Neighbour climbs over the fence next to my house to get home.

[AveryC]

Hi everyone,
I just moved in to a new development, everything is good except for one thing.
My house is located at the end of a cul-de-sac. The front door faces a path for we walk to our driveway and a low fence, which marks the boundary at the end of or property. Outside the low fence have a a lawn and have a narrow walkway.
The walkway can get to to places like the supermarket and school.
However, during school dismissal, people often cut across the grass and climb over the fence, stepping into our property on their way home and some neighbors often walk through my property and climb over the fence near my house to access the footpath.

In doing so, they end up stepping on parts of my property, including areas just outside my parking space or some child jump into my front door area.

I feel incredibly annoyed and uncomfortable about their behavior. If they get too close to my house, I usually warn them. But there are times when they do this on the outskirts of my property, which makes it harder for me to say anything.l, but it supposed to be a close.

It’s only winter now; I can’t imagine what it will be like in the summer.
What should I do? And AIBU?

Thank you for reading my thoughts.
Here is my primary school-level drawing for your reference.😂

Just a word of caution on pyrocanthus, it’s a deterrent plant and pretty but you’ll have to maintain it when it gets bigger and it’s a horror to prune because of the thorns.

The cheek of some people! Adding pyracantha to my shopping list.

As the developer is still there on site, could you ask them to price up putting a wall there instead of the fence? Then you can get really serious about possibly nailing additional trellis or whatever to that to raise the height.

@AveryC what did you decide to do?

Just wanted to give an update since a lot of people here gave me advice before — I really appreciated it, and felt I should let you know what happened.

Honestly, things got to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore. My next-door neighbours kept using my driveway as a shortcut, and on top of that, other neighbours and their kids were climbing over the fence and walking through my private space.

I ended up going straight to the house next door to talk about it. At first they denied it, but once I showed them the CCTV footage, they finally admitted it and said they didn’t know it wasn’t allowed.

To be fair, things did improve after that chat. Their kids still sometimes climb over the fence, but now I just go out and tell them off when I see it. There was a period when I wasn’t working, so any time I saw someone cross the fence, I’d go out and make it clear that it’s not OK. I think by now, quite a few people in the neighbourhood know I’m not happy about all this.

Speaking up helped — but only to a point.

Once I went back to work, the adults from next door started crossing the fence again, quietly and shamelessly. So now I’ve planted some holly along the fence, hoping it’ll make a difference.

But there are still more problems. Their kids constantly ride bikes on my driveway, leave rubbish, and park their bikes there. And recently, they set up a football goal in their garden, right against the fence we share. Every time they shoot, there’s a loud banging noise, and the ball keeps flying over to my side.

At this point, I’m honestly asking myself — do I really have to explain every single thing they shouldn’t be doing?

I’m planning to plant more in the garden soon, but I’m already worried their ball is going to fly over and ruin the plants.
Some neighbours are just… a lot.

I'm sorry that your still getting bother.

I can confirm that prickly hedges definitely improved my situation.