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.

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

What kind of outcome are you hoping for?

You are in the right, especially as the gate leads to your garden so is possibly yours.
Having said that you need to stay on good terms and saying anything will lead to bad feelings, so I would silently fume.

Petty nonsense. Be glad they paid and did the job.
Consulted with me.

You've obviously had a boring day OP 🙈 I'm chuffed when my neighbour cuts my hedge when doing theres I hate going it

Doing it

@Mistressinthetulips

If they have just moved in I would want to subtly say something that made the shared ownership clear, just in case.

This sums up exactly how I would feel.

@PatrickBatemann very annoyed that I’d not been consulted about changes made to property that I part own.

It is extremely discourteous to make changes to jointly owned property without checking that each party is okay with it. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s not at all outrageous of me to expect to be consulted.

I’d let it go, it’s minor. Or maybe mention in passing at most.

Does it really matter? They've saved you a job

Or, if neighbour mistakenly think it’s his gate, then a quick conversation about it will make clear that it is, in fact, shared.

For the principle and to prevent future uncomfortable situations I'd say something BUT it would be friendly, tactful, perhaps even a bit self-deprecating.

New neighbour maybe doesn't realise.

Given you're not too bothered about the actual colour I'd then give over a box if biscuits as a thank you and offer to chip in for the paint.

Easy. Helpful. Friendly. Not a big deal.

@SunshineCake

Oh God. This is exhausting. I'd be sure to charge you if you said anything just for the principle.

Well, you could try and charge but you wouldn't get anywhere if it was done without prior agreement

And people wonder why neighbours row so often, how pathetic.
I would be grateful.

Well of course I agree that it should be done in a friendly and tactful fashion.

(Autocorrect changed that to ‘tactile’ which would have painted quite a different picture, I think!)

it's a gate to an alleyway that leads to my garden. My neighbors then both have gates further down into my garden that gives them access to my property for them to use the alleyway and said gate that has been painted to take their bins out.

Can we please have a diagram?

The neighbor that has painted the gate only recently moved in

Any chance they think it’s their gate? Is the position of it obvious that it isn’t their gate?

I would just be happy that someone had painted it and i didn't have too

I'd pick my battles here.

@Lilimoon

Life is way to short to be bothered in principle!!

If people weren't just being contrary to the OP and actually believed this, then Mumsnet would disappear as a viable business overnight

I don't think you have to 'confront' your neighbour. You could just have a chat with them, pointing out that you jointly own the gate, so next time it would be good to check with everyone before making changes.

@Hont1986

I doubt you all jointly own the gate. More likely one of you owns and the rest just have the right to use it. Have you checked the deeds?

This. If it leads to your garden and your neighbours' just have a right of access for bins etc, it's likely to be your gate and the neighbour shouldn't have painted it without asking!

It will say in your deeds who owns the gate and the alleyway, I'd check, and if it is yours, politely let the new neighbour know ...and I'd paint back to white if I preferred white/it matched my house...

Read the comments about really bad neighbours on other threads and be happy to have one that is at least trying to be helpful. Its a gate, its newly painted. Black usually looks fine. I'd say thank you. If you find you don't like it black, paint it a different colour.

Hey neighbour- thanks for painting the gate. I did it last time and I usually check first with X as well because it’s shared property, just in case for next time. Black looks good but I was a bit surprised!

YA kind of BU, yes they should have asked it isn’t their gate but that said, a white gate over a black? Black wins every time.

@RikkiT I know what you mean as I have a very similar set up in our terrace.

I definitely think neighbours should have asked, just out of mutual respect.

I actually painted our shared gate and absolutely asked my neighbours first, they were delighted for me to do the work and not have to pay anything towards it.

I get that it’s the principle more than anything - it’s your property too so it’s understandable you’d want to be consulted but I’d just be happy it was done and I didn’t have to do it myself