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 live in a new build so similar to this I initially thought it was my house and had a little bellyflop thinking I was the naughty neighbour 😂I wouldn't do that though, would always walk between our own cars.

yes but the sign is not on the path saying no one else can walk on it

because of the way of the paths are designed it gives the impression that anyone can walk along it.

You don't usually need or expect signs telling people to keep off other people's property.

They don’t. You would have to go out of your way to use them to walk along the street.

No, it doesn't.

true but the way these paths have been designed it gives the impression anyone can walk along them

people are so weird, @Bluesea14 Would not cross my mind to walk there

You have my sympathy.

Maybe to you it gives that impression. Not to others. You would be incorrect. If you walked under my front window to access my neighbour’s property I would explain it to you. If you persisted I would explain it to your employer.

if i was on the rounds id be using everyones letterbox,

No problem at all walking on my path to deliver to my house. If you’re not delivering to my house you go round.

This is an example of the type of path i have used previously it runs from the road all the way along and the bushes have gaps so you can walk through, its all one long path

@Strngerthings where does that path start?

For the example that OP has what is the point of the path between the 2 doors?

Don’t walk past their window, stand at it on the phone for hours on end.

from my example theres a main road then these side roads are what branch off of it, its all part of a new build estate and in these rows theres about 8 houses in a row both sides

as for the ops side type paths i can only presume its for getting into the cars ?

I'd be annoyed about this too, they sound like twats. It's clearly not on to constantly walk across someone's property. Sadly one of the drawbacks of modern developments is that houses cannot have actual walls and fences round the front of their own homes (not even at the owner's expense) . We rented one like this and hated the lack of boundaries, passersby letting their dogs shit on the small patches of useless grass at every house's front. Theres no sense of ownership without some form of boundary. Hope you can speak to them O.P

I still don’t think the path close to the houses is meant to be a thoroughfare. People have put their bins out onto the public path.

If I were visiting the properties I'd class the parking area as part of the street rather than someones garden, so this is likely what your neighbours are seeing too. I think the problem with many new builds is the lack of boundary markers at the front of the property. People will assume public land.

that i can understand and maybe its easier, but as no path branches off it like it does in the ops one, then unless you cut across the car parking bays then theres no other option to walk the correct way than back down the path

Pish. Right to roam excludes private property.

No harm speaking to them politely and explaining it sets off your doorbell. I blame the architects/landscapers though as their path is half the width of yours due to the unnecessary flowerbed.

Different trespass laws to England, it is a civil wrong to trespass rather than criminal offence. And depends on whether the footpath is private garden, in the curtilage of the property or a footpath that is public access that people can reasonably use.

None of us know if the path is shown in OP deeds as private land, or if a right of access/right of way is there. Or if the footpaths throughout the site are owned by homeowners for private gardens or owned by homeowners to save the builder and management company from being tied in to maintenance in the future (and won't be adopted by the council).

Ask them. “Why do you use our path to get to the road instead of your path?” Let them explain why and have a conversation about it. If they don’t explain but instead are rude or ignore you, then do something like physically block the path with items.

I can’t imagine this even being on my radar, let alone bringing it up with them.