Issue with neighbour and gate

[shufflestep]

Our neighbour came round on Wednesday to complain about our side entrance, which is fixed on one side to the wall of our house. He asked DH to turn the gate round on the grounds that it was damaging his bricks (not the case). DH and one of our sons spent Friday morning turning the gate round and fixing a soft close mechanism on it, to prevent any banging. Neighbour has just come round again and said it shouldn't be attached to the wall of their house at all, he wants us to get a new gate and gatepost set in the ground now! Gate was put up with full permission from the then neighbours nine years ago, replacing another that was probably about thirty years old, also fixed in the same way. DH thinks that neighbour has no right to demand this as it is as he bought the house less than two years ago - we tried very hard to help, and think that should do. Can the neighbour take this further?

How would a post dug into the ground cause him problems! 😂

Op, yes just tell the neighbour you’ll do it, this isn’t the hill to die on,

I acceded to all my neighbour's demands when I first moved into my house, in the spirit of being friendly and neighbourly. Only to find that her demands got more frequent and bizarre. So be careful with that one.

We are going to put a post in with a base plate, rather than digging down as it's actually by a corner of his house, and many of the late Victorian houses round here don't have great foundations. We would be in trouble if we undermined his house inadvertently. And the bins stay where they are, it turns out that he would rather have the use of the passage to himself, but we have pointed out that it is jointly owned and we will continue using it too. Quite happy for us to carry on putting his bins out for him though

@Bluntness100
I’m not sure it’s that simple. For the reason that they just need to apply a post, and they can have a gate, it doesn’t need to be attached to his property, in any way shape nor form.
Sorry but you are wrong. The fact that they could have a post is irrelevant. They have acquired a right to have the gate attached by virtue of it being there for several decades. It had nothing to do with rights if way or access, they are different issues.