To of told kid of for coming onto my driveway & touching my property

[shazzaaaa]

I have had numerous issues with kids trespassing on my driveway, leaving bikes in there, running past my living room window etc.

One of the kids is about 10, he will always run across my living room window to when he is going from my neighbours kids houses.
I let it go.

But today he actually touching my planters and getting snow of them, there was a group of kids with him.

I politely asked him them to get of my drive and he replied "why?".

Was I being mean by doing this?
I have young toddlers and the noise often wakes them up.

This is a housing estate and we are looking at move by summer as we ( and others ) have constant issues with kids causing damage and problems.

The PCSO has already been down ( for footballs getting kicked at cars and smashing windows).

Well unless they’ve done actual damage then I can say I’d really let it fuss me. But I also wouldn’t have an issue with you politely telling my child not to come on your drive any more. And I’d be pretty cross with them if they carried on after you’d said something.

New estates seem to have odd set ups compared to older houses.
Older houses seem to get that privacy is an issue with property, you tend to get defined areas, with fences hedges etc. Of course it helps that over the years hedges mature and create definite boundaries.
New houses seem to have open front gardens, with little regard for creating boundaries, kids are kids I suppose and they'll go wherever they are physically able it won't really occur to them that it's your property and they're disturbing you, of course if told politely that they are disturbing you and on your property they should piss off, sadly these days you're likely to get a gobfull.
Just be mindful of your next property, fences make good neighbours as they say, we live in a new build, it's absolutely crap, yes we have a fence between ours and the neighbours but it might as well not be there, the fucking footballs drive me daft. Response is' but it's in my garden, 'yeah it is, but it's right next to my patio doors, just because there's a fucking fence there doesn't mean I can't hear it, really badly designed, I'd move too if I could afford it.

If there is one yes this is correct. OP mentioned a cul de sac, so wondering if there is a pavement as some cul de sacs don’t have pavements for pedestrians.

She’s also said it’s not a public road- which would mean the council isn’t responsible for maintaining so it’s a private cul de sac which means the homeowners would pay to maintain it either by agreements in the deeds or through a HOA but that makes it like a shared driveway legally so then any owner of the shared driveway can give permission to cross over any part of it.

A garden isn’t a driveway.
OP said she had put the planters on the driveway.
If the child is going across the garden when there is a pavement, then that would be trespassing.

But I would not be bothered by it as by the description, OP knows the child is a friend of her neighbours and a child crossing the end of my garden to go from one house to another in a cul ce sac would not bother me. He’s not a strange preteen or teen looking for mischief.

Same. I personally would not be bothered by a 10yr old who I regularly see and know he is friends with a neighbour crossing over my driveway.

You can be bothered, I just prefer to be more relaxed ☺️ and community minded as I know all my neighbours and we help each other out.

I’d be telling him to fucking get off or he’ll know about it. Sod being nice.

Sorry just to clarify these are new builds and as a PP correctly pointed out designed oddly and gives zero privacy to the homeowner.

The public footpath is by the main road, this footpath enables the public to enter the cul de sac.

The driveways are just 2 designated parking bays for each property.

None of them are shared driveways.

I have put planters on one side of the parking bags to prevent neighbours and their kids from walking past my living room window.

The kids was on my designated driveway touching my planters hence why I told him to get off.

I wouldn't like a kid prancing about outside on my property, either. You always get a few people on threads like this saying 'you're getting het up over nothing' or 'I wouldn't mind'. Why?

I feel your pain, I have children (and sometimes parents) wander down my private driveway which is a dead end. I happened to be out one afternoon and asked why they were there and got a diatribe about how its their right to be anywhere they want. "You don't own the land".... well infact I do.

I do like my new build estate but they build them so privacy/private paths/driveways are harder to identify! Its really irritating and I'm getting less tolerant!

Thats reasonable.

Thanks for update OP, I have a better picture of your house & situation and can empathise with lack of privacy. When you said living room window I didn’t visualise him being right outside, but having a front garden between him on the drive and you in your home.

It agree it is ok that you asked him politely to go only on the neighbour’s half of the drive given he doesn’t need to use yours and I think him asking ‘why’ is pretty normal for the age and he likely wouldn’t have known he was being intrusive.

Because that’s how we genuinely feel? Not everyone has the same view on the same situation.

Maybe this boy needs telling a few times before it sinks in he is being a nuisance. I would tell the parents as a last resort, if they can't be bothered to teach their child consideration and boundaries, I doubt they would take much note of you complaining.

My child is younger , he went through a phase of trying to hide from me on the walk home from school. It would normally be behind a lamp post or bin , but once he went onto someone's driveway. I explained it wasn't ok to just go on a person's driveway or garden , and that we must respect people's properly , eg the walls , plants etc. This child may never have been told , next time just ask him not to cut through and see if that helps?

YANBU at all OP.

Neighbours telling kids to stop pissing about on their property is a tale as old as time.

What makes you think you might BU?

Are you thinking of the crossover of a pavement on a public road, where the crossover leads to a private driveway within the boundaries of a private property. The crossover is not part of the private driveway. It is part of the public highway. There is no public right of way over a private driveway unless the public have been using it unopposed for a certain period of time.

I just don't buy it. You look out of your window and see random adults or kids in your front garden and you think to yourself 'ah let them enjoy themselves in my garden, I don't mind'. You should open your door and let all these randoms in and sit on your furniture, it's the only reasonable way to behave, after all.

Could you also state the percentages (between 96% and 100%) of how sure you are of the following statements?

1. The moon is made of cheese.
2. Kim Kardashian is Lord Protector of England.
3. The public are legally entitled to borrow the Crown Jewels for parties.

Oh, I don't know. Perhaps you should try it.

No one pointed out a public footpath. Yours is the first mention of it.

The problem of trespassing on private drives happens a lot on modern developments which are open plan to the public pavement because there is no actual barrier separating the public and the private property. There isn't even a difference in levels between them that could act as a deterrent to walking on the private drive. This is the case where I live. The only thing to differentiate between them is a narrow flat concrete strip. Consequently you get children and dogs going onto the private drive instead of staying on the pavement as they walk past.

@Abitofalarkyes this is true, there is no barriers no fencing as it's all open.

Its just a lack of respect, these kids will leave their toys, bikes, football on the driveway.

Even the parents had no qualms about walking past my living room window on my own driveway as a short cut to get from one house to another.

Only at the point where your drive crosses the pavement! Not on your actual property.

I don’t think you are being unreasonable. If it was just a kiddo brushing show off your planter then yes, yabu. If it is just kids from the culdesac dropping their bikes in front of your drive, yabu. However, it sounds like these kids are total buttholes, cause regular inconvenience, damage people’s property and neither they nor their parents care about the local community. I would be majorly pissed off too.

The problem is the parents not the kids...they are just doing what they have been taught to do.

Did you say you were moving in the near future? I hope your new neighbours won't be as bloody ignorant as your present lot.

Yes it is the parents that are the problem. Raising ignorant louts.