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.

The thing is, the OP could either follow the advice, and probably have a bad relationship with the neighbours for the rest of the time she lives there, and almost inevitably find some new petty thing to obsess over (if you're going to get precious about space and being overseen, moving to a new build was a mistake from the off). Or, she could adjust the Ring settings and move on with her life. Why wouldn't you choose the latter? Life is so much nicer if you stop sweating the small stuff, and I honestly can't think of much smaller than this.

I think for it not to be a footpath there would be a pavement to show where else pedestrians are supposed to walk. I also think it wouldn't be continuous if it weren't a footpath - it would go to each door and stop. In the absence of either, I think it's so people don't need to walk in the road.

Sorry, where is this not-pictured bush located?

Yes I realise that. That is why she should check the deeds. My house has a stretch of lawn in front of the terrace. There is a path that goes across each of our front doors that all houses have access to. My two neighbours regularly walk past my front door because it’s their right of access. They don’t gawp in any more than I do when I walk past theirs. Fortunately we’re all friends. Checking the deeds is the obvious thing to do before approaching it and causing an issue.

I don’t see why you’d just put up with it when it’s likely a misunderstanding. Lots have suggested a polite way to say it oh I know it’s not clear but it’s not a shared path would you mind using your own.
Obviously walking along is low level annoying to op but it may escalate. Eg if next doors has a child and they noisily scoot up and down it. Or neighbour has muddy wellies each time they dog walk and leaves a mess in front of her window.
From a liability point of view op could be liable if they injure themselves on her property. If op is doing diy and has supplies and tools on her front near her front door and they fall over it.

Yes it is ok in those circumstances, which are different.

A letter would be very confrontational. They are your neighbours. Just talk to them.
We had a new build where there was a shared bin shed and drive for 4 of the properties one of which was ours. There were 4 other houses built that faced the main road. The people in the 4 other houses thought the private shared drive and bin sheds were part of their land too which they were not as our 4 houses pay a maintenance charge for the private land. Anyway they keot using the bins and even had a party on the shared drive.
We explained it to them and showed them the deeds. They apologised and stopped doing it. They genuinly thought the shared drive and bins were part of their land.

Op says she has.

You wouldn’t mind people walking past your window close enough to touch it where its not a right of way?

A quick word may sort this out - depends on neigbour.

If you can put a fence up that would would be great - but last house 1960s build deeds said we couldn't.

Last house next door neighbour used side door not front and started parking so badly on their drive daily vistors used to walk up our drive. Clearly a very seperate drive being slightly higher and very differently paved. DH said oh it doens't matter - we had no car - but they started getting very nasty when we were using our drive when vistors parked or we had side open garage door - or when DH was trying to come up drive with motorbike to our garage.

People can get very territorial or habit based about land they have no rights to access - so I wasn't surpised by neigbour and rock on drive thread.

This behavior clearly bothering OP and her DH - so best to try and nip in the bud rather than get constantly upset. If neigbur a twat about it - well it was always likely they were going to be about something else.

Your deeds might show the path is your property, but do they say anything about your neighbours having a right to use the path? That is the question.

If your neighbours weren't intended to use the path or have access to it, I'd have expected the builder/developer to have put a "break" in the path between your respective front doors so that it wasn't continuous. By leaving the path unbroken I think there's at least an implication that you can both use it, including your neighbours walking past your front window.

There is no physical demarcation where "your" path ends and their's begins.

[Edit - it's a pity your repective front doors are right next to each other in the "attached" part of your semi rather than at the "detached" end as with the neighbours on the other side. I think it's quite natural for your semi neigbours to use "your" path]]

No, I wouldn't. Even if the neighbours are in and out a lot it must only be a few times a day - if OP just changed the settings of the Ring (which sounds like an absolute blight if it's sending notifications every time anyone passes) then, assuming she isn't sat staring at her front window all day, she would probably only notice it occasionally.

I mean, all this arguing about the fine details in the picture the OP posted as a 'similar layout', when I'm not sure that actual house has even been built yet!

https://www.onthemarket.com/details/17982862/

The video on this listing shows a completely different house!

This one shows the bit in front is clearly meant to be a pavement:

www.onthemarket.com/details/17982859/#/photos/1

I am sure that this is the OP’s land. But for me, the question isn’t whether or not the neighbour has permission to be on her property, it is whether or not it is worth risk risking the relationship with the neighbour.

The neighbour might be fine and amend their behaviour. They could also make the OP’s life at home hell and destroy her mental health (in extreme situations).

As I said, for me, it would just not be worth the risk.

I would not walk across someone’s property. But the fact they are, may be a sign of what kind of people they are. OP are you happy to risk having a bad relationship with your neighbour over this?

Could you pop over as you suggested, and bring it up in a friendly but direct way?
”As you were going out of your way to walk past our window/front door so often I assumed you were asking to chat/meet, so hello 🙂”

They have a path on their drive. Id be having a word.

It's not clear.

what is the grey area for, beyond the parking spaces?
Usually that is for pedestrians.

I'm really surprised people think it's fine to be looming in a neighbour's window when you have your own path to walk down.

If your front door is right on the pavement then it's unavoidable to have people walking past, but if you've bought a house set back then it's just weird to squeeze yourself in front of your neighbour's window!

There's another thread where the majority are frothing at the mouth at a neighbour driving over a corner of the OP's driveway.

Ring door bell keeps going off.

OP said the photo was representative of the house layout so might not be 100% the same.
I think the paths under the windows and to each front door of each house are for the use of that house only.
The right hand house as you look at it has its own back access and path to the road.
The op shares a passage to the back gardens with her unajoined neighbour and they also share the path between the drives to the road.
OP has checked her deeds and it shows the path under her window and in front of her door is her property. The neighbour can look at their deeds to check it's the same for them.
The stupid thing about new build estates is they seem to not put in any pathways.

@Bluesea14 I would have the friendly chat that you mentioned and say that now spring is coming that you are planning to put in a planter with a trellis there to get a bit of greenery outside.

It's not acceptable to have neighbours walking 3 inches from your window several times a day. Not when they have a separate access to their own front door.

The fact you wouldn't mind is frankly very odd.

Yes, exactly this. Why is that even remotely difficult? So much easier to have a polite conversation than start sending wordy letters or putting out passive aggressive planters without giving them a chance.

"Hi. It's really nice to meet you. I know you might not realise this, but every time you walk past our door it triggers our ring doorbell. Would you mind using the path in front of your house instead?"

That would bloody annoy me too! Do you share your path with your other neighbour @Bluesea14as it looks as if it leads down an alleyway between the two houses?

OP has checked her deeds and it shows the path under her window and in front of her door is her property. The neighbour can look at their deeds to check it's the same for them.

Any other comments here are purely personal opinions.

The facts are it's trespassing and whether you'd be happy with that is irrelevant.
OP is not and needs to speak up.