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?? 🙈

What is the wording in the deeds? Is this your deeds or the neighbours? You need the details from both sets of deeds

I am myself a mid terrace, I’m number 3 of 5, thankfully when they build ours they put a gate in at both ends. Number 5 has their own private side access, #4 has a gate into the end of the alleyway, the rest of us all have an alleyway that runs up the side of number 1 and runs behind all our properties, we each have a gate at the bottom of our gardens for access.
If in your shoes I’d either put a small fence along their right of way with a lockable gate so you and your children/pets cross the path into a secure area. Put up a gate with a Yale lock and give her 2 keys and tell her the gate must be locked at all times for your families security, tell her the gate is often left open so if she still wants to use the side access for deliveries could she please let them in and escort them off your property.

Have you looked on the Garden Law forum yet? There are retired surveyors and solicitors who post on there. Here you are getting lots of incorrect answers.

You can download the deeds now this minute from Land Registry website to end your 'what if'. You need both sets of deeds.

It works like adverse possession. Is there anything in writing that previous neighbours have tried to stop this?

OP, I don't envy you, it is a really difficult situation. You bought a house, knowing that someone could access their back garden through yours, but not knowing that she used that entrance as her primary one.

It is absolutely not unreasonable to be frustrated by the situation, but you also don't seem to be dealing with a reasonable person.

I think most people with that house layout might use it daily to a couple of times a week. Having someone known to you access it (ie your neighbour) is very different to having delivery drivers and any visitors use it. Particularly when they are multiple times a day, and won't necessarily respect the same security levels like shutting the gate behind them.

I think it was mentioned before, but changing the gate to a key lock and giving her one copy seems like the best option. At the very least it should stop delivery drivers. Also the kind of key lock that doesn't require manually locking after you (as can't see her doing that). Not sure if its easy to get keys that can't be copied, but at the very least she is only going to get keys for family/close friends.

She likely won't like it, but I can't see how this would breech anything in your deeds (obviously still check them!). You need to give her access, not every Tom, Dick or Harry that visits her house. She has another perfectly suitable door for that. Good luck!

Many rights of way cover any visitor to the house. The easement is for the property itself not people. Unless the easement specifies who can use it and for what purpose then it applies to anyone who needs to access the house. People have lost thousands in legal cases where what they 'thought' should be the case was at odds with the actual law.

Many easements were created over 100 years ago. Easements cannot be extinguished so you are stuck with an antiquated thing that can't be changed

Unfortunately it's like adverse possession, using someone else's shed would be wrong, however if you can prove that you have been using someone else's shed for a number of years (12, I think) then you win the right to use that shed. This is a really rubbish example but the principle is the same as a right of way (or easement) born out of long usage. If someone can provide evidence that they or the predecessors of their property have used the path for I think 20 years or more, then even if it's written down absolutely nowhere they win that right...such an archaic law that just shouldn't still apply (imo). So the objections would have to be evidenced. I tried with the house I had, by tracking down previous owners and occupiers and asking them if they had objected to the usage when they lived there. Unfortunately most were renters so didn't think they could object.

changing the gate to a key lock and giving her one copy seems like the best option. At the very least it should stop delivery drivers

You are completely missing the point that it’s highly unlikely she has any right to stop the delivery drivers if the owner of the ROW prefers them to come round the back, and indeed to try to do so could lead to legal consequences.
The OP has confirmed she knew about the easement, she just made assumptions about the likely use and impact which have turned out to be incorrect. She didn’t check what it could be used for and unless there are very specific terms, which is unlikely, the neighbour isn’t doing anything other than quite simply exercising her legal right. It doesn’t matter how many mumsnetters think it’s weird or have never heard the like.
The advice to download the deeds and get over to the garden law forum for some properly informed input is useful.

if the front doors open onto the street it is much safer to have parcels delivered to back door and if the easement exists the neighbour ha the right to direct couriers Royal mail etc to back door including when she is not at home
to protect your children and dog a self closing heavy gate ( such as used in some parks in childrens play areas) would solve problem
the other idea is to put a fence and gate at the top of your lawn / garden area the other side of the path so your kids dog can't get out regardless of whether the other gate has been shut
until OP gets both sets of deeds and reads them it is speculation

either it is a general easement in which case the neighbour her family friends couriers etc can go back anfd forth anytime for any reason without restriction
or it is a specific easement only for bins coal, garden and building materials and not a general access
unless deeds mention there is a restriction of access there is no restriction

if the front doors open onto the street it is much safer to have parcels delivered to back door and if the easement exists the neighbour ha the right to direct couriers Royal mail etc to back door including when she is not at home

That. My DD's terraced cottage is directly on the (narrow) pavement. There's actually no room for a parcel to be left without obstructing anyone passing by. My DD gets round it by having parcels delivered to pick up shops or lockers, but that's because delivery drivers could never find the entrance to the easement.

I’m a current estates surveyor - it is called a prescriptive easement. It’s twenty years of open use, without secrecy or force.

From my perspective, if she has been using it this way for forty years and can evidence it with neighbours testimony she’d have an incredibly strong case. The easement is over the property, not person, so it isn’t relevant that you didn’t live there then.

It doesn't open into the street. She has a front garden.

It doesn't matter if she's got Longleat safari park in front of her house, the easement is the crucial matter here.
Your easement may have started for many reasons ( mine was to access the shared outside toilet) but it's the fact it exists not why.

I think the relevant point here is that the door is not straight onto the street and there is no reason why it couldn't be used for deliveries- you seem to think an easement makes it a public right of way, it doesn't, it's specifically for the neighbour, not anyone the neighbour fancies letting use it.

I don't 'think' anything. An easement is for the property. Unless it has restrictions on it it can be used by anyone to access the property. So deliveries etc. It doesn't mean it's a public right of way, but anyone who needs to go to the property can use it, as long as they don't loiter on it or block it. I think it's ridiculous, it's not fair, but it's the law. The fact that it doesn't open into the street is irrelevant.

Look on the Garden Law forum. It's full of tales of woe (one is mine)

I'd give up if I were you. I've accepted that I may as well mumble my advice, which is based on a reasonable working knowledge of land law, into a bin. What I don't get is why the OP is wasting time contacting her conveyancer about this when they possibly didn't do a brilliant job in the first place. For £7 (OK £14 if she gets the neighbour's deeds too), she can see what the situation is immediately. Christ I'd pay it myself to move this thread along.

What a strange thing to say, noone is forcing you to keep posting here 🤔

Apologies if you feel your time is being "wasted". I don't really want to waste £14 on something I can get for free 🤷🏼‍♀️ That's a lot of money to me.

You will unlikely get the details of the neighbour's deeds for free tbh.

I hope / think @Deepblueokay is waiting for the deeds

i will go halves with you for the fee 😂

Can I ask does she use her front door to access her front garden?

Asking as wondered if she'd maybe blocked it off inside somehow? 🤷

easements can be for anyone who the beneficiary of the easement allows.

How do you get it free ? Are you wishing to get it from your solicitor ?

@Laurmolonlabe
you seem to think an easement makes it a public right of way, it doesn't,
Correct
it's specifically for the neighbour, not anyone the neighbour fancies letting use it.
Not correct.

**Assuming the wording on OP's deeds are the same as mine.

Same here.

OP could find out herself from the deeds for £7 (+£7).
It's a lot of money if you haven't got it but if the conveyancer needs to get it for you (the NDN'S deeds) it will be a lot more.

She could try the Garden Law Forum (Garden Law Discussion - Index page.

@Deepblueokay , I don't think you realise it but posters like @FudgeFudy and myself* are here because WE WANT TO HELP* and we've been through something with some similarity, but you don't seem to want to listen.

You seem to want us to say the NDN is in the wrong. Without seeing the wording in the deeds and the green outline on the plan, we can't tell you that.
We don't think she is.

** apologies to those I've missed like the surveyor.

Formatting went wonky because of ** that was meant to reference the footnote.

That's a bit patronising isn't it? I don't want anyone to say anything 🤷🏼‍♀️ I mostly wanted to vent, and have now done so! I've read all the advice and taken it. Hence waiting for the deeds so I can see exactly what they say and I will reassess the situation then. I can't really stop other people posting and arguing amongst themselves in the meantime... There's really no need for you to wait around if it's inconveniencing you in some way!