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 ring doorbell as I'm on my own with 2 young kids & also my ex & his partner have form for abusive behaviour so my brother bought it for me

This sort of planter

If they have maybe moved from a terraced house where the front path is open access it possibly hasn't occurred to them. Some people are just a bit thick.

I don’t think it is at all. Why walk past someone’s window multiple times a day and squeeze past their car when you can use your own bloody path?

This would drive me fucking nuts.

Can you park your car closer to your house OP so there is no gap to squeeze past?

I also would get two tall planters (say hip height) and put some buxus balls in them.

It's a big deal to speak to your neighbours because some neighbours will take one "good morning" as a sign that you are going to be their best friends for life. We've had problems with a woman over the road who sent her husband with dementia over "for a chat" (ie to get him out from under her feet) with my husband of a similar age. I had to cut her off quite rudely her several times before she got the message that I was walking to my car 20 yards up the pavement, not popping out for a pavement chat. You've no idea when you move in who the good and bad neighbours are, and you can pretty much bet your bottom dollar that the ones who are friendliest at the outset are the self-appointed estate police, troublemakers or Hyacinth Buckets.

Actually I tell a lie. The person who was all over us turned out to be a BMW salesman who hasn't said another word to us since a new VW appeared on our drive.

Open the door every time the doorbell goes off? But a big pot would be good, or a row of pots or troughs along that side so they don't just walk around the pot.

It would be walking right past the window that would annoy me rather than the door, it would make you jump to see someone appear right outside particularly if you were in your night clothes or wrapped in a towel. And perhaps having a sneaky peek into your living room.

? I seriously doubt the neighbours have the right to use this path. If there was a right of way across the land it would be in the deeds for a new build. If it’s a very old house the neighbor might have established rights though decades of uninterrupted access. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here?

all the more reason to shit down the access now

I'm guessing they used to live in a flat where its naturally to walk past doorways. Just have a chat and say it triggers your ring door bell plus startles you with someone walking past your living room do they mind using their path.

We live in a semi detached bungalow and people have to walk past our front bedroom window to get to the front door, which doesn’t bother me as we’re only in there at night, But some people walk straight across from our neighbours’ house to ours, passing by both their living room windows and ours. I find it really annoying, but it’s only once in a while so I haven’t done anything to stop it. Like planters or a wee fence. Some of the neighbours have placed barriers like this so it’s obviously more of a problem for some than others. If I’m nipping across to speak to the neighbours who are attached to us, I always use my own drive and walk along the street to theirs. I would never dream of walking past within centimetres of their living room windows. It’s about respecting people’s privacy. Our postman always treats every property individually, but most of the people sticking leaflets etc through doors just walk straight across. It’s pretty lazy.

Agree with @Brewtiful - before you do anything check the original tp1. It may fall within the boundary on the title plan but have rights reserved for third parties.

Of course it’s not petty, people are walking right by their window, looking in, squeezing past their cars so potentially they could scratch them. You can’t just wander over people’s property.

They should be using their own path. I’d be putting some flower pots out now it’s spring inc a big one on the path between the two front doors.

Yabu. Why not be neighbourly instead?

How unsociable. I had new neighbours move in next door a few months ago. Said hello, they told me names and apologized if disturbed me as they were getting the place.

On passing nowadays we say hello and usually complain it hasn't stopped raining all bloody year.

Normal is have thought.

What did the people that lived there before them do? Or is it you that's new and they've established this habit with the people that lived in your house before you? Or are you both new? Whichever it is, I'm surprised you haven't introduced yourselves to each other yet.

That’s a good shout actually. Every time they walk past say ‘Oh Hi! It’s only you, every time you walk past my window I think it’s a delivery man dropping off an important parcel I’m expecting!’

They'll soon get sick of making pleasantries every time they leave the house.

Put up a decorative fence or use flower pots along the boundary, after you speak to them.

Speaking to them about it would be a really fast way to an awkward relationship with your new neighbours, that you will have to live next to until one of you moves. Are they peeking in the window as they walk?

We have a ring doorbell because a delightful child from the bottom of the avenue rang our doorbell every time she passed on her way to the playground. (We have no front garden.)

We spoke to her nicely and asked her to stop. She didn't.

We got a ring doorbell.

Fixed.

They are also good security for when the parcel delivery drivers can't read English and leave parcels on the doorstep instead of in the bloody great parcel box near the front door with a sign and an arrow pointing at it.

Please don’t write a letter. It seems odd to me you’ve not even met them?! Go say hi first and I wouldn’t bring it up yet.

Where is the pavement? Or is it literally like that photo? I guess it’s the problem when new builds haven’t been given a proper front garden.

I would speak to them in general first and then just put some kind of planter to the side of your door so they’d have to step over it. That should be a big enough hint without needing confrontation.

Agree @bellyblueboy that it would be in the deeds and unlikely to be a prescriptive right based on age of the houses pictured but quite often when people say they have checked the deeds they mean they have checked the title plan.

And some neighbours take the hump very easily and you find you are living in a war zone. If it's a new estate prettying it up by putting out some flower tubs may be much easier than trying to explain to the neighbour that they are trespassing and being really unthoughtful!

Good Lord, how would any of you cope living in a terrace?! 😉

It would annoy me too OP, it may be petty to some but I don’t understand why they don’t use their own path. 🤷🏼‍♀️
id do what a PP suggested and introduce yourself and explain it isn’t a public footpath, ring doorbell going off etc
If that doesn’t work, a big potted shrub between you

Cheeky buggers.

If their house is on the right, looking at the photo, they are using your path as a right of way and it probably isn't.

They are being lazy and cutting off a corner!

You need to speak to them and maybe put something there as a barrier- a large pot with a shrub in it perhaps. Is there anything in your deeds about not erecting a fence? The other option would be a small fence, the width of the path.

I'm guessing it's yours from the middle canopy bracket and the white parking line , I'd speak to them, tell them it's your path and would they like to have a plant in between the front doors just to break up the space which you'll pay for.