Neighbour has changed the colour of jointly owned access gate

[RikkiT]

I live in a terraced house and my 2 adjoining neighbours have access via my garden to the street for things like taking their bins out. There is a single gate onto the street that connects to a alleyway in my garden for myself and my 2 neighbours to use.

Today my neighbour has painted the jointly owned gate without consulting myself or our other neighbour. The gate was white and has been painted black.

Regardless if it "needed painting" or "looks better" in principle my neighbour should have consulted me and my other neighbour first right?

It more the principle that they have done it without checking in first. If it had been kept the same colour I may have overlooked it as it it. something we are all jointly responsible for.

Would It be unreasonable of me to confront my neighbour and ask why they didn't consult me and my neighbour first?

My wife seems to think it will cause more hassle than it's worth.

I think OP, after reading all your replies, you seem like a reasonable chap and not prone to over-reacting over nothing.

I can understand that it appears your neighbour may not understand the nuances of neighbourly relationships/ ownership/ boundaries etc. It may be important that they do understand this at a later date. The fact the gate didn't really need painting and that it is not theirs (can't remember- joint owned by you and others?) I think is a good enough reason for you to kindly explain their misunderstanding. You sound like you are perfectly capable of doing this in a nice way and able to maintain good relations with them.

I'd be really annoyed too op. I'd be telling them to put it back how it was CF.

Definitely sounds like you own the passageway and gate and your neighbours have right of way - the idea that you all jointly share ownership is very unlikely.
Either way your neighbour should definitely have asked. Even if it looks better I would still be p'ed off that they hadn't checked with you first. I certainly would not be taking beer round.

If it were me I would pop round (perhaps with another reason/excuse) and then drop into conversation "oh and by the way I see you have painted my/our gate. Whilst I do appreciate the effort it might have been nice if you had checked with me first"

TheGoodEnoughWife

Why, thank you

"oh and by the way I see you have painted my/our gate. Whilst I do appreciate the effort it might have been nice if you had checked with me first"

It's always going to be awkward now, and you'd want to avoid it escalating if possible, but I don't think I'd even say that: it's such an inappropriate thing to do and a massive overstepping of boundaries. I'm hugely struggling even imagining doing something to a part of my neighbour's house/garden/property just because I felt like it. It's such a bizarre thing to even think of doing.

If possible, I'd definitely check out the legal/deeds situation. It looks and sounds very much like it's your gate, OP, leading to your property, over which the other two have access rights to reach their own properties. If you can establish that, I'd be inclined to put your number on the gate. If they protest, say the access right across your property is not being challenged, but if they'd prefer, you can put up a small sign saying "49 (with access for 47 & 51)".

I'd be inclined to put your number on the gate. If they protest, say the access right across your property is not being challenged, but if they'd prefer, you can put up a small sign saying "49 (with access for 47 & 51)
^That's a very good idea, I think OP should do this.

You certainly need to check.

It's the fact that he painted the gate to match his front door that would make me wonder.

Your wife is right. Is your name Victor by any chance?

Really? Its a gate. Just let it go and worry about something more important.

I suspect that if the Op wasn't thought to be male they would have not been given such a hard time.

At least it's not orange or purple!

It's the fact that he painted the gate to match his front door that would make me wonder.

That's just made me think, actually. I know they haven't been there long, but might they be planning on selling the house - and intending to lie to any potential buyers that it's their gate and passageway?

For all you know, they could try to claim it's solely theirs and either that two other neighbours have legal/informal access rights across 'their' land or just not mention the other neighbours at all.

When we bought our house, the sellers casually lied to us that a beautiful old (sadly now non-functioning) pump at the edge of the path was definitely fully owned by this house, without us even specifically asking them - just mentioned it was very pretty. They lied about several other things, too; we had an inkling that they were the kind to take a somewhat 'non-traditional' approach to life when we turned up as pre-arranged to view the house and he was sitting there in just his vest and pants

As it happens (and we guessed all along), it's actually shared with our neighbour. I think it was originally deliberately planned and designated that way, so that no single household could claim exclusive rights, back when that was the only source of water for the houses, long before the mains supply was a thing. Thankfully for us, our NDN is lovely and one of us will paint it once every few years when it needs it and when we have some spare time - but we are on very good terms, it is genuinely shared and we always keep it the same original colour.

I might be very wrong here, but if you do put your own house number on the gate (assuming you find it does belong to you), and he kicks off furiously, that could be a good clue.

Have you nothing better to worry about?

Have you nothing original to add to the discussion?

@THEDEACON

Have you nothing better to worry about?

What a stupid post. Even if the OP has other worries should they just let their neighbours do what they like to their property?

Worries don't work like that. They can run concurrently.

What colour is your front door ?
Could paint it during the night to match yours if you need to get a point across 🤷‍♀️ Or you could leave it, personally I’d leave it as it will cause a big issue and it’s really only a gate

I actually think that you own the gate anyway, you own the floating freehold above it, it accesses your garden directly, they just have access via the gate. It is part of your fronting, it should match your property Imo. I would check the deeds and clarify.

Is “get a life/we should all have such problems/but there are Covid patients!” the “cancel the cheque” of this thread? Odd bandwagon.

I’m with you, OP – but more than the principle of it, I’d be worried that it’s a (minor) land grab, assertion of boundaries, etc. First comes the gate painted to match his property not yours. Then comes the lock. Then bikes and logs and storage in the alley; next, hooks and shelves drilled on your house wall. Will he try to demarcate the part of your garden that leads to his gate, laying a path or generally treating the whole access area, from alley gate to garden gate, as part of his property?

Also black gates are boring, paint it something jazzy. I’d check the deeds – including who owns the gates from your garden to the neighbouring gardens. Do they get to choose what colour to paint them, regardless of it facing into your garden?

We had a shared driveway at our previous address (never ever ever again) and having the shared gate painted would’ve been great, as it was our twat of a neighbour decided he didn’t want a gate on the drive and we came home one day to find that they double gate across the drive was now just a single one attached to our wall. He’d removed the half attached to his wall and taken it to the tip.

I think your neighbour was rude.

They haven't moved in 5 minutes and have changed the colour without checking?

Very rude.