Neighbour using my drive, landlord won’t help. What can I do?

[9champions]

I’ve lived in my house for almost 4 years now, and I had a new drive put in last year, which cost a fair bit. Parking on my street isn’t great anyway, but I’ve recently noticed that my neighbour is using my drive to get to hers. I’m not sure if she’s always done this as I’ve only just noticed. Last week, I caught her in the act while I was outside sorting the bins, and I think she was surprised to see me. I talked to her on Sunday and politely asked if she could stop, but she said it’s difficult for her because her neighbours car sticks out into the space in front of her house, which makes her partners van hang over their drive, so she can’t get in and out without driving over mine.

They can’t park the van on the drive and the car on the street because there’s a fence between our driveways, and the van is too big to fit with the fence there. It’s their fence, on their boundary line btw. I suggested they take it down, but they’re tenants and don’t want to pay for it, which is understandable. Apparently, they asked the landlord a few months back if he would remove it, and he said he was fine with it being taken down, but he wouldn’t cover the cost.

I was thinking about putting up my own fence to stop them, but my drive is already pretty narrow, and then there's the cost involved. I know I could just pay to have theirs taken down, but should I really have to fork out money just to make them stop using my drive? I know it’s a hassle for them, but they should either talk to their neighbours to see if they can leave them more space on the road or have another chat with the landlord about the fence. They’re making this my problem, and I don’t think it’s fair for them to just assume they can use my drive forever. It’s not a shared drive btw. They’re just next to each other, similar to new build estates.

Am I being unreasonable / petty, or are they taking the piss? I’ve attached a diagram. The black squiggles are cars, and the red one is my neighbours car crossing over my drive to get to hers.

Definitely get the planter. The biggest, heaviest one you can squeeze in.
She's a cheeky fucker.

Wow! Def get the planters down.

Get planting this weekend and make them too heavy for her to shift. She’s a cheeky fucker. The thing for her to do is to talk to the neighbours the other side so that her partner can park properly. Their issues are not yours to fix

That’s really cheeky. Not just moving buckets but leaving so you had to move. Don’t think I would feel guilty about the planter idea but on the off chance I did whole bucket thing would put pay to that.

in the meantime I think your buckets need something sticky on the handles.

I thought about that 😂

I noticed some tyre marks when I moved them back too, clearly from her dry steering when she pulls in. It's pissed me off even more now! Even my own car doesn't leave marks as I reverse or pull out in a straight line.

I have posted on this topic several times as I personally know of a family that were taken to court due to this exact issue (their neighbour decided the law said they had this right and wanted it enforced)!! These things can & do happen, for some it could render the space un- usable and property much less attractive...who wants to buy a property with this sort of issue.

I would get a very heavy planter.

How about some boulder rocks / stones?

I’ve been looking at planters but the drive is on a bit of a slant.

It sounds as though they just need to be heavy so the neighbours don't move them. multiple, heavy items are probably going to put them off more. You want something nice & interesting to look at too as if you have to modify your property you ideally want it improve the look too

We used to have a stone Easter island head planter at a previous property ..it was really heavy once we put a plant in the top.

I would also get a ring doorbell or other device.

Just buy a few planters and plant up with bulbs/flowers and place them strategically to stop neighbour cutting across your drive.

A long bench would do the trick too. You can bolt them down so it can't be moved.

Or a removable bollard or bollards (very obvious to the neighbours)

So she just drives over your drive and you have an issue with this why? It doesn’t affect you in any way

You could read the thread and her responses to see why :)

I did and can not see the issue
starting a neighbour war over this is so petty

I guess people vary, I suppose you could be lucky if you allowed it and have it not cause too much wear and tear and future concerns about driveway use rights.

I think too, you’d probably have to be pretty laid-back to not mind that she’s actively moving the OP’s things out of the way to do it. I’m a bit of a pushover, but a lot of people aren’t and this woman is definitely showing that she thinks she’s the boss to be able to do this.

In an ideal world yes we all want to help others and maybe it's not a huge issue to many people but the OP does not want other people using their property and for their neighbour to just carry on when told to stop is rude and entitled. The potential legal issues of unintentionally creating access rights if this goes on for a long period are not to be taken lightly.

The OP is just wanting to enjoy their own property in peace without unwanted interference from their neighbour, I really don't think they are the one being unreasonable here.

The neighbour just needs to sort out their own parking/vehicle issues instead of using OP's property as their solution.

I think before you go putting anything movable or easily damaged, you should get a camera installed.

It isnt about being petty. She has spent a lot of money on the drive and it’s hers. If her neighbour has knocked on her door an asked politely if they could find a solution to the problem together then maybe OP could have helped but the neighbour didn’t. They also barely know each other also so it isn’t like the OP is thinking I know Sally next door is lovely- she brings my bins in if I’m out so I’ll reciprocate.

then when OP asked neighbour to stop she didn’t. The neighbour is therefore starting a war over something petty. They can rearrange their cars so this isn’t a problem.

We have a planter on a sloping drive and put rocks/tiles under one end to make it level. It works fine

Perhaps you missed the parts where its the NDN who is being the cunt that started all this by:

• Driving over OPs driveway corner (wear-n-tear issues which OP would have to cover)

• NDN cunt moved items from OPs drive just so she could drive over it.

• NDN cunt being told not to do so and still doing it.

The OP has started nothing at all other than to look out for her territorial boundaries which she has every right to do.

Amazed you cant see that. JFC.

She doesn't want to narrow her drive too much.

Lockable bollards would be the easy way to go, and.not too expensive (but not very decorative).

I can’t believe that some people don’t see this as being an issue! Knowing how expensive it is to get a driveway done I can totally understand how frustrating this must be for the OP.
We had a similar issue where our neighbours kept parking half on our drive which caused problems for us parking and turning in our drive. The drive was marked on the boundary but there was no fence and we were forever having to knock the neighbours door to get them to move. As soon as we could we put up a fence which solved the problem and although the neighbours weren’t very happy initially it has made for a better relationship in the long term.

Get some nice big rocks that she cannot move. Or make those planters incredibly heavy. She's a cheeky, ignorant cow.