To tell my neighbour she has to pay for my son's bike?

[Bikelema]

We are terraced houses and we share a passage to back gardens.

It has a gate on with a padlock.

We have a few bikes that are in the back garden (ours) but my son uses his daily so it usually stays in the locked passage.

She had a gardener come once in a while to mow her back garden.

Last time a friend was visiting he locked his bike in the passage and my neighbour had taken his bike and left it in the front garden.

I came out and moved it into my back garden. I asked the gardener not to take property from the locked passage and leave it unattended in the front, he said neighbour had told him to put it in front garden.

We live in a shit area.

I also knocked on the door and said this to neighbour

She apologised.

It happened again. Only this time I took the bike into my house whilst they were both in the back.

Sue her knocking on door panicking that bike was gone.

I told her I had it but not to leave the bike in the front.

So guess what.

It happened again but only this time it was stolen for real :(

It was a £800 bike that we got 2nd hand for £150

AIBU to ask she pays for it?

My parents have a passage like this. A bike would block access for them. Was the gardener moving the bike in order to get a mower into the back garden? If that’s the case, the bike being there must be a pain every week . Why didn’t you move the bike into the back garden on the days the gardener comes?

Well you got it for £150 and it will have depreciated in value since then to possibly £100 (guess).

You share responsibility because leaving a bike in a shared area is silly. So maximum neighbour should pay is half of that £50. So if neighbour offers to pay then accept £50. However, it is not worth destroying a good relationship with a neighbour with whom you share use of anything, for the sake of a mere £50. If it escalates to a neighbour dispute due to lost goodwill it could knock thousands off the value of your house for a start. So if no offer is forthcoming just chalk it up to experience and don't use communal areas to store valuable items in future.

It's all very well saying to tell the gardener not to but if he needed to use the passage at full width the bike was in the way. He can't levitate his equipment over it. You should have asked for notification of the gardener's days and made sure the passage was clear for him, every time.

But why can't you make sure the bike is moved before the gardener comes? It blocks access even if only once a month.

He doesn't do certain days. He's a mate who does it free so just pops round whenever he is in the area.

Someone else's bike blocking communal access would pee me off, it doesn't matter whether she only uses it for gardener access or daily, she has the right to unblocked access same as everyone else. Your ds bike should be in your locked garden. I think it's almost amusing that you think your ds bike is someone elses responsibility to keep locked up

Ultimately the bike was your son's responsibility not your neighbours and because of the previous instances of it being moved you should have insisted that he put it in your own garden.

OP: AIBU?
95% of MN: Yes
OP: No I'm not.

Are you the only 2 using the passage? If not I suspect it's probably annoyed other people as well having the access blocked. If your bike wasn't locked up then it really is your fault. Even with locked passage it is still shared and clearly foreseeable that his could happen. If it was locked up they would need to ask you to move it for them and wouldn't have happened.

On gardening days tbh I'd have made sure it was in the garden as it sounds like the gardener is moving it. Were you there when gardener turned up? Couldn't you have moved it to your garden then in stead of leaving it for the gardener to move?

and at an £800 bike left in communal area! I know the communal area was locked but if my bike was worth that I'd have also locked the wheels so it wasn't easy to move/be stolen.

sounds like youre the slow learner here OP. You keep blocking their access, they keep moving the bike, and you keep putting it back to block the access.

Ignore that she said "you could" because her actions clearly show that she doesnt want the bike there and its a pain for her when she has the gardener, so you should have not used the passageway on gardening day

Perhaps she's someone who is no good at confrontation? How many people post on here who've got in trouble because they couldn't say No clearly?

You've been told No several times by the bike being moved, but you haven't taken the hint. That's how I'd see things. The gardener doesn't care - as far as he's concerned every time he turns up to do a bit of work there's a fucking bike in the way, in a shared passageway, that has to be moved.

So the bikes not locked?

Anyone couldve taken it then

If the bike was moved into the "wrong" area twice, you have to admit you were BU not to take the hint and tried again.

I don’t think you should be blocking the communal access passage with a bike. She probably said it was okay to be neighbourly but actually it’s a pain every time her gardener wants to access the back. Your bike should have been locked in your back garden.

You were a bit thick not to keep it in the house the first time it happened. It’s a shared passage. I.e not yours. This is your fault.

Keep your property your own responsibility. If you choose to make it someone else's even after multiple instances of her not doing so, then you forgo any expectation for her to reimburse you.

Just claim it on household insurance. As far as you were aware it was locked away and now it's been stolen.

Report to police for a crime number and then put in the claim.

YABU, it’s a shared passageway not a storage area. Also if it’s the only access to the rear of the property and you are storing bikes in it then you are creating a fire hazard. This is just selfish. I suppose you want your neighbor to pay because your home insurance have refused to pay out as the bike wasn’t stored securely......

she prob told her gardener mate but he forgot-not his fault he needs access

next time keep it in your garden

The communal passage is just that. A PASSage. Somewhere for people to pass through to get to gardens, not an extra storage space because your son is too lazy to take his bike in and out of his own actual garden.

YABU

Your neighbour has been very patient with you blocking the path, she sounds nice. That said, her kindness has now come back to bite her since she agreed to moving the bike herself to the back garden, but then put it in the front instead, this does give you some reason to complain.

Really, she should have just said she needed access to her back garden, your bike was blocking it and please remove your bike immediately, you would have been inconvenienced but she wouldn't have to pay you a cent.

No good deed goes unpunished, yes?

"I don't know why people are saying IBU for keeping the bike in the passage when the neighbour agreed it's absolutely fine to do so?"

Because it's plain bloody rude to block people's access to their own property. It's that simple from where I'm sat.

I think your son just learned an expensive lesson about why not to put his stuff in communal areas, especially when people need to move his stuff out of those areas when going about their own business.

His mistake for not securing his own bike, he should pay.

but she wouldn't have to pay you a cent.

I don't see that she has to pay anything anyway. Bike in communal passage blocking access. Bike removed. Bike stolen. Tough shit.