Am I the nightmare neighbour?

[pxris]

I live in an end terraced house connected to the alleyway a few of my neighbours and I use to take our wheelie bins out. My next door neighbour has access to my garden and then through my side gate in order to take his bins out (I have no control over this, and that’s fine). Tbh I’m happy he has to use my garden as it often means he brings my bins in/out without me having to ask!

But he gets a large number of visitors who for some reason never use his front door! There’s a constant stream of people in and out my back garden, they’re even using the back gate as well as the side gate and then leaving them open or unlocked all the time.

Toys are being stolen from my garden. My 2 year old almost ran out into the alleyway last week when I’d gone out to put rubbish in the wheelie bin not realising the side gate is “shut” but unlocked. It also feels like my garden is some sort of communal area for the whole estate. I’m tired of being in what should be the privacy of my own home and then looking up to see a random stranger looking at me through the window.

ABIU to put a lock on both of my gates and him only 1 key? I also want to put up a sign that says to keep the gates closed. I don’t even really want to put on lock on there as it will be an inconvenience on bin day but what else can I do? Just want everyone to F off but I don’t want to be seen as a nightmare neighbour.

He should be telling his guests to use the front door. I have access across my neighbours back garden. I have only ever used it for access when absolutely necessary ie something too big to go through front. I always let her know if I can. I would give him a key and keep it locked.

You're defintely not a nightmare.

I see several solutions to your problem:

1. Put an automatic closer on the gate, something with a spring, so the gate will always close after someone has gone through it.
2. Put a lock on the communal gates and give your neighbour a key/code. (A code would be better, as you can periodically change it)
3. Put up another fence with a locked gate to wall off your own garden from the shared access. This would give you the most privacy, but would also be the most costly and you'd lose part of your garden.

I hope one of these will solve your problem.

People should be respectful of your home as they use the access but you moved to a house with ROW over your garden . It seems normal to put a please close the gate sign up and you could mention it to your neighbours. You could see if you can agree a lock , you could fence off the strip of the path, possibly move the path around the end of your garden. Some people are happy to live more communally than others, talk to your neighbour. But at the end of the day you might want to move.

Lock your gates, unlock on bin day

Are you renting or is it owned? Check your deeds to see what the access arrangements say. You may be able to put one of those bars on the gate where it will close automatically like fire doors.
does your neighbour have a front door so people can access his home?

speak to him first about safety aspect and the fact your kid was put at risk as he might take action

can the bins be kept elsewhere.

If there is a right of way it’s unlikely to be for the specific purpose of putting out the bins and more likely to be for him and his visitors to access the rear of his property. You are not allowed to lock the gate or block the access. He doesn’t have to use the front door if he prefers the back. You mention two gates however, and the ROW should have a route shown on the deeds. He and his visitors are not free to traipse all over your garden and probably not to use either gate. They have the right to pass along the route of the ROW for the purposes specified in the deeds.

In the first instance just go & talk to him, he seems nice enough.

If nothing changes put locks on. Tell him it'll be unlocked from 7pm to 9am (or whatever) on the day his bin needs to go out & you'll unlock it if he needs it for a delivery or something, but his visitors will have to use his front door.

i wouldn't care what the Deeds say, he's been letting visitors take the piss & put your toddler at risk, he can take legal steps if he wants to, he's not likely to get anywhere with it.

@Welshmonster

no way would I be putting a spring closer strong enough to close it, on a door a toddler has access to. They could lose their fingers.

Can you put a fence up at the end of your garden and loose the metre or so creating the allyway but giving you privacy

My father in law has a house which has 'foot and barrow rights' for his neighbours.

When we're sat outside, there's all sorts of folk traipsing through his immaculate garden.

He's not allowed to lock the gates either.

He's had to install cctv as there were things going missing from his garage.

They walk up his driveway, past the double garage, turn and walk right in front of the kitchen window, past the back door, past the double patio doors and then through a gate into the next terrace. And so it goes on for the rest of the row. He has a huge corner plot and beautiful trees and garden and it's not private, although he owns it outright. He thought that he would be able to discontinue the practice but it has defeated him.

I wouldn't feel very safe living there with children.