AIBU to object to neighbour using my garden as their main access?

I lived in a row of terraces where there was an access down a neighbour's garden to an enclosed back lane every 5 or 6 houses. It was a clear path, fenced off from my neighbour's garden, with a locked gate. When I moved in, I was given a key.

None of us took the mick like your neighbour does. I used it maybe once or twice a year, except when I was having my garden redone - the only access to my garden was either through the house or via this enclosed back lane.

So, I think you probably need to get a narrow path at the side of your garden fenced off, to make it very clear that that is the right of way, not your whole garden! And get a new gate wth a lock. Get the lock one of those that the key can't be reproduced except by you, and give your neighbour a key.

The access is for the other house wner, not anyone who goes to that house. She can use her front door - god knows why she's so weird as not to want to use it.

Same! - and I’ve lived in terraces but always alleys at the back. I assumed no alley meant access to garden from the back just meant you had to traipse through the front

That says they have the rights as identified in part a .. what does it say there?

If the deeds and legal advice other pp are suggesting does not come to anything.
Ia it possible to install a fence allowing a narrow passageway across to her garden?
I think I would rather lose a foot of my garden than have people trampling through every five minutes? Plhs its your garden you can install a fence if you want.
Or even bamboo partioners??

We had some success - not an identical situation though - by adding a carabiner to our gate. So it wasn't locked, no one was blocked, it was just a bit more annoying for people to open. It tipped the balance enough for them to start going round the other way. The official reason was to stop the gate from flapping open. Of course it was only flapping because of the people using it and not closing it properly.

Would that not be a fire hazard, blocking off an exit route?

She's allowed to use it. You're allowed to install motion activated sprinklers to water your garden.

It's a free country.

@Smallorveryfaraway , I remember that one. The wall was already there but they made it taller.

Our house has this, so we go through our neighbours garden, and "other side" go through our garden then neighbours.
We only use it for bins or bikes really.

We fenced the top off with a gate below the path, to keep the dog in.

I am wondering if you can legally justify putting a lock on for two reasons:

1. Security
2. Keeping a young child and dog safe because they often don't close the gate.

I saw a George Clarke show dealing with this exact issue. The shows where people are doing up their houses and gardens. They built a wall between the garden and the path with a window opposite their kitchen window and a doorway opposite their own back door with a gate in it, if I remember rightly. So they made their garden secure and kept light for the house. Then they had other structures in the garden too further down, so they actually got a great deal of privacy on the garden from that. It was a decent sized garden.

I once lived in a house that let out directly onto the pavement (or no front garden at all) and it felt like people walking past outside were too close. I put venetian blinds up because I could angle them to let in loads of light but no-one outside could see in at all. Was so much better.

I'm surprised sone people haven't come across this, it's pretty common with older terraces, but obviously not all terraces.

In my first house, I got the fencer to chop of the end of my garden to give next door an alley to her garden. My other neighbour with no access thought he could use it to. I put another gate on.
He had his own side gate.
Stupid easement though, as I lost land.

OP lots of people have advised you that the easement is likely for bin access and nothing g else, and to check your deeds. Can you come back and let us know what the deeds say? Otherwise lots of people are wasting their time engaging as this is key to the issue.

I haven’t either! I used to live in a terrace hell where there were five terraced houses on each of the four sides with gardens all backing onto each other. Only the end of terrace houses had side access. Everyone else, including us, kept their bins at the front (we had bin storage). Never in my wildest dreams would I think to cross my neighbour’s garden. It’s such a weird arrangement, not sure whose idea this was originally, but it sounds mad that you’re obliged to let a bunch of random people cross the land you legally own

@Deepblueokay it says ‘subject to their contributing’ to the maintenance doesn’t it?

Ok.

How weird I’ve never heard of people accessing their garden through someone else’s!
We used to live a terrace, my nan lives in an end one, and we had ones in our old street. They all had an alley way going down the back of the gardens and there would be a gate to each one. No one needed to go over anyone else’s grass etc.

It sounds like she should be paying for maintenance of the area or it doesn’t apply?!

So if it were me, I'd check my deeds AND then send a legal letter requesting their deeds. Because most of these things have an additional covenant stating you can't use the back door as a front door precisely because of what you have described. Now, only the person/ company who got the covenant in place can officially object BUT it can be used as a reasonable cause of objection.

If you go down the legal route you'd need to declare it at sale, but I think it'd be worth it for this reason.

Other alternative is you lock the gate and give them a key - they can leave by it but would need to allow anyone else in by going out the house, to your gate. Might just upset them enough to make them use the front door.

They really aren't 🤣
Property lawyer.

Check your deeds. The snip you posted is from your conveyancing solicitor's report. You need to see the actual title deeds available from HMLR.

The right of way is for the neighbours... not their visitors/postal deliveries etc. Also it is subject to maintenance so if they break your gate they should repair it!

@Deepblueokay consult a solicitor. Continued use can create a right of way! https://www.stephensons.co.uk/site/blog/consumer-law-blog/twenty-year-right-of-way-rule-explained

This mentions reciprocal rights, which means you have some kind of easement or something over your neighbour's property. What is that? It could be useful if it's an access too, but it sounds like something else, I can't guess what.

Don't feel silly about buying the place - well done getting away from the ex.

Your neighbour may be using her front room or hall as a private space - it's a bit extreme of her to say she'd "rather die than use her front door", but there may be something (literally) behind it.

She should have contributed to fixing the gate - her right to use the access is subject to her contribution. But these situations are much better resolved softly than with legal action. If she believes it's a public right of way, that contributes to her acting like she can come and go when she pleases.

The previous occupants of your house may not have minded, or they may have done and this may be new behaviour by your neighbour. Either way, is there anyone who knows the neighbour well and can help agree a good way to resolve the situation?

With our access path, we all had it fenced off the end of the gardens, and gated, but we got together to prevent it becoming a public right of way - we had to get legal advice, put up signs, and restrict access once a year or something like that.

Can you set up a sprinkler for your kids to cool off in, which might nudge visitors to return to the front door?

I think you should check your neighbour's deeds as well as your own. Then consult the solicitor who handled your house purchase because they should have highlighted this. It may be that your neighbour is misusing her right of access.

I've never heard of this. I live mid-terrace and it would never even occur to me to go through the neighbour's garden to get to my back garden. The only way to get to it is through the house. I suppose if there was a big emergency or I had a really big bit of furniture that would only fit through the patio doors I could ask.

All a solicitor will do is get official copies from the land registry for £7, say what they say, and then charge OP much more than £7 for saying it. The OP may as well have a look herself first.