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

I found out from my Deeds that it isn't an Easement in my case. I actually have shared ownership. I know it isn't what you want to hear but they're not doing anything illegal. Just rude.

My husband is so polite he refuses to use it not even for garden waste. Even though we have a "Right to Use a Wheelbarrow" down it. My neighbour has put pot plants and hanging baskets down it so it reminds me of something from Nintendo. Just a thought for you...

How did you find out about the previous owners efforts? Did they tell you presale? Or have you been told this by third parties?

I'm asking this because I would have thought, that just like when you sell a house you have to say if there is a border dispute or issue with neighbours, that the previous owner should have explained this issue as it directly affects your enjoyment and legal use of the property?

I'd explore that further if I was you, maybe speak with your solicitor who dealt with the conveyancing.

This.

Neighbour blocking off her own front door, which is also an emergency exit, is against fire and safety regulations. Presumably she’s got a couch in front of it, which in case of a fire, she wouldn’t be able to move in time.

I used to house share with my friend who had a terrace. We used to walk across the back of next door the ginnel went up the side of their house and then our access was straight across the back of their house. We did not use the front door, the previous owners did not use the front door. We all came round the back it was just the way it was, only time I used the front was when I moved in and moved out. They didn’t have gated access though, we had the gate to separate the house from their garden

This is what we have. We are the middle house in a row of 3 and have a right through one of our neighbours garden for bins and emergency access. We never use it as I wouldn't feel comfortable just going through without asking first. We keep our bins at the front so we don't disturb them.

I have been pleased we've got it though, not least when we were out for the day, there was a massive thunderstorm and my neighbour went and got my washing in for me and put it in her tumble dryer 😁

Definitely create a fenced off path for them and a separate locked gate for you only

We are the end of terrace and we too only need to give access for bins, everything else they ask.

I agree that it's a private matter . It's not blocking a public right of way, which the council definitely would get involved with.

There was a massive rights of way case at the council I worked for, it went on for years and the amount of evidence was so huge that there was an entire committee room given up to accommodate it.

If you put a lock on the neighbour is entitled to a key as are her partner kids her gardener her cleaner etc if you give her a code she can give the code to anyone she wants. If you keep changing it she could say this was a barrier. Just a self closing gate would stop children dogs etc getting out. If it's a general easement the neighbour is fully entitled to use it as a front door and for her family friends couriers carers etc to use it. However none of this are entitled to stray from the path
You can't move the path to any other part of the garden without her permission.

I'm not sure that reasonable would come into it, tbh. It's entirely possible that it's an absolute right, and if the neighbour wanted to go to and fro across OP's garden all night long, she might be perfectly entitled to do so!

A security camera would surely be allowed, but I'm not sure what it would achieve.

The one on the houses in my old road was restricted to residents of that road.

Our houses were built at the turn of last century, and at the time were the only houses in the street. Some more were built at the other end of the road in the 1950s and then on the opposite side in the early 70s.

I often wondered if the easement applied to the newer properties as well.

I'd go back to your solicitor and ask them to write a letter based on the lease, explaining what is reasonable. Then put a lock on it and maybe a security camera on it.

Deleted; crossposted.

I also wonder if it would be a breach of the easement to put up a fence a few feet inside the bottom boundary, so that the neighbour could only access a sort of passageway along the bottom and get into her garden that way. She'd still be able to cross OP's garden, just not the full length of it.

I wouldn't buy a property where the neighbours could walk across my garden, personally. For many years, I had dogs that had free access to the garden via a dog flap. One of them would have been fine with people coming into the garden, but the other two wouldn't have stood for it.

When I bought my first house, the vendors showed me the right of way and explained who used it when I viewed the house, and my solicitor explained it, too. The solicitor seemed far more concerned than I was!

The easement is for the property. Sadly, unless it says otherwise, an easement means anyone can use it if they are going to the property. So post, deliveries, friends, window cleaners the list goes on. If you want to read horror stories the Garden Law forum is the place to go.

I do wonder why people post with such certainty about things they know nothing about

Yeah that's just a screenshot of the report on title, it's not the deeds

Ah, you must have seen the deeds we've all been banging on about in order to say this with such certainty - could you do us a favour and post them on here so we can all have a look?

@CotswoldIdyll , mine put in a new fence and told me where the gate was going, telling me where they were going to put their path.
I told them that would not be happening.
It didn't.

Yes exactly. Mine didn’t discover this until they actually tried to resite the gate further up my garden. I had great pleasure explaining it to them.

I think it's quite a common practice to use the back door in some parts of the country.

A former colleague of mine came from a Yorkshire mining community and when he moved south he found it quite strange that here (Sussex) it's the norm to use the front door, even in roads like mine where the back door is actually on the side of the house and in many cases can be accessed by just walking up the drive.

@Laurmolonlabe , It still wouldn't be a council matter. The front door has been blocked by the owner and the back door is not blocked, the easement would be blocked, which would be a civil matter. Councils don't deal with neighbour disputes.
If you want to check, ask your council.

No l was talking about the neighbours front door,they do not use it and it is blocked,an easement has to be complied with but there is no reason to accept couriers and post around the back of the house,using an easement for main access is not what the Op signed up to,the fact the neighbour doesn't want to use the he front door is irrelevant, the access is for the neighbour,not all and sundry.

Because the neighbour is allowed it to be used by delivery drivers etc and OP isn’t allowed to interfere with this - from what AI states.

but I don’t know as I’m not legally minded.

my understanding is that all of these people should have free access to this right of way - even though it is very annoying that the neighbour is taking the piss.

I don’t think the op has the deeds yet as she mentions needing to get them later than that screenshot?

As long as she gives the neighbour a key why would she need their agreement? It’s still her property, right of access doesn’t change that.

Yes, because YOURS says how it can be used. Most in fact don't and the OP has shown a screenshot that implies hers doesn't either. It would probably say if it was only for bins. In any case the neighbour has been using it this way for many years and so there is possibly ( depending on how many years) a prescribed easement.