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?? 🙈

Thank you

I presumed they all had their own gate in their own back garden that opens onto one of those alley way things. At least that is what I see on the TV

There are lots of reasons for easements, not just the pavement thing. Lots of them are to access shared outside toilets, long demolished of course but the easement still exists.

Mine was because in the 1920's my neighbour built an extension over his pathway from the back garden to the front, so he had to use our back garden to access his back door from the front. The easement was granted and written on his deeds. It wasn't on our deeds at all! The first we knew was when we moved in. We soon learned that there is no point claiming negligence from a solicitor. We were firmly told it was a case of 'buyer beware'. Our legal fees to claim negligence would be huge and in the end, what were we looking for?

We managed to buy the easement from the neighbour after 20 years of living there when we realised that a new neighbour would probably use the easement very differently. It cost £5000 in legal fees alone.

A few months later the new owners of the house told us very angrily that they had intended to use the right of way on a daily basis! They didn't know the neighbour had sold it to us.

These are detached properties with huge front gardens. Any type of property can have a right of way.

While they can use the path for access, an easement does not give them the right to cause a nuisance, disturb your privacy, or encourage strangers and delivery drivers to loiter on your property

Put in a key pad gate lock, give them the code and tell them you will change it every week for security, and text them the code weekly

That way it prevents easy access, but doesn't stop them having access

delivery drivers, friends etc can't just open your gate and get through

You are allowed to put a gate and have it locked - as long as the neighbours have access

You aren’t necessarily correct @TourdeCrema. My access over the neighbours is unrestricted- a neighbour on a parallel block got to find that this was true for her after her neighbour tried to restrict it. The gate had to be left unlocked and resized so vehicles could pass through. I don’t think on the op has confirmed the situation of her access.

Id place the gate at the far end of the garden - so they have to walk diagonally across the garden and not infant of your kitchen window. Put a fence panel in where the gate is now and have a gate put in at the top of the garden with a lock code

You'd just need the two fence panels changed which would set ou back but you're not denying them their easement. They might not like the idea but what can they do?

op wouldn't be restricting access but making it a hassle for delivery drivers who want to be in and out quick, or food deliveries - for whom it would be easier to go to the front door anyway

as for vehicles going across the garden to the next door garden - really? is there a dropped kerb on the street?

I'm afraid you're wrong. If the ROW has no restrictions it can be used at any time by anybody to access the property. Obviously it's very antisocial to use it in this way and the neighbour is being a total dick. But the law says access must not be blocked or restricted.

There are many horror stories on the Garden Law forum. And many stories of people taking legal action and it costing them their house as they chase a 'principal' as they see it.

The law in an ass, especially relating to property.

Bulbsbulbsbulbs
Quote - 'We managed to buy the easement from the neighbour after 20 years of living there when we realised that a new neighbour would probably use the easement very differently. It cost £5000 in legal fees alone.
A few months later the new owners of the house told us very angrily that they had intended to use the right of way on a daily basis! They didn't know the neighbour had sold it to us.'

You will be so glad you spent that money now!

Our rear gardens have a patio section and a garden section. Our garage is on the patio section so you turn from the main road onto a a shared access space and then can turn right or left at the bottom to access the rears of the houses.

No one here would find using the back unusual. We were more unusual to use our front door primarily and to have a letter box in it. That said we use the rear access plenty and muddy dogs always come that way. Our street has houses between 500k to over a million and the most expensive three still share an access road! I don’t think anyone cares. I used to live in a different town in a smaller house and it was the same there.

Oh, yes, very glad! The new neighbour was an absolute nightmare in every other way, we ended up having to move because of him. We rented it out in order to get away from him.

Oh no, I am sorry to hear that.
What a nightmare.

Any update on this OP?