AIBU to object to neighbour using my garden as their main access?

[Deepblueokay]

Fully expecting to be told this is my own fault for not looking into it properly but need a vent all the same!

A year ago I moved into an end of terrace house. There is the usual easement arrangement with the adjoining neighbour that they can get access to their back garden via my back garden. I know that is pretty standard and I was obviously aware of it when I purchased. Since moving in however it's become clear that they use it as their primary entrance. They never use their front door. They have a sign on the front door telling post man/ couriers etc to go round the back. Again, wouldn't necessarily be a big issue except that there seems to CONSTANTLY be someone walking through! It's an older lady living there with her grandson. He is late teens/ early 20s maybe and in and out like a yo-yo, no exaggeration. Ditto her boyfriend, her dog walker, her cleaner, her food shop, couriers (she gets at least two packages a day!) .... The latter particularly pisses me off because they often don't close my gate behind them. I have an OAP dog and 4 children, the youngest of whom is 4. It'd take literal seconds to slip out of the garden without anyone noticing 😠 And frankly, now that its summer time it just feels quite intrusive. Strangers walking in and out while my children are playing. I stupidly feel awkward sitting outside to read a book even though it's my fucking garden!

Is it even a legal thing to say that they are over using their access?!

Should also add that I would probably mind all this less except that at the end of last year the handle of my gate broke. It was the week before Christmas and I didn't have time or money to fix it and it wasn't particularly a priority for me, but I told the neighbour I would sort it after Christmas, quite reasonably I thought. (I have a side door so actually rarely use the gate). Neighbour told me I had to fix it because it is "YOUR gate" and "a public right of way" (it isn't 🤣).Then proceeded to tell all the other neighbours that I was "refusing" to fix it because I didn't use it and that she "couldn't even get her food delivered" and would "rather die than use the front door"... After a week of hassle and harassment I ended up getting a friend's husband to fix it for free and neighbour has since apologised but... I don't know, it just left a sour taste.

Is there anything I can do? Do I just have to wait for her to move/die?? 🙈

They can use it for any purpose. The easement is for the property so deliveries etc can use it. As long as noone loiters on it they could use it all day every day if they wanted.

If she has been living there for decades and using it that way then in addition to any rights in the deeds she will also have acquired prescriptive rights to continue to use it in that way

yes, just a couple of years ago I helped (at work) deal with a property owner who thought they could put a lock on a shared access.

Thankfully they backed down (having paid for legal advice) before we took them to court

Nonsense. There should t be a lock there as it's a shared access

@Deepblueokay you are getting a lot of opinions on here from people who clearly don't understand the law at all, so please be very wary of following their advice

Indeed. If the neighbour's property has an easement that allows them access over the OP's property, then they have an easement that allows them access over the OP's property. The neighbour's rights do not get extinguished because the OP buys a dog, or an expensive bike, or has kids, or is just a bit fed up. Those rights were there before the OP bought the place and it is down to the OP to work round them.

If the OP could quote from the actual Land Registry entry for her property so we can see what the neighbour's rights actually are then we might be able to get somewhere, but it seems highly likely that the most OP can do is 1. separate the bit of land that the neighbour has access over from the rest of her garden with some sort of barrier, and 2. install spring-loaded gates.

OP can you please post more of the deeds? It doesn’t tell us much. If it’s non specific and it’s just access then rather than having the gate by your kitchen can you put a gate at the back of the garden and through that wall/boundary and fence off the end? I would put that in legally as a safeguarding mitigation. You can’t have all and sundry walking through a garden with DC in. I reckon the planning office would take that seriously.

I'm not going to do anything without getting all my facts together first. I will definitely get hold of the deeds as a next step, I honestly don't remember seeing them before.

She didn't contribute to the gate repair, she initially mentioned the handle being wobbly a few weeks before it actually broke off but said "don't worry, I will get someone to look at it" . But the day it fully broke off and she was "trapped" was when she became abusive and said it was my problem and I had to immediately deal with it. And denied saying she would sort it (even though I have the text message where she said she would 😅) I can only presume she didn't contribute to the last instance of it breaking either because she was slagging the previous owner off for buying a cheap handle 🤣 Would this be enough to prevent her access, given she hasn't contributed to maintenance? I don't actually want to stop her using it altogether, just want her to stop taking the piss.

There's been other issues which just make me feel generally uncomfortable around her if I'm honest.

I'm not trying to "extinguish" their rights. But what about my right to a secure home and garden? I didn't buy a dog or have 4 kids on a whim ...

Fudgefudy - agree with you on this, apart from the separating the piece of land part, seemingly you cannot do that without complicated plans that have to be agreed with the neighbour(s) that have the right, and agreement with someone who wishes to stubbornly exercise their right (rightly or wrongly) seems unlikely. What I did was to install a very annoying DIY shop style "bing bong! " Onto the gate so that it sounded everytiem the neighbour used it. That way it acted as a warning to keep dogs indoors so they weren't freely roaming around on the easement.

That's the term used when a right is removed. If she has a right to walk where she is walking then you would actually want to extinguish that right and potentially regrant another allowing a different route. You can only do this with her agreement though.

Unfortunately you bought a house where someone else has a right of access running through the garden. They are free to use that unless you are able to negotiate (probably at considerable cost) removing their rights

Sigh

I really don't want to remove or extinguish or otherwise interfere with her access. I just feel that it is being used in a way which is beyond reasonable. This is not my first rodeo, I have lived in plenty of terraced houses and I understand the purpose of the easement, but I have never known anyone else use it in this manner!

Well op should have thought of that before buying a property with a path running through it.

I never said you were, I was responding to the people saying you'd obviously be OK putting a lock on the gate because security. Unfortunately your neighbours do have a right to access their property via yours and that means you can't just do whatever you want. Like it or not that's the legal situation irrespective of it turning out that your house isn't really suitable for you. If you want a house that doesn't have this problem you really will have to move, or wait for them to move and hope the next lot use their front door.

OP probably wasn't in her right mind after being stuck living with an increasingly coercive and emotionally abusive ex partner who refused to accept the end of their relationship for THIRTEEN MONTHS and sexually assaulted her on a regular basis.

Be fucking kind.

Can you put a fence / hedge across your garden so their “walkway” doesn’t go through that area? That way you gain some privacy and can fence the kids / dog in. And come to view the walkway as just that?

Not sure I follow. I'm presuming that the bit of the OP's land that the easement affects is a relatively thin strip immediately adjacent to her house. What I meant was put a fence (or whatever), running right on the edge of the strip, i.e. just on OP's unburdened part of the garden, parallel to her back wall. Fence off the bit that isn't affected by the easement basically. There can't be a problem with that (legally at least).

Someone in our family was able to get a right kf way moved so they could fence it off. It wasn't easy and not cheap either!

I have been in your situation and it ended very very badly so I do feel your pain. It's incredibly frustrating for you, but unfortunately she has a right. Would it be worth coming to an amicable agreement? Have you tried talking to her about the usage? Does she seem like the type of person who has plenty of cash to throw at the problem?

Just ignore the unhelpful comments. There is a real difference between someone using the right of way to take their bins out and someone sending literally the whole world through your garden.

I’m sorry you had to put up with such vile behaviour from your ex. If you ever want to, you could report him and he would hopefully be convicted for his abuse.

Well I didn't know any of that

But it would be unkind for people to mislead you about your legal position - you could waste a lot of money that way. And /or end up with a neighbour dispute that makes it harder to sell the property

But if the neighbour has been doing this for decades (as implied by earlier posts) then, whether op likes it or not, the neighbour almost certainly has acquired the right it to continue using it in this way

There would be a problem with that legally. It would be called a deed of variation to amend the existing easement. Even if you believe that they can use it as they were using it is not acceptable in law unless agreed with a solicitor by both parties. I made all of these arguments myself when I was in the ops exact position with my end terrace house. It's an f ing minefield

There is a real difference between someone using the right of way to take their bins out and someone sending literally the whole world through your garden.

But this is the problem - depending on the terms of the easement there may well not be a difference. If the easement grants a general right of access for the neighbouring property over the OP's land then it can be used by anybody that needs access to the neighbouring property. The fact that there are other means of accessing the property is irrelevant, as is the fact that other people with similar set ups may only use it on bin day.

Hopefully the easement does say that only the current occupiers can use it, and only for certain purposes, but a) that would be quite unusual, and b) it still wouldn't the OP could just stick a lock on it as so many are suggesting.

I appreciate that this is not what you want to hear OP but you are not well served by people telling you what you want to hear if it is wrong.