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 am also wondering this?

Could there have been a right of way there, that your developer has ignored when putting up the house? We have something like that near here, the poor people that bought the house wouldn't have known about it but people had been walking along the path there for decades and are really pissed off about the fence so they're ignoring it.

Parking?

Thank you for your understanding. Indeed, I purchased a new build property, and before construction was completed, I had no idea how the lawn would be designed, what the fences would look like, or where the plants acting as barriers would be placed.

At one point, the developer even considered building a pedestrian pathway near my house, but they later scrapped the plan, which was a relief to me. As a result, I’ve been following up on every step of the process very closely.

My husband tells me to let it go, as he thinks these issues will only arise during school drop-off and pick-up times. However, I’m concerned that the situation may worsen in the future. I’ve already been looking into some plants or barriers, as you suggested.

I hope I won’t need to confront the neighbors directly, as I believe this is a matter of basic courtesy and shouldn’t have to be brought up. Hopefully, once the plants are in place, they’ll take the hint.

Yes, is parking

I get so tired of this kind of feral behaviour, but while spiky plants could work they take a while to grow

There's grease/paint you can put on the fences to prevent this - examples linked, others are available - though you'd need warning signs to say it's there and avoid claims for ruined clothes, etc.

https://www.rawlinspaints.com/anti-climb-paints

This is a new development, and the path they are using was originally in poor condition. It was our developer who improved it as council requested. The area where our houses are built used to be an old factory wasteland.
, overgrown with weeds, and no one ever passed through it.

So, there’s no basis for saying that they’ve lost a path they originally had.

Because I can. It's a public forum.
Go police elsewhere.

This is such a classic MN drawing. Completely indecipherable 😂

OP - Are people hopping over your fence at the point where the lowest arrow in the picture meets the fence? And then walking between your house and your two parking spaces?

When people should actually be walking through the area between yours and your neighbours' parking spots and where the two fences stop?

Is that it? Have I cracked the drawing??

This fence marks the boundary of the cul-de-sac and may not technically belong to me, even though it extends out in front of my property.

I’ve thought about putting up another waist-high fence in front of it, closer to my property, and coating it with grease or paint. However, I’m unsure how these people would react if they got dirty—would they think I’m in the wrong?

There are many houses along this road, but only my property and the one across from me are right next to the cul-de-sac. If they believe I’m at fault, I’ll be in the minority. 🥹

I know this drawing is quite ugly, but I didn’t realize it would be so hard to explain. I’ve done my best! 😂

The red arrows indicate the route people are crossing. I couldn’t draw exactly where the fence stops because it extends beyond my section of the road. There’s an entry/exit point roughly at the next junction, which would only take about a 1-minute walk if people stick to the walkway. However, if they use the path near my house, they’d need to walk an extra 3 minutes to reach that exit.

This usually happens during school drop-off in the morning and pick-up in the afternoon.

Pity about the fence not actually being yours, @AveryC, but I agree a secondary one with the products on could work

And yes they'd certainly blame you - with people like this everyting is always someone else's fault - but that's what the warning signs are about, and as long as you do them properly I'd expect you to be covered

Of course the simplest answer would be to just ask them not to do it, but good luck with that given the mentality you're dealing with

The area between my parking space and my neighbor’s is jointly owned by us. So, people first step onto my property before continuing to the road.

But do you think it’s right for people to force their way through a cul-de-sac that’s fenced off to prevent access? It was never intended to be a path for them to use. They’re deliberately passing through an area that clearly indicates they shouldn’t.

How much longer is the 'proper' way for them to walk?

Tbh I think you're being a bit petty if they're not actually coming through your garden. Walking between parking spaces is hardly the crime of the century.

The fence definitely needs to be higher if it's not intended for people to cross. If you don't own the fence I'm not sure if it's your right to plant things growing up it.
Could you put a sign on it saying private property for now?
Not sure if there is anything else you can do other than erect your own fence around the house . Is it detached?

You have a desire path forming basically, is the developer going to do anything to correct it, have you asked out of interest? Have you now made a decision on how you can block the way of people taking the shortcut across your garden? Lots of ideas here. This problem will not go away without intervention of an actual barrier.

What are the yellow rectangles in the picture? - that your garden?

Ok between this and the other most recent replies you've completely lost me...

The drawing's not ugly just very unclear, I'm afraid.

So the brown things around yours and your neighbours' houses aren't fences?

And people aren't crossing into your garden in the directions the arrows indicate? They're actually cutting across the opposite way?

Talk to the developers and put up your own house on your boundary.

People will still likely cut across in that middle area between yours and your neighbours' parking and you can't really complain about that because you don't own that.

Motion activated sprinkler 😈

Gooseberry bushes are spiky, or raspberry canes. I would discuss raising the fence to the people who built the development

That makes more sense. So the fence and grass aren't yours but the area around the parking is?

Was just going to suggest this. Grows fast, beautiful berries, beloved by birds and nice and spiky.

Could you leave the fences where they are and put some of these right up against the fence and get some plants (climbing roses might be a start) to grow up them?
That way you're not damaging the fences but you are saying to your neighbours - find an alternative route to getting to where you need to get to!

Also they aren't generally permanent fixtures so could be used at the front of a property.

If it’s your land or your neighbour agrees I would put conifers in for speed and impact (you’ll need to keep them in check after they’ve established). Some of the pretty Cypriot ones are lovely.
you could always put them in large planters if it needs to be temporary

Your diagram isn’t really sufficient to fully understand the layout, so what you seem to be saying now is that you own a piece of land that effectively separates the road from the road (your comment of “before they continue on the road”)?

Is there any right of access, given your piece of land seems to just be in place of what would usually be road? Would passers by even know or suspect this piece of road isn’t road, but a random section of private land?

To be honest, if you’ve bought a house with shared land, then people walking over it are the least of your worries! That would be enough to have prevented me buying the property in itself, nothing but trouble.