which arrangement applies.

That is a title question rather than a cleaning one, and it belongs with each scheme's strata managing agent or whatever advice the owners take. What matters practically is that somebody establishes the position before a contractor is engaged, because a scheme funding cleaning of land it has no obligation over is spending owners' money on somebody else's asset. Establishing it takes one enquiry and settles the question permanently.

The surface nobody watches

Shared access ways deteriorate quietly. Leaf litter accumulates against a fence line, drainage grates block, and oil marks build up over years because each party assumes the other is dealing with it. Neither committee walks it, since it sits at the edge of both properties and belongs to the ordinary business of neither. Blocked drainage on a shared access way affects both properties equally. It is nobody's regular route and therefore nobody's regular concern.

Once the responsibility is established, including it in a scope with a modest periodic frequency costs very little and prevents the slow decline. It also gives whichever party is responsible a record of attendance, which is useful if the arrangement is ever questioned or if the neighbouring property changes hands and its new owners ask what has been happening. A record of attendance is also useful evidence if the arrangement is ever questioned.

Two committees, one surface, no shared meeting

Even where both schemes agree they should share the cost, there is no forum in which they naturally do so. Each has its own committee, its own budget cycle and its own agenda, and nothing brings them together. Arrangements between neighbouring schemes therefore tend to be made informally between two individuals and then lost when either of them moves on. Informal arrangements between neighbours have a short and unpredictable life.

Writing whatever is agreed into both schemes' records, even briefly, is what makes it survive. A single paragraph noting the arrangement, the split and the contractor engaged is enough. Clean Best invoices whichever party the arrangement names rather than splitting a bill informally, so each scheme's records show what it actually agreed to pay. Each scheme then has its own record of what it agreed to.

Shared access points for a Leichhardt property

  • The maintenance obligation confirmed from the title position
  • The party being invoiced named clearly in the scope
  • A modest periodic frequency rather than no arrangement
  • Drainage grates and fence lines included explicitly
  • Any inter-scheme arrangement recorded in both schemes
  • A record of attendance kept for the responsible party
Clean Best supervisor reviewing office and strata cleaning quality in Parramatta NSW

Working in Leichhardt and the Inner West

Leichhardt in the Inner West holds retail, hospitality, offices and community facilities, much of it in older stock where sites were subdivided over time and access to rear areas depends on driveways crossing neighbouring land. Arrangements of that kind were often recorded decades ago and are rarely revisited by the schemes that rely on them. The surfaces involved sit at the edge of both properties and in the routine attention of neither. Clean Best services Leichhardt from Seven Hills and confirms responsibility before quoting a shared access way.

Questions about Leichhardt

Who maintains a driveway shared under an easement?

It depends on the terms recorded on title, which vary considerably between arrangements. Rights of use and obligations to maintain are separate questions and do not always sit with the same party. Each scheme's strata managing agent is the right source for the position, and it is worth establishing before any contractor is engaged. Assumptions about shared driveways are wrong often enough to be worth testing.

Can two schemes share the cost?

They can agree to, and many do. The difficulty is that there is no natural forum for two committees to make or maintain such an agreement, so it tends to be arranged informally and lost when someone moves on. Recording the arrangement briefly in both schemes' records is what makes it survive a change of committee.

Our neighbour's building uses our driveway. Should they contribute?

That depends entirely on the easement terms and is a matter for the owners corporations and their advisers rather than a cleaning question. What a cleaning arrangement can provide is a record of what the maintenance actually costs, which is usually the missing piece when two schemes try to have that conversation. Neither scheme usually knows what the surface actually costs to maintain.

How often does a shared access way need attention?

Usually far less than a building's internal areas, but on a defined periodic cycle rather than not at all. Drainage grates and fence lines are the items that matter most, since blocked drainage creates a problem for both properties. A modest interval costs very little and prevents years of quiet accumulation. A cycle set once tends to look after itself.

Who receives the invoice?

Whichever party the arrangement names. Clean Best invoices one party rather than splitting a bill informally between two schemes, because informal splits create confusion in both sets of records. If the schemes are sharing the cost, one is invoiced and the arrangement between them handles the rest. That keeps both schemes' records clean and comparable.

Related pages

Get a fixed written quote for Leichhardt

Free walkthrough, scope in writing, price back within 24 hours.

Request a quote
Call nowEmail us