to find this really fucking annoying even though it doesn't really affect me much

[walkway8]

I live in a detached house with a walkway between myself and the neighbours to access both our gardens at the back (diagram attached).

The neighbour has a front garden whereas I have a driveway. They have a gate that opens to the side of my house to allow them access to the walkway to get to their back garden. The walkway is shared land according to the deeds but stops at the top of my driveway (basically my driveway isn't shared but the walkway is).

Whenever my neighbour is doing anything in their garden, bringing this in / out of the garden/ taking things from the garden to their car on the road or whatever, they will go up and down my driveway instead of going through their gate and then down their garden.

It really annoys me. I don't really know why but AIBU to think this is just an odd thing to do?

My living room window looks onto my driveway and some days they will be working in the garden and making multiple trips up and down my drive and I feel awkward and like I need to close my blinds.

I don't even have a bad relationship with them, not friends or close but fine neighbours and we say hello how are you etc when we see them.

But I just find the whole thing really weird. I would never dream of strolling up and down their garden path repeatedly.

We also have cars on the drive so when they are bringing things in and out it worries me they will get scratched.

Aibu to find this annoying and tbh a bit rude?

Unless they're dragging heavy items up and down your driveway, scarring the tarmac, and brushing stuff down the side of your car repeatedly I would ignore it for the sake of good relations.

The plot layouts seem designed to cause neighbour problems in my opinion. I can see that they lose ground at the front, while you lose ground at the back so it's "fair" in that sense. But why the planners didn't just put the boundary right down the middle is a mystery. I used to live in a similar property and the front had a fence down the middle, and each house had a gate set diagonally between the fence and the corner of the house.

Say they go to the garden centre and come back with bags of compost, plants and other stuff, I can see why they wouldn’t take it in their front garden, take it straight out their front garden and then down the walkway. You are going to get this regardless who lives there.

I don’t think they’re being that cheeky, but I can see why it annoys you. People aren’t getting it because you didn’t add that extra gate at the front of their property. Before it looked like the ONLY access was up and down your drive.

I was thinking planters at the bottom migth be less of a parking hazzard for you and still do the job. Sympathies as I can see it’s a very annoying position and not sure why people have struggles to get it so much in the thread. These drives / shared paths are quite common in some parts and annoying your neighbours have out a gate to make there’s so much less appealing than yours!

After reading your OP I thought you were a bit barking, TBH. Now I have seen all of the diagrams I think you are not unreasonable to be annoyed, especially if they are lugging bins and large items across your drive that could damage your cars.

Yanbu, this would highly annoy me especially when they have guests and all are traipsing on your property. This isn't ok at all. The biggest reason being that they are walking on property that is NOT theirs. What if they scratched the car? Then what? I think the best thing would be to mark the property off. I'm not sure what reason you could come up with but you should close it off. I don't get why people are not understanding the frustration of this?

Planters. Or even leave your bins there one day and it should do the job

You will clearly have to ask them not to do it if you want them to stop, or if you really can't bear to utter the words then you'll have to put up with it until you put your gate in.

On this plan
Hatched green is OPs land, hatched purple is neighbour and the hatched orange is the shared walkway.
I have also added a front gate that the OP said the neighbour's have.

Thank goodness you weren't here on page one, we'd have missed out on loads of misunderstanding 😂

That makes much more sense, if you really want to keep them off the drive without restricting your own access.

(bonus of being cheaper too!)

I wonder if they have dogs or small children?? If not I'd just take the gate off (if I was the neighbour) or at least have a catch to keep it held open if I was needing to be in & out whilst gardening or whatever.

Though @walkway8 given their going from the walkway to the road via your driveway, and the walkway is along the side of your house, how are they coming near your front windows??

Op said they would have more room on their side, it's just the hassle of opening the gate to get to street. I mean surely they know it is not their property? Possibly not aware if they had to never check access but walking around someone else's cars or noticing op through the window would make anyone stop and think. If this was a detached property would anyone think it's ok just to walk on someone else's property, because this is what these neighbours are doing

@Icanttakethisanymore
I know! I love a good land ownership puzzle! 😁

@longdistanceclaraclara

urd, the second drawing make it much clearer.

I think what's confusing people is it's not marked out on your diagram where the shared walkway ends. I (possibly wrongly) think people have assumed the shared walkway continues as a path along the edge of your drive, which I can see that it doesn't. Basically once they get as far as their gate, the shared bit ends?

It is a weird design, and I would find what they are doing annoying. But I'm like that. I'm not very hey-ho about things, as much as I wish I was. You would be within your rights to put a fence and gate up where the shared land ends, which would direct them into their garden. But it depends on whether you think this could disrupt the civil relationship you have.

I am also detached but with a shared access (driveway) lane between 3 of us. It sends me a bit batty because our house is the one you drive past to reach the other 2 houses, so we are the ones vulnerable to damage if someone were to hit our house. We park at the front so don't even need the access ourselves. It's all very annoying and I wish I'd never bought the house. You don't really think about what it's going to be like in practice until you're living it.

Just start walking through their garden. When they complain, just say ‘what’s the issue, you walk through mine?’

You are clearly very handy with a diagram! I can see it's not your first time 😆

OMG this is one occasion where people really need to read the OP & look at the diagram.
I'm with you OP.

Once upon a time I would have been lovely and kind and accommodating and wouldn't have bothered myself about this.

Then my tosspot neighbours, to whom I have always been lovely and kind and accommodating, started eyeing up a tiny section of my property (specifically along the boundary fence, which was removed while I built my extension) and proceeded to demand it as 'theirs', lied about various things and then to cap it all off, pulled childish faces at me and called me a 'troublemaker' when I politely but assertively told them to fuck off gave them the facts and refused to give in to them.

Now I would be far more wary and would take steps to ensure that cheeky neighbours don't take the piss. Do as some PPs have suggested- either a fence along your boundary line, or for the short term, some planters.

You can politely ask them to stop first, if you want.

Is there a gate between the walkway and the outside path? Is it that they're too lazy to open that, as well as the one in their garden? I'd be looking at putting a fence at the boundary of your drive and the walkway.

It would drive me nuts tbh so I’m not surprised it is annoying you. They have their own gardens and the walkway to use not your front garden/drive. I would position a large planter there ….well actually I would have got a gate put up the first time they ever did it.

our house and front door faces our drive. Our neighbours drive is next to ours (their house facing a completely different way. Our drive is the wider one as it’s also the path to our front door. They are forever on our drive, him especially peering in the window at me, will stand out there 20mins or so for no reason. There’s nothing at all we can do to stop it. Even weirder we have like a metre strip of flowers in front of our house facing the road. One time they had visitors, they brought the visitors from their house on to our drive to stand and admire the flowers…..I think ‘pretending’ they were theirs. So utterly bizarre!

Our neighbours do exactly the same thing and it's not even because of a garden or gate on the front.

We each have a double driveway directly in front of our respective houses. They are separated by a strip of stones, which gives way to a path of the same width between the walls of the buildings.

Because we share an access drive and our house is closest to the road, they walk diagonally over our drive (close past our living room window) to get to the point in the middle (or even their front door), instead of passing at a distance, going around the front of our drive and entering from their own driveway. And head straight back the same way with the buggy or dog or wheely bins to get out again and to the road.

It would actually be much better if the strip in the centre was just a shared straight path with direct access to gates and off both properties, which it sounds like your neighbours have made the edge section of your driveway - it does make sense and the right angle thing from their gate to where you could put one doesn't.

OMG why do people not read the thread?! I cant believe that people are still confused about this or that they think it's ok. We've seen enough of these threads where CF neighbours are given an inch and take a mile!

OP this would piss me off. It's your land and you should be able to sit in your living room without people traisping over it and seeing in.
I'd be putting up my own gate pronto.

YANBU at all, they are being very arrogant and presumptious to just stride all over your land at their own convenience. If they were decent people they would respect the boundary where the walkway esentially forms part of your driveway and is your land. It is just awful that they are taking such liberties with their bins etc with your cars nearby. I imagine that they will take umbrage to their handy little route being 'blocked' so just be ready with your explanations in advance.

I understand that it’s annoying for you , but what proper faff for them. Planters or a fence I guess.

Where will you place the gate on this diagram? Where the blue lines are marked? Will you install one of those tall gates with a key rather than a low metal one?