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.

I have a right of way through my back garden it will be in the deeds if there is a right of way. Considering however they have their own path I doubt there is a right of way.

People are wierd. We had a new build with a shared path and then private on front of the houses. Neighbours used to use our shared path for their kids to play on and cut thoirgh. We had checked when buying it was private as I didn’t want anyone walking past our window, so we ended up fencing and gating around our private but uo to the shared bit.

But your neighbour's deeds will contain that right of way. You both know what your rights are.

Our neighbours have a courtyard which they own but over which they have to provide right of way to two other neighbours. They don't like it but they can't alter it.

Speaking of ridiculous posts ...

Be careful what you wish for, that might not deter some folk 😂

I’ve read all the OP’s comments but not the full thread, so apologies if this has been suggested.

OP: I assume you each own half of the parking area in front of your houses? Can you put up a fence that runs from the pavement to in between the two front doors?

No, no I don't.

The postie in the area I leaflet does exactly the same as I do. Clearly if there are fences I don't climb over them (although I have seen a postie doing it in one area), but no one in their right mind when delivering to a lay out like OP's image is going to the left door, turning 180°, walking back along and then down the path, along and up the next path and doing the door on the right, to avoid an invisible, non-existent barrier instead of taking two steps door to door. All because of some imagined act of trespass that occurs when one crosses this invisible obstruction.

It’s not just a random path outside her house. It’s her path, her private property.

It literally looks like a foot path

Yes! but it's not a public footpath, it's hers. They have their own.

And it's NOT her house in the photo

I guess you only visit these houses every few months or maybe once a year though? That’s very different from the neighbour who uses the path every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I can understand how someone from that area might get confused about the layout too, but the neighbour should really know which path, parking space, etc, is theirs, and which isn’t.

Assuming the neighbour is coming home from and leaving in the direction that's closest to your path, then it makes sense why they're using the central path rather than walking past it to walk down their own.

I know I probably would without thinking about it too much, but then I've lived in kerbside properties where the public walking past my windows was the norm.

People take the path of least effort and if your path appears first on their journey they'll take it. They probably don't even realise it's an issue or a faux pas.

You will probably seem extremely uptight to them if you raise it but if you don't mind that, crack on.

If you are nippy, when you see them there you could rush out (with a smile) and say “are you ok? - is everything alright?….
and when they question / say everything is fine - you just say “oh, I saw you at my window” ….”I wondered what was up” or something.

Maybe start using their path a little
It will all iron itself out in time - always difficult with new builds IME.

Do check your deeds to be absolutely sure that they are crossing your land. If they are you can point out that you will not be legally held liable if they should suffer an injury whilst on your land. You may need to put this in writing. You can put up a sign saying private pathway. You can also point out that any damage they cause to your property/cars, they will need to compensate you for.
It is difficult, but do speak to them. They may not be aware of the issues.

"... it’s just weird that the would walk past your window rather than use their own path who ch takes the directly to their front door... "

But isn't part of the problem that the neighbours path does not take them directly to their own front door?

It looks fairly obvious to me that the neighbour's house is the last one on that street - looks like a cul de sac. (The wall on the other side of the neighbour's house looks like it's the back garden wall of a house on an entirely separate street or road).

If so then to get to their own front door by using their "own" path, the neighbours have to walk past their front door and double back on themselves.

The path may well be the OP's property but without knowing whether the neighbours have a right to use it in the OP's deeds nobody knows if it's trepass or not

I bet posties in similar set up to OP’s just walks along the paths in front of the houses as they all seem connected

My house is similar but the path is between the drives. Next door still walks along under my drive instead of along the path. Drives me nuts but I just suck it up.

there is no right of way in the deeds. Why do you think there would be some secret right of way that the neighbors know about but OP doesn’t?

Maybe fit a traditional doorbell, at least for a period of time, and cover the automatic one, it's basically a case of right of way when it comes to the path, it needs something in print, wether yay or nay if the path can be used by others, a solicitor may help

Yes.

The paths directly in front of the houses all seem to be continuous and connected - even between the separate double blocks of semi-detacheds.

That indicates to me that the paths don't just "belong" to the houses they are in front of, but they belong to every house along the path.

Seems a common characteristic of many new build estates.

There was for me, as I set out I’m my post on page one. So I suggested checking with them before making it very awkward.

excatly, ive done similar and when you have a row like this its an easy 4 in seconds, although overall considering the designs of new build estates overall it can be a mix time wise vs traditional designs

With the path right next to your window I’d be annoyed too. After all, they have their own path and parking area to use. I assume the middle path is for accessing the back of the properties? I’d invite them in for a cuppa as you haven’t already done so and politely tell them your big plans for an outdooor window seat and large planters for the front of your home 😁