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

I can't quite read that properly on my phone but it looks like it's referring to a specific plan. Is there anything else that refers to that plan? You could phone land registry and ask them how to get a copy of it.

It is possible to agree to move rights if you and the neighbours could agree. No idea how expensive that would be to do.

there’s several house next to each other, so wouldn’t that mean someone is walking through several gardens to get to theirs?

Potentially yes @amraa . My daughter's house is the middle one of a terrace of nine (not the terrace in the photo in my other post). No-one needs to use part of the path in her garden as obviously they have shorter routes, which is great for her. But she has to use the path the length of four houses to put her bin at the end of the terrace (which is the designated bin collection space for those five houses).

It reads as if they should contributing to the maintenance of the access - possibly financially

We looked at an ex council house that had this arrangement, it was a no from us. The estate agent showing us round said it was for dustbins, but obviously we didn’t take it any further to actually check that out. We found another house with no such easement, still a mid terrace, but nobody walking up by the windows!

OP you should have had a report from
your solicitor when you bought the house, and they should have explained in that exactly what the easement allows. If you’ve kept all your paperwork try and find that as it’ll be in layman’s terms rather than the title document which is the legal wording.

Check the actual DEEDS, @Deepblueokay .

Get information about property and land: Get a copy of the deeds - GOV.UK

Dominant tenement never, ever refers to people, it is the piece of land that benefits from an easement. The piece of land that is burdened by the easement being the servient tenement. It may be that only certain people can make use of the easement (such as the occupier of the dominant tenement), but that's a different thing.

It's usually to allow people to take their dustbins from their back gardens round to the street, rather then have to wheel the bins through their house.

Someone mentioned earlier doing the same with children's bikes that are kept in a garden shed.

I'd speak to your solicitor.

Can you lock it but give her a key? That way she has a right of access so her household can use it but deliveries etc can't.

You're right, but some posters seemed to think that OP could prevent the neighbour accessing the path by locking the gate

To have coal delivered or to put the bins on the street, or deliveries of things like huge fridge freezers or garden sheds.

When I lived in Sheffield no one used the front door if they lived in a terrace. Many people put furniture in front of the door. My letterbox was on the back door.

My neighbours had access across my garden next to the house on the deeds however the whole terrace blocked off a path at the end of the gardens with fences and gates so that was a general access point. It worked well.

That sounds an absolute nightmare OP.

I think I'd get some legal advice on this rather than start a war you can't win, but I'd be buggered if I'd make their access easy. Can your kids start leaving bikes/big toys out and your wheelie bins or stop picking up your dog poo.... or pile it on the path. Make it as awkward as bloody possible, just as she's being awkward.

Don’t they just go out the back door into their garden/yard from inside the house, then come back in through the same door? Why do they need another access to their garden/yard than the one in their own home? Why do they need to use someone else’s property to access their property if they have their own door? Isn’t that what a door is for? For entering/exiting a space? I ask as someone who’s only ever lived in apartments!

What are the rights noted above??

Totally will depend, but my parents' home (Wales) refers to dominant tenement and means the people - it's there in black and white. It also states they are not allowed a 'merry-go-round' on their property - goodness knows where that tenet came in! As I said - check the deeds.

You will give a right of way over the land coloured green on the plan dated 1989 subject to their contributing towards the maintenance and repair of the same

I guess it depends on what the land coloured green consists of....is it the entire garden or just a designated pathway.....and have they contributed towards the maintenance and repair?

Isn’t that saying they have a right to access subject to them contributing towards maintenance? Have they contributed towards maintenance? Or did they just harass you over the gate

My sister has this with her house but I don’t think her neighbours ever use it except on bin day. My mum also has it too and as she’s in the middle she can go through her neighbour’s garden. However they all rarely do this and use their front doors and front yard space for bins.

can you somehow fence off a little path? Not sure how feasible that would be though

@saraclarahaven’t lived a sheltered life yet never ever heard of this! I can’t even imagine it in my head I need a diagram. Ur photo confuses me even more, there’s several house next to each other, so wouldn’t that mean someone is walking through several gardens to get to theirs?
It’s bizarre that they wouldn’t use the front door for delivery, seems like the easiest option

Okay, but what do your Deeds actually state regarding this.

I know someone who used to live in the middle of a terrace of 30 houses. There was an access road at the back, with land where some residents had built garages/put washing lines etc BUT there was a footpath literally through the middle of every front garden. Originally it would have been so that all the workers at the mill opposite could come out of their front door and follow the quickest route to work. More recently it seemed that only the window-cleaner used it regularly but any resident/visitor could have done.

You could be in serious trouble if you locked the gate as potentially the neighbour has a legal right here. Op needs to check her deeds.

Just read this listing and then checked my new house listing 😂
thanks for this!

I think it's not as common in the south, I lived in a terrace in east London growing up and no one was wandering through people's gardens unless they were running from police. I then lived in an end terrace 50s build in Essex but even the attached houses had alleys. I now live in an Edwardian semi but there are lots of Victorian terraces around and those without side access keep their bins in the tiny yards at the front.

Until I visited a friend in Yorkshire I didn't know what a back to back was, I'd never seen one!