to find this really fucking annoying even though it doesn't really affect me much

Ugh!!!
That is annoying! I mean you can either put a gate or talk to them ... either way thay will affect the relationship as I think it will be sort of obvious why you are gating your drive. This would REALLY piss me off and I think they are CF for walking on your drive.

Another thing is to park so close their fence that they can't walk between your car and the fence but not sure this is doable.

YANBU, I totally understand. I wouldn't like them so close to my cars or my front windows either. They are taking the piss.

Get the gate erected; it will be worth the money.

I have a driveway that abuts to that of the neighbours, with a narrow line of bricks in between.

They had teens so had four vehicles and were constantly moving their cars around to get in and out.

I arrived home one day to find the son merrily cutting across the line of bricks and reversing down my driveway. He hit his brakes hard when he looked in the mirror and saw my car sat nose into MY driveway. His dad was watching and I saw his shoulders slump like "we have been caught out." They were vile in many other ways; I installed a ring camera the next day and told him the driveway is now monitored. Such users.

No it doesn’t, it goes up to the neighbours gate. OP has drawn the boundary line quite clearly.

Rather than a gate at the top of the drive(assume you mean the road end why not as suggested planters roadside of their gate to the walkway at right angles and down to the house. You don’t lose drive space and they have to use the gate but don’t be surprised if it causes bad feeling if they have been using the drive for years. Best not to keep letting them establish a right of way. Could cause problems selling if viewers saw them marching up and down

I think any fence or gate at the front may have to be only a metre tall due to planning regs (visibility splays) but as this will be set back a bit OP may get away with a new fence or gate being higher.
OP I would definitely check this out before installation in case disgruntled neighbours decide to report it!

I misunderstood originally, but with the clarifications, YANBU, OP. I think you need to have a conversation with them before putting in a fence or containers. I would start by giving them the benefit if the doubt and assuming they may not know where the boundary line is. Even if they do know, it may be easier to have a friendly discussion if you approach it that way. If they want easier access to the walkway, they will need to redesign their own garden once your fence / containers are in place.

Do they actually know it's your land or do they assume as it's a straight line to the road that it's part of the shared path? Not everyone looks at their deeds or knows exactly what/where the boundary is.

My guess would be they are unaware and would be embarrassed if you told them.

I would find it irritating too - YANBU. But as others have said- pick your battles - it's not worth damaging relations with your neighbours.

I think your thread title is not right, it actually does affect you and justifably so. It is unsettling the way they are taking liberties and not knowing when they are going to be out their with their bins or garden waste whatever. You should not feel overlooked in your own house by people striding about on your land to the extent that you feel you need to close your blinds! I would prefer not to speak to them about this myself. People like that do not take kindly to being challenged and they will see this as an admonishment, it will needle them to be inconvenienced. Just stop it at source with the gate.

It would drive me mad but it is also a very strange design, however, fairly typical of new builds these days.
If they don't have any right of way over your driveway then I would be incensed, however, at the same time if you say anything it is going to cause tension as they have obviously been doing this for some time and, for the sake of maintaining a cordial relationship, I wouldn't say anything.
I would imagine there might be something in the deeds which could prevent you from putting up a fence/gates but hopefully not and I would do so as soon as possible.

OP I totally understood you from post 1 - and I feel your irritation - just because I have t seen the answer (apologies if I've missed it) how long have you lived there compared to them ? just thinking that if you're newer that likely your predecessor just let them do it (or moved because it annoyed her too!)

Whilst waiting for the fence to go in I would put big large planters up to stop this "traffic"

It's ok for people to say about the postman nipping across driveways but at least that's once a day at most not countless times a day

@Icanttakethisanymore
Thank you ☺️
No have had plenty of practice as you say!

Where will you place the gate on this diagram? Where the blue lines are marked? Will you install one of those tall gates with a key rather than a low metal one?

I understand that it’s annoying for you , but what proper faff for them. Planters or a fence I guess.

YANBU at all, they are being very arrogant and presumptious to just stride all over your land at their own convenience. If they were decent people they would respect the boundary where the walkway esentially forms part of your driveway and is your land. It is just awful that they are taking such liberties with their bins etc with your cars nearby. I imagine that they will take umbrage to their handy little route being 'blocked' so just be ready with your explanations in advance.

OMG why do people not read the thread?! I cant believe that people are still confused about this or that they think it's ok. We've seen enough of these threads where CF neighbours are given an inch and take a mile!

OP this would piss me off. It's your land and you should be able to sit in your living room without people traisping over it and seeing in.
I'd be putting up my own gate pronto.

Our neighbours do exactly the same thing and it's not even because of a garden or gate on the front.

We each have a double driveway directly in front of our respective houses. They are separated by a strip of stones, which gives way to a path of the same width between the walls of the buildings.

Because we share an access drive and our house is closest to the road, they walk diagonally over our drive (close past our living room window) to get to the point in the middle (or even their front door), instead of passing at a distance, going around the front of our drive and entering from their own driveway. And head straight back the same way with the buggy or dog or wheely bins to get out again and to the road.

It would actually be much better if the strip in the centre was just a shared straight path with direct access to gates and off both properties, which it sounds like your neighbours have made the edge section of your driveway - it does make sense and the right angle thing from their gate to where you could put one doesn't.

It would drive me nuts tbh so I’m not surprised it is annoying you. They have their own gardens and the walkway to use not your front garden/drive. I would position a large planter there ….well actually I would have got a gate put up the first time they ever did it.

our house and front door faces our drive. Our neighbours drive is next to ours (their house facing a completely different way. Our drive is the wider one as it’s also the path to our front door. They are forever on our drive, him especially peering in the window at me, will stand out there 20mins or so for no reason. There’s nothing at all we can do to stop it. Even weirder we have like a metre strip of flowers in front of our house facing the road. One time they had visitors, they brought the visitors from their house on to our drive to stand and admire the flowers…..I think ‘pretending’ they were theirs. So utterly bizarre!

Is there a gate between the walkway and the outside path? Is it that they're too lazy to open that, as well as the one in their garden? I'd be looking at putting a fence at the boundary of your drive and the walkway.

Once upon a time I would have been lovely and kind and accommodating and wouldn't have bothered myself about this.

Then my tosspot neighbours, to whom I have always been lovely and kind and accommodating, started eyeing up a tiny section of my property (specifically along the boundary fence, which was removed while I built my extension) and proceeded to demand it as 'theirs', lied about various things and then to cap it all off, pulled childish faces at me and called me a 'troublemaker' when I politely but assertively told them to fuck off gave them the facts and refused to give in to them.

Now I would be far more wary and would take steps to ensure that cheeky neighbours don't take the piss. Do as some PPs have suggested- either a fence along your boundary line, or for the short term, some planters.

You can politely ask them to stop first, if you want.

OMG this is one occasion where people really need to read the OP & look at the diagram.
I'm with you OP.

You are clearly very handy with a diagram! I can see it's not your first time 😆

Just start walking through their garden. When they complain, just say ‘what’s the issue, you walk through mine?’

I think what's confusing people is it's not marked out on your diagram where the shared walkway ends. I (possibly wrongly) think people have assumed the shared walkway continues as a path along the edge of your drive, which I can see that it doesn't. Basically once they get as far as their gate, the shared bit ends?

It is a weird design, and I would find what they are doing annoying. But I'm like that. I'm not very hey-ho about things, as much as I wish I was. You would be within your rights to put a fence and gate up where the shared land ends, which would direct them into their garden. But it depends on whether you think this could disrupt the civil relationship you have.

I am also detached but with a shared access (driveway) lane between 3 of us. It sends me a bit batty because our house is the one you drive past to reach the other 2 houses, so we are the ones vulnerable to damage if someone were to hit our house. We park at the front so don't even need the access ourselves. It's all very annoying and I wish I'd never bought the house. You don't really think about what it's going to be like in practice until you're living it.

@longdistanceclaraclara

urd, the second drawing make it much clearer.