Hi everyone!
I wonder if anyone would be able to help me out as I have been struggling alot since moving into my first home last month...
We have bought an End of Terrace Victorian (1900's) house. There is a side gate along the right side of the house and to the left, is our neighbours.
Before completion, we expressed concerns with our solicitor regarding right of access for our neighbour in which they did a search to find there was no legal right of way and that we did not have to continue to allow the access in which was agreed with the previous owner. However, we are not nasty or selfish people and never intended to stop any access/didnt want to fall out and create bad atmosphere with our new neighbours but more just wanted to know our legal rights should we need them.
Fast forward to the day we got the keys and we came into our new home to find a man in our garden
The man was our neighbour, wheeling his garden rubble along the back of our house and up the side gates. After a brief hello, he proceeded to tell us that we will 'get used to this' and that he was having a skip delivered the next morning so will be carrying on with this work all weekend.
The next day we came back for our official moving day. As we arrived at the property, we found our side gates propped wide open with a brick and looking like it was welcoming anyone and eveyone off the street. As you can imagine, neither of us were best pleased and worried about what was happening at our house when we weren't there!
We decided to have a chat over the next couple of days and expressed our concerns. We asked, if they wouldn't mind, could we take their bins out every week instead of them walking through our garden and seeing into the house via the big open windows! We arranged for them to drop their bin just through the gate and we would do the rest and also explained we are happy for them to use the side access, but can we have a heads up before hand!
The side gates were very unsecure so we decided to put padlocks on for extra safety. A couple of days later we received a letter, from the neighbours, asking for a key to these padlocks...so they had been in our garden to know we had out these on!! We were a little upset that this couple, double our age, couldn't come and speak to us like adults but had to send silly letters through our door. Annoyed that I had gone out my way and made effort to speak to them fave to face a few days previous, I decided it was easier to write back just like they had. I explained that the locks were for our own privacy and security and reiterated what we had spoken about when I had gone round to speak to them. We then received an aggressive knock at the door in which my partner answered. I quickly decided to join him outside after hearing the nature of the conversation and the attitude in her voice! She demanded 'We have right of way' and also explained that she had lived there for 12 years and had always done this. She expressed points in which she was concerned now that she couldn't use the side gate and this included: "My kids are trapped", "My kids can't get their bikes in and out" and "How will we get out of there's a fire"
After an embaressing heated discussion in the front porch, she walked off in a huff saying she will take legal action. We weren't at all bothered as we had just spoken to our solicitor a few short weeks ago and asked this exact question
Thank god we had!
We have continued to receive numerous letters in which we haven't responded but are leaving us feeling anxious and on edge. The latest letter informed she had taken advice from her solicitor and that advice was basically to ask us again nicely (she used big words to make herself sound clever but it was obvious what the situation was- the solicitor can't do anything as it's not legal and anything that was agreed previously was nothing more than a local agreement). We already knew this, of course! She also threatened that we buy new padlocks which suited her better and ones that could be fitted to the front and the back of the gate and that she must receive keys for this by the end of that week.
The neighbours are laughable and we are not sure why they require so much access, it seems a little obsessive? If there was access is would only be for bins and not to share our garden with the world!? We still have the same agreement with the bins despite the way we have bewn treated so there really should be no issue.
Our house and garden is our private space and we do not wish for strangers to walk around as and when they please! We understand the legal rights and we will not budge on allowing them access but I feel so drained, upset and angry all the time in regards to this situation. I feel uncomfortable in my own home and am said that our experience of moving into our first home was ruined by these nasty people.
Can anyone advice how I can best deal with this situation, mainly just for myself and my own mental health.
Thankyou!