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.

it may well look like it but that doesn't mean that it is.

Not sure - but unless the cars were very close together, it's the route I reckon I'd take.

how do you know this?

Look again.

The adjoining house has their own access to the right.

It is not shared access.

But it's obviously ok for those living in direct to pavement terraces or in flats where you walk past a dozen doors and windows to get to yours. Or doesn't that matter as they are not rich enough to buy other places?

1. yes
2. absobloodylutely not.

Yes and yes! People do walk fairly close to our (large picture window) front of the house. It really doesn't bother me. Obviously I don't open the curtains until we're all dressed! We also don't just sit in the house looking at the window all day... That driveway isn't long enough and doesn't have any kind of coverage that would give any privacy anyway - if OP is worried about the neighbour passing the window seeing in that would also apply if they walked down the road like she wants.

Those are parking spaces, not drives in front of the houses.

From the photo the outdoor space goes

HOUSES HOUSES
FOOOOOOTPATH
CAR PARKING
ROAD

The road also looks to be a shared surface (which is common in new build estates). So parking spaces are inbetween the road and the footpath used to get to the houses.

And the footpath isn't private space. The back gardens are private.

But both paths spit you out onto the road, which doesn't seem to have a pavement. I think if you don't want to walk in the road you need to walk in front of the houses.

I'm baffled by so many posters being hard of understanding.

Unless you are in a terraced house fronting directly onto a public footpath, where your front door opens onto a public right of way, the land in front of your window is yours.

It is complete and utter nonsense to think anyone has a right of access across your kitchen window (if that is the room at the front). The land belongs to the OP. her deeds will show that. It is NOT a footpath for anyone to use.

Are you being serious or trying to wind OP up?

Honestly, some posts read as if they are written by a 6 year old. But even they would have more intelligence.

Depends on your understanding when you bought the property...and yes if you can't afford a more private arrangement then you do have to put up with it. If you are ok with it then fine, but if you are not and its not something that neighbours are entitled to do, then why not ask them to stop?

Thank you! I feel like no one else can see that this is clearly a footpath! Why would it be continuous along the full length of all the houses otherwise?

all the more reason to shit down the access now

That wouldn't be very polite @Bellyblueboy ! Great typo 😂

But it's obviously ok for those living in direct to pavement terraces or in flats where you walk past a dozen doors and windows to get to yours. Or doesn't that matter as they are not rich enough to buy other places?

Oh do stop these daft comments.

It's a totally different scenario if your front door opens onto the street.

And yes, you do usually pay more for a semi with a driveway and your own access.

Some people can't help themselves and double down on being wrong.

you live in a semi with the frontage directly on a pathway built specifically for people to walk on

No, she doesn’t. She lives in a property which has designated parking spaces in front of the house where a garden might otherwise be. There is a path from the road, alongside the OPs parking spaces which turns right towards her own front door. The parking spaces and the path belong to the house owner. There is no reason to suppose that the neighbours have a ROW under the front window as they have their own path, adjacent to their parking spaces.

Specsavers for you.

It is not a public footpath.

Each house has its own access to the side.

Like you ?

You clearly have no idea of how access and rights of way work.

Does the OP actually have a driveway or are those just individual parking spaces? There's new builds near me that have parking spaces like that that aren't individual driveways

They will be allocated parking spaces.

It's very obvious.
FFS- some of the comments here are plain weird.

Sad society because OP does not want someone walking on her property?

So why are you talking about semis with driveways. That's not a driveway

🤣

Even 6 year olds would understand that is fine to have an issue with what the neighbours are doing instead of why are you so petty.

What are you suggesting the layout would look like to make it not like a footpath?
It seems pretty clear to me that you would not use it except to access your own house.
Would you also say that the space between the two houses, leading to the back gate is public footpath? It's the same material.