My neighbour and his flying bins

[Philthedendron]

I just need a quick sense check that I’m not being unreasonable here, I’m off work sick at the moment and I’ve lost all sense of proportion. I’ve NC’d because I have an active thread running under my main user name on a health issue that’s identifiable but I’m a long term user.

So, I live at the end of a short track that branches into 2 drives: my neighbours drive and mine. We’ve had high winds for a couple of nights, so the last couple of mornings I’ve found next doors bins blocking the shared track. As you do, I’ve just moved them out of the way and popped them back on his drive on his hard standing area where he keeps his bins.

I got back from dropping the kids off this morning and noticed the bins were back on the track, blocking access to our house (I could have squeezed passed them but I’m in a big car and didn’t want to risk knocking them).

Well out marches Mr Nextdoor when he sees me getting out of the car and he shouts from his front door ‘I hope you’ve not got out to move my bin??’

I didn’t quite process what he said in time and I thought he was apologising that his bin was on the track, so I said ‘I need to get on our drive so I’ll just move it back don’t worry it’s no problem!’

I carried on and he ran over and said ‘no no leave the bin where it is this is our property!’

So I said ‘I need to put the car on the drive and don’t want to damage your bin so can you move it please if you don’t want me to?’

It went back and forth but basically, the upshot of the conversation is he thinks the shared track is owned by him, and he wants to start keeping his bins on the track so the bin men will collect them from there and he won’t have to move them.

I don’t believe the track is owned by them, I’m pretty confident it’s not owned by either of us. I didn’t want to argue on the street so I left the conversation by offering to take his bins down the track and back again to his bin store on bin day but he said they didn’t need that thank you. So I said well the bins can’t stay where they are and I’ll need to check the deeds.

I’m sympathetic to them getting older so don’t want to start a fight, but if they don’t own the track (which I’m confident they dont), are they allowed to leave their bin there under any circumstances? How do I challenge it?

Well obviously you need to clarify ownership of the track.
Do you have the deeds?

Next time I'd run the bin over.

I’ve got our deeds but not theirs, I can get that from the land registry though can’t I?

Tempting

We've just applied for planning permission for an extension and I really don’t want to annoy this guy if I can help it - he’s already verbally agreed that the extension plans are fine by him (isn’t near the boundary and we wrote to them before submitting the plans) but I don’t have anything in writing..

Yes, from here at not much cost.

Even if h does own the track,it sounds like you have row over it... so no he cant put his bins there anyway!

Stand by, applying now.

In all seriousness, he's being an utter tit frankly. First things first though, get the deeds and clarify whose land it is, then go from there once you have it in black and white. God neighbours are hard work. Oh for a detached house in the middle of bloody nowhere!

Even if he does decide to object to your extension, he'll have to provide genuine reasons why in writing, and simply "They've annoyed me about the bins/using the track" isn't going to be given any credence whatsoever. So while I can understand you don't want to rock the boat, their being in a bad mood with you isn't going to affect whether you get PP or not.

I hope the deeds do show who has title over the track, I can't imagine that two houses would be built and one wouldn't have Right of Way for access as standard. That would be mad. How does your NDN think you're going to get on your drive if he blocks your access to it?

Plus won't it be horribly inconvenient for him to have to traipse all the way to the track with his bins on bin day?

People are so weird. How is he expecting you to access your drive otherwise?!

Every time the bins there and blocking your drive move it to his front door he’ll soon get bored - don’t let him hold you to ransome old twat

Yes so as suspected, they don’t own the track and neither do we. However, we own up to the outer edge of our garage which includes the few feet in front of his gate. So effectively he has to walk over our land to get in to his house, but he has a right of access to do that and we are not allowed to build or obstruct the entry to his drive in any way despite it being our land.

The important thing though is where he’s trying to store his bins isn’t owned by either of us. Do I write a letter to him and post it through or print off a copy of the deeds and go round?

I think it's unlikely there are any arrangements on the deeds that allow him to block your access, even if he does own the drive. But who knows.

Some people just behave like idiots.

Go round and show him the deeds. Point out everything to him, pretend you thought he was just putting the bins there temporarily, and see if that smooths matters over.

If you go in guns blazing, he might find it harder to back down.

What a tit. As pp has said, him being annoyed with you over bins won't give him a reason to object t your extension.
Every time he does it, I would just move the back and say "you can't keep them there" and let it become a battle of wills.

Do I write a letter to him and post it through or print off a copy of the deeds and go round?

He sounds like he may need it written out black on white. If you think posting a letter may come across as too confrontational you could always print it out and take it over in person? Then again, if he's likely to flare up again better just to pop it in his letterbox.

Sounds like he's going to be a bundle of laughs when your building work starts and you've got materials being delivered and trades using the drive.

If your deeds say you've got right of access over the drive or that it's a shared driveway then he can't keep his bins there.

Is it possible that he owns the track on a separate title?

I'd expect the OP to have a RoW over it in her deeds if he did.

@Philthedendron, who maintains the track? What's your understanding on its ownership from when you bought?

He sounds a silly old sod with not enough going on to occupy his life meaningfully. Have you got a husband you can send round for a chat? I hate the sight of bins left out all week at the gate, just looks scruffy. I'd be quite tempted to use them for target practice if a chat about who owns what doesn't do the job. Regarding your extension, if it meets local planning policy and is on the far side away from him, it's very unlikely his objection would stop it anyway...

I think you forgot the diagram, OP 😂

He sounds mad! If he doesn’t own the track and neither do you who does? If it’s the council then write to them because you can’t leave bins out on the road if it’s not bin day.

We had this issue where neighbours thought it ok To just permanently leave their bins at the end of their drive on the pavement which then obstructed us pulling out of our drive. Wrote to the council because they can’t leave them out unless it’s bin day and problem got resolved.

Problems with my neighbours got resolved by writing to the council. The council then instruct said neighbour to do/not do certain things.

I'm not sure I'd even bother showing him the deeds, but that's just me. Surely he must know what he does and doesn't own?

So I'd just move the bins anyway/knock them over with your car and write to the council.
Unless you have a husband or partner to speak to him, I wouldn't engage further. He sounds crazy or just blatantly unreasonable.

I’d go round and explain in person rather than writing a letter.

I'd actually do both.

I'd write a letter and include pictures of the fact that he has right of access to cross your land to get to his. I'd also include that if he doesn't want to chance that his bins might go missing (not sure if other neighbours would be happy if they were to end up on their land or with rubbish strewn across their gardens if the bins did get caught out on a windy day). Pop it into your pocket and head over for a converstation.

Firstly though I'd have a chat - "did he know that...?" kind of discussion and on your way out, you could hand him the information you have discovered, for his records.