We have a cottage in Quebec and have used the neighbour’s driveway to get to our place for the last 20 years. The neighbour agreed to this, but nothing was ever put in writing. This neighbour is no longer capable of updating the agreement because she is in a nursing home with dementia. Is there any kind of law that would give me the right to use the driveway in the event that she ends up selling her property?—Pete Conrad, via email
Maybe. Under the Civil Code of Quebec, long-time use of a driveway doesn’t establish a “servitude” (a.k.a. a right-of-way). “But a contract does,” says Kirsten Anker, an associate professor in the Faculty of Law at McGill University in Montreal. “Even if via a verbal agreement.”
Well, you have that. Yay! But here’s the thing: “Establishing an oral contract depends on having proof that there was an intention, at some point, by the parties to create a legally binding obligation,” she says.
Maybe that was the intention and you could produce proof of this. It still might not help you out if the property was sold. “To enforce a servitude against third parties requires registration in the Quebec land registry,” says Anker. “If oral and unregistered, it can only be enforced against the original party agreeing to the right-of-way.”
We suspect that when your neighbour agreed to allow you to use the driveway, nobody filed any kind of documents with any kind of registry. It sounds like your neighbour was just being a nice neighbour: you wanted to use her driveway to access your cottage, and she had no problem with that. Hey, maybe Imaginary New Neighbour will be just as agreeable. But if not, it is possible that if your cottage is “landlocked” (otherwise cut off from the road), the new neighbour could be forced, under the law, to allow you to use the driveway. According to section .997 of the Civil Code of Quebec:
The owner of land enclosed by that of others in such a way that there is no access or only an inadequate, difficult or impassable access to it from the public road may, if all his neighbours refuse to grant him a servitude or another mode of access, require one of them to provide him with the necessary right of way to use and exploit his land.
When it comes servitudes, every situation is different. Your best bet is to contact a lawyer with the Barreau du Québec. Look for one with expertise in real estate law.
This story originally appeared in the Spring ’26 issue of Cottage Life.
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