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.😂

I think I really need to start thinking about how to handle this. It’s a relief to see that you all agree their behavior is a problem. I kept wondering if I was just being too sensitive.

They only save 3 minutes by jumping over the fence.😓

How much further away is the route they should be taking via a public path?
Is this your boundary fence to your front or back garden?
Can you add a gate to stop unwanted access through your property?

Put roses in your side of the fence. If that doesn’t work then either a full height fence or pyracantha.

Are the developers still on site. It maybe worth seeing what solution they can come up with or what they will permit you to do

@AveryC where are their houses?? are they coming from the back of the property to get to supermarket, wherever it is?? what height is the fence the builders put in? are you sure you are not meant to have the lawn too????

We had a similar problem when we moved here. There was a gate in our back fence which led into a grassed area. Beyond the grassed are was a road and the back gate to the primary school. The previous occupants of the house had primary school children and all the children in our street apparently used this route to go to and from school, otherwise they had to walk (approx 8 mins) round the streets. Our boys were 3 and 2 at the time and we didn’t want kids traipsing through the garden, potentially leaving the gates open so we put up a 6 foot fence with a padlocked gate.

To start with we got the occasional left overs from packed lunches chucked over the fence and the odd person climbing over and cutting through. We applied black grease to the top of the gate and fence and now, 25 years on, it’s very rare for anyone to attempt it.

Trying to think of more solutions… I wonder if you could put ‘private property’ or ‘no fence jumpers’ signage on the walkway side of the fence?

Or as it’s a new development, could you speak to the builder and see if there is anything they can do to help deter people?

You need to nip this in the bud now or others may join the bandwagon. Or you may just have to be ready to spring out your door and have a word with anyone who has hopped over.

I am so annoyed on your behalf 🤣🤣

I was going to suggest barbed wire but perhaps the plants are a better idea.

It's too late now, but this type of thing needs to be observed before you buy a property. It means effort in visiting it at different times of the day to get a good idea of what goes on in the area.

And yes if you say anything, you won't be liked. I would grow a decent shrub/hedge like others have mentioned.

Trellis on top of fence with notice on otherside saying private property

Can I please second the ha-ha?

We had this when I was a kid and I remember my mum telling a man off as he was halfway over the fence 🤣

My parents planted some kind of spiky plant and some kind of small hedges.
Over time they grew and last time I drove past that house years ago, it’s a hedge.

Get down to the garden centre!

If it's mostly school kids jumping the fence, I would drop the school a polite email explaining that some students keep jumping the fence on to your private property and could they possibly remind the students that they can't use private property as a cut through. Then put up deterents like the spikey shrubs suggested above.

I had a problem with my neighbour's idiot sons climbing over my back gate to retrieve the neighbour's grandchildren's footballs. (My objection was the damage that they did climbing over.)

I solved it by cutting out wooden 3D triangles (not pyramids) and screwing them to the top of the wooden gate, close enough to make it impossible to get their feet in between, but far enough apart that they couldn't attempt to balance on them.

I'd also considered those plastic spiky strips you get as cat deterrents - I think Amazon sells them. You might try that?

Motion detector water sprinkler

if you don't own the lawn and your ownership of the fence stops at the end of your parking space, then they aren't going on your property if they jump between directly into the road between the parked cars. so let people cross at that point and restrict them only on your own property.

can you mark the boundaries of the land you own on the picture?

When our new house was still being built, we visited every week, even after school.
But the grass area wasn’t there; it was always fenced off by the developer, and no one went through.
Now, it’s my neighbors doing these things.

Spikes plants definitely but also a sign noting that this is private property

I don’t own the grassy area. I have 100% ownership up to the end of the parking space. The area in between is jointly owned by me and my neighbor across the street.

I'm tired....can someone draw a better diagram? I don't understand who is climbing over the fence and walking over OP's property. Neighbour? Neighbours? Other people? Where are they coming from and going to?

Anyway a 'this is private property, please don't climb over the fence" stuck to the fence should do it.

Wait I think I get it- the fence isn't your fence per se- it's the boundary for the cul de sac. So the fence goes across the end of the cul de sac from your house to the opposite neighbour. And instead of walking the route cars take, your neighbours opt to walk to the end of the cul de sac and hop the fence, and if they're heading the left they cut through your garden on a diagonal and hop the fence at the most left point instead of going to the middle and turning 90 degrees left.

Are you in the UK OP? I'm wondering due to your spelling. 'Neighbor' is the US spelling, so you might be different bylaws/rules there if that is the case.

Pyracantus all the way. It is quite cheap to buy, hardy, low maintenance, and is fast growing. Lots of berries in the winter, red, yellow , or orange depending on the type. It is quite spikey but not dangerously so.

What about a trellis? Could that soften the look?

im end house open plan front garden had kids on scooters etc going over my front lawn, look at band q metal fence with posts just bank in look nice i have had people stop and admire them and ask where i got them from, problem solved,