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Imagine living in a house where you own the driveway but you have to share it with your neighbor so that your neighbor has a path to get to their own property. What would you do if the neighbor had a construction project going on, and the construction vehicles destroyed your driveway?

In this story, one homeowner is in this exact situation, and he’s pretty upset about it. However, he’s not sure that there’s anything he can really do about it.

I know I’d be frustrated if I were in this situation too. Keep reading to see if you agree.

Is it ok to dislike your neighbor for a construction project?

Currently my only immediate neighbors have been doing early morning and late hour construction work every day that has been going on for about 2 months now. All being done to their lake house which is positioned on a small eroding piece of land on the water.

Every day, construction vehicles go back and forth, dump trucks are rolling by with uncovered dirt, etc.

The homeowners don’t live full time at the house, so they aren’t really affected at all by the constant diesel engine noises, banging, crashing and yelling everyday. And that’s fine – it’s just part of adding an addition, massive retaining wall, and leveling the minuscule piece of land they have.

The construction vehicles can barely ever fit.

I wouldn’t be too happy with the neighbors either.

Keep in mind they have a right of way to use my driveway to get to their property as it’s landlocked. It was something they had to petition to the town for before I bought the house.

I feel awful saying this…. But we kind of hate them, yet don’t really know them.

They have already ruined the shared driveway as it’s not paved, and we will have to fix it because it’s our property.

Part of our fencing along the shared driveway is starting to collapse (unsure if it’s related, very doubtful on that but it’s weird timing) as well.

OP wonders if he’s not thinking about this the right way.

(Side note: These homeowners have had the property for 8 years, so they’re very much established.)

I would never do anything major to my own house without trying to at least let neighbors know about it — primarily being if it was a large scale project that would span months.

But maybe I’m not thinking about this in the right way, so curious for others to weigh in.

The shared driveway situation would be enough to make me not want to buy the house. This sounds very frustrating.

Let’s see if Reddit agrees.

This person would be upset too.

Another person suggests talking to the neighbors.

This person thinks they need to do some research.

Here’s a vote for checking the local laws.

If the homeowners got to know their neighbors, maybe they’d actually like them. Especially since the neighbors aren’t even there while the construction work is being done, they probably don’t realize they’re bothering their neighbors or destroying the driveway and fence. If they knew, maybe they would gladly pay to fix it. If not, well, then maybe they have a good reason not to like the neighbors.

It couldn’t hurt to try talking to them.