Should I brick up the gate?

[HappyLimeHiker]

I live in an end terrace corner house and next door has just been sold. We access the house from the side and have no steps. Next door have around 15 steps to access the front and no back access. There is a gate between our front gardens which was there when we moved in, an elderly lady lived next door at the time and when she mentioned the previous owner allowed her to use our gate to avoid the steps due to her mobility issues to avoid the steps we offered to allow her to continue to do so. Unfortunately elderly neighbour passed away last year and house is now in the process of being sold. Yesterday a man knocked my door and said his daughter and partner were moving in in a few weeks and could they use my entrance to avoid the steps? Perfectly reasonable request which I agreed to but then he started in CF territory, what if it's icy? What if they're having work done? During our conversation my 2 dogs were barking incessantly as they do when a stranger is at the door. I said I was happy to allow them to use my entrance on moving day but I can't allow it on a regular basis as I work from home for a call centre and I can't have the dogs barking and disrupting me. He just ignored that and repeated but what if it's icy? (Umm buy some grit maybe) so I reiterated I was happy to allow them to use my gate on moving day but I can't have the disruption on a regular basis and he sloped away. I can't help thinking this doesn't bode well and is going to cause us nothing but problems and I should brick the adjoining gate up before they move in to avoid this. So what is everyone's opinion on this? He really was quite persistent and didn't want to take no for an answer but thankfully he isn't the one moving in.

have had a similar situation- I was the one moving in - we were assured there was no access across our garden - 2nd house in a row of 4. There was a very small gate between which had been rendered useless by our house building decking. However neighbours in third house insisted they had been in the habit of taking their bins etc through my back garden and that of the first house even though the deeds for the first house showed no right of access
Had to be very strong from the start to nip that in the bud.

They need to put in a ramp.

Brick up the gate.

Reorganise the garden and brick it up.

I don't understand the set up here. Would OP or anyone else either draw or explain? I'm trying to figure it out in my head, but am having trouble with that?
(Wouldn't be unusual with me anyway).

Do you "own" that side of the wall/fence? If so, yes I'd block it up. I would have probably blocked it up regardless asap but it's a bit awkward now the newbies have noticed it/talked about it/you've agreed it.
I agree with the above statement about let them use it for moving day and then have a conversation about it the very near future you're having some work done that includes blocking up the gate and it's been in the pipeline for some while. If they get shitty about it,remind then that's there's no legal access there and if the gate was a deal breaker/that important, their solicitors should have approached you,where you could have informed about the planned works for the gate.

I had this in my previous house.

The two bedroom houses (which mine was) all had access to the back and were semi-detached. All the three bed houses were terraces with no access.

It was a council house and due to some issues I had a lovely councillor who was helping me, and he turned up the day I moved in.

He noticed that there was a gate in the middle of my back garden to my neighbour's house (the three bed terrace). He said I should lock it immediately.

It's hard to explain. The two bed houses were set much closer to the road, so the gate to my back garden was level with the back of my house, but half the depth of my neighbour's house. I had a fence and gate there, the same as all the other two beds.

The back garden was lawn, but half-way down was a gate in the middle of the fence, to next door. This was locked on their side.

I contacted the council, who sent someone to talk to my neighbour, who said that this was their 'access', and left it like that.

Short time after, I was in the back garden, at night, when people came through their gate and walked through my garden.

It got worse when next door decided to build a conservatory. This meant that they had workmen, parking on my drive (the lorry used for concrete mixing actually cracked my drive).

Their workmen used to leave my gate open. Meaning that anyone could walk into my garden. Their gate, however, was locked.

I got fed up, so asked the council to check with their surveyor/land person. This confirmed they had no access. They sent a letter to both me and my neighbour, saying that there should be no gate. After this I padlocked my gate from the inside, but still allowed my neighbour to have things like turf, etc, brought through.

Thanks to everyone for your responses. As a longtime lurker on this site this is my first post and your answers have been really helpful. I've got a very reasonable quote for bricking it up so I think that's the way to go. As several of you have mentioned, the gate being in disrepair gives me a good excuse. I'm happy for them to still use my access on moving day and maneuvering stuff over the wall will still probably be easier than carting it up the steps.

So have they no access to the back of their house, just everything has to go through their front door up the steps? If this is so they should have realised that before buying the house. They can’t just rely on your good will, that’s completely unacceptable. Suppose your dogs were out, perfectly secure, & they left the gate open.
One of the houses on our lane, a semi, made a real problem for themselves. They built an extension at the back & side of their house that completely blocked their drive that gave access to the back. So the only ways of accessing the rear of the house is either through the house, not great for bags of soil, plants, wood fir their burner, or by their neighbour allowing them to slide one of the panels of the six foot fence between their houses. The neighbour too was a very obliging elderly neighbour. She’s now died & the new owners refuse to do this. I always wonder how they’ll go on should a fire break out in the house preventing them accessing the front door! Or anyone needing access to the rear, firemen, window cleaner etc.