Neighbours walking past our front door to leave the house

[Bluesea14]

our new neighbours keep walking past our front door and squeezing past our cars when they go out. We have checked our deeds and title and this is part of our property, not a public footpath. We would never dream of walking past their house when we go out so we can't understand why they think it's acceptable to do it. They recently had furniture delivered and this was also carried down the path past our front door instead of going in between their cars.
I have attached a image which is similar to the layout of our house and the blue line is where they keep walking. Any advice on how to deal with this please? We haven't properly met them yet so we don't want to come across confrontational but we also want to make it clear that we don't want people regularly walking on our property and setting our ring doorbell off.

@Bluesea14 So blue path is yours. Green path is your neighbours?

If they are walking out the blue path is the the general direction that people would travel? As in does blue lead down to the main road / shop/ etc quicker than walking around the green path?

Not that it will add any more than 15 seconds to their walk but people (and most animals) by nature will always take the quickest root. Look up 'desire paths' and what it does to parks etc.

If it is your property and you don't want them doing in, absolutely DO NOT WRITE A LETTER. That is escalating a pretty non issue into 'who's the neighbour writing letting about something so petty'

Talk to them. Tell them it sets your ring door bell off and can they please not do it.

Why do posters keep saying the left path is twice as wide as the right path? Haven't they heard of perspective?

If there is right of way they are legally entitled to though

@WeWillAllGoTogether I have asked OP to clarify that

The other side looks narrow and not an actual path so I assume that's why. Silly plot to buy if stuff like this bothers you.

Maybe it's at the front of house downstairs?

No idea why you’re complaining about your neighbours walking over your path without permission. What’s yours is theirs and what’s theirs is theirs. How dare you complain! God, you sound like you hate the world! 😂

FGS it doesn't matter!
How does it change your life?
I can't believe you're bothered about something so petty and unimportant.

I find it mental that you would consider this an issue?
It’s basically the pavement in front of your house. Why would anyone find that problematic? Are you suggesting that no one can go for a walk on your estate because everyone owns the bit of footpath outside their house? What about kids on scooters/bikes?

I had a 90’s build with this type of set up. We erected a fence which gave us the privacy we needed. There were no covenant restrictions to prevent us doing so, where we were back then. Check for those and make sure it’s not restricted, but we had 11 years in that house post fence being put up, and it was lovely.

@Bluesea14 do you own the parking spaces, is that treated as your drive?

Read OP’s posts before making such ridiculous replies.
There’s NO right of way!🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Just say “Hey do you mind not using our path as it keeps setting our ring doorbell off?” If they’re horrible about it get a big pot plant and plonk it in their way.

Where does it say that? She says it's her land, didn't see anything about whether they have right of way or not. Id appreciate you quoting op saying it

I live in a downstairs half of house flat. Have right of way round to go through neighbours back garden to mine Their garden in their land

It's the planners who want as many ”affordable” houses as they can squeeze in.

What some people have done on new builds near us is change the paving so it looks different to the shared path. So if you replaced the pavers in front of your windows with noticeably different pavers like York stone or herringbone etc. Some also add accessories like bench, planters, big doormat to make it seem like it’s your garden and not a shared space. If you follow similar new builds on instagram you’ll get ideas.

the cowardly way in other words.
If it bothers you that much use your words and say it.
Personally it wouldn't bother me one iota

An estate that I bought my first house on in 1978, the next I bought in 1984 and my current estate in 2022.

It's very common that only back gardens can be fenced. It's to preserve the feeling of open space for everyone.

It isn't a garden, though. It is a footpath.

Of course it's disrespectful and bloody rude. They should use their own path.

It's not the public pavement though, is it? It's a private path. I’d understand your argument if it were the street pavement, but this is OP’s path. It's similar to the path outside my house (from the top of my garden to my front door). While I expect visitors, delivery drivers, and the postie to use it occasionally, I’d find it odd if my neighbour was using it to get to their house every single day, especially if they had their own path but just decided not to use.

That's because he's a coward.
A letter can be misinterpreted. A friendly non-aggressive chat is the best way to go.

They're your immediate neighbours, you want to be on good terms with them - don't start a war over this.

I can only imagine that those posters live right onto a road and therefore have people walking past their windows all day. Totally different if you have your own frontage.

Its this. The problem is caused by the design which prioritises car parking over people walking to their house. The neighbours don't have a direct route out of their house to the pavement, because of the design. The most direct route is past OPs house, and as there are no borders in the gardens, but a continual path from their house to OPs and then the pavement. They are using that.

Its not big mystery why they are doing it.