Neighbours think my drive is a right of way

[Runningonjammiedodgers]

Pic attached.

I live in a row of terreced houses. My house (1) has a path to the front door and a drive way next to my house. Houses 2-5 share a path that leads to the road. There is a strip of grass in front of their houses and then their parking spaces.

Neighbours in house 2 used to walk over the grass to their front door to avoid going the long way up the path. They (and their guests) have now taking to walking down my driveway along my path and jumping over the flower bed in the middle to get to their door. It's really pissing me off! It's my property being treated as a right of way and they walk right past my living room window so there is no privacy. But it's also not causing any damage or inconvenience. Just annoying as hell.

AIBU to ask them to stop using my property as a public footpath? Or do I just need to suck it up?

How are those going to stop the neighbour from walking in front of OP's window? Won't they just step over them?

Plant roses

I would definitely grow/ plant something spikey or stingy, bee, bird and butterfly friendly of course , and how about a nice bird feeding station , I would also be tempted to put something like a banana skin or equally slippy down 🤣🤣

I strongly recommend planting firethorn aka pyracantha. It’s a beautiful thorn bush, hardy, cheap to buy, grows fast (trim it to the shape you like), white flowers in summer and masses of coloured berries in winter that the birds love. Grows faster than berberis which someone mentioned earlier, has more vicious thorns, and is a native plant. Makes a wonderful hedge! Your neighbours will only try to breach it once….

Put a little sign up at the end of your driveway saying 'Private Property' it might give them a hint. If it doesn't work mention to the neighbours you know someone that's getting rid of some paving stones, do they want them to make a stepping stone path from the parking bays across the grass to their door. Another hint they may pick up on. If that doesn't work then just ask them if they'd please ask their guests to stop using your driveway/path as it unnerves you having people pass your living room window.

Something like this would work. Trough with trellis attached. Obviously make sure it’s wide enough to cover the path.

They are very rude. No respect! I wouldn’t even bother saying something, I’d just put a fence up where the flower bed is. If they’re cheeky enough to walk past your window every day, it’ll fall on deaf ears.

I never said that they did. Try enforcing against trespass though and see how much that costs and how long it takes.

Developers IMO have a responsibility to see these sorts of conflicts arise and stop them.

To some degree I am #TeamCheekyFuckerNeighbours. If you look at how far they would have to walk, towing kids, shopping and any other stuff it is not surprising they are looking for short cuts. They are going to use the OPs path in winter if not stopped. In summer they will probably cut across the grass leaving an unsightly mud path. The developers could have stopped this by putting a metre so of path horizontally along between the car spaces and the grass and one vertical narrow path from the car spaces that goes from the spaces to the front of 2, or maybe 3 or 4. They probably didn't do this because they want to charge people to mow the shared area, or some other silly planning consideration.

In order to stop the neighbours it is only necessary to make it more hassle to go around the left hand side than the right. But because the right hand path is so long there needs to be significant impediment. I would say fencing off the path next to the house in an L shape would do it. It is not necessary to fence along the drive as well as this won't make it any less hassle than going diagonally across the grass, the amount of time spent on the grass will actually be longer.

The problem is a) where the boundary actually is (it may be that no one actually owns their spaces or the paths in front of there houses) b) whether the deeds allow fencing to be put along the boundaries and c) once you have establish you can fence, actually digging up the tarmac to put the fence in, because it's doubtful that you would be able to put fence posts directly into the grassy area if it is communal and not owned by the property.

These sort of shared area arrangements are stupid. As I said before what happens if the annoying neighbours decide to set up a trampoline outside your house, or a football match ? Or house 5 further down encourages the use of that space as a dog toilet ? My guess is actually getting the management company to enforce any action against bad behaviour would be difficult. Because all they are interested in is having someone turn up twice a year to mow the grass and collect £2k for the privilige rather than do anything that costs them money.

Evergreen pyracantha is vicious! (Once had a puncture in car tyre from dried spike!)

Write a very polite letter and state you find it intimidating that people are walking over your property and invading your privacy - assuming of course you do actually own the land or the person you rent from privately owns the land out front of your property.

If it's communal land, you don't have a leg to stand on. But you would have thought a more intelligent design would be to build three pathways from homes 1, 3 and 5 to get to the car parking speaces.

It would appear, since homes 2-5 all have to share a pathway, that unless your home has specific rights, you all share the land outside the front of the homes, and you can all walk in front of each other's windows.

How bloody rude.
A fence is your only option. Do not say a word. Just plant some flimsy fence and jasmine maybe, as the reason for the trellis...

High sided container with bamboo in OP

I have a right of way over the equivalent of House 1 which is written in the Deed of my Property... Sorry about that. Maybe check?

A little trellis and something to grow up it.
but i imagine people would still go over the grass

But not across their driveway surely

You've suddenly become self-sufficient so lots of herbal plants, mostly nettles 😁

This proper amused me 😂

The land in front of the houses belongs to the developers so yes they can walk in front of my house. But my driveway and path 100% belongs to me. They are not walking on the grass in front of my house they are walking on my path and driveway.

No there isn't a right of way. It's my property, the path is on my deeds and the flowerbed between the two houses purposely breaks the path on half to stop people using it. I checked all this when I bought the home.

The drive is hers as is the path and flowerbed, it's not a shared facility, the neighbour and her visitors are just being lazy, they should be taking the longer path to their door or else walking across the grass. The developers can't be expected to foresee that some people have no manners or common sense.

Don’t want to derail the tread but I need the through with trellis attached for my own neighbour woes. What can I plant to grow in south facing garden. This could possibly help OP

Montana jasmine is brilliant grows fast and you could just plant poles and some green netting at about 3 foot high....

If 2, 3, and 4 walk the long way round (rather than crossing the grass), don't they all walk past 5's living room window? Maybe 2 thinks it's better all round to just walk past your window rather than the walking past the windows of 3, 4 and 5.

@Runningonjammiedodgers just seen this on a FB video. Would a version (possibly a little smaller) work for you?

But it's not just walking along a path that runs past windows. It's walking across someone's driveway to get to their path then jumping over a flower bed.

In any scenario, walking the length of someone else's driveway is weird.