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?? 🙈

I haven’t either! I used to live in a terrace hell where there were five terraced houses on each of the four sides with gardens all backing onto each other. Only the end of terrace houses had side access. Everyone else, including us, kept their bins at the front (we had bin storage). Never in my wildest dreams would I think to cross my neighbour’s garden. It’s such a weird arrangement, not sure whose idea this was originally, but it sounds mad that you’re obliged to let a bunch of random people cross the land you legally own

OP lots of people have advised you that the easement is likely for bin access and nothing g else, and to check your deeds. Can you come back and let us know what the deeds say? Otherwise lots of people are wasting their time engaging as this is key to the issue.

In my first house, I got the fencer to chop of the end of my garden to give next door an alley to her garden. My other neighbour with no access thought he could use it to. I put another gate on.
He had his own side gate.
Stupid easement though, as I lost land.

I saw a George Clarke show dealing with this exact issue. The shows where people are doing up their houses and gardens. They built a wall between the garden and the path with a window opposite their kitchen window and a doorway opposite their own back door with a gate in it, if I remember rightly. So they made their garden secure and kept light for the house. Then they had other structures in the garden too further down, so they actually got a great deal of privacy on the garden from that. It was a decent sized garden.

I once lived in a house that let out directly onto the pavement (or no front garden at all) and it felt like people walking past outside were too close. I put venetian blinds up because I could angle them to let in loads of light but no-one outside could see in at all. Was so much better.

I'm surprised sone people haven't come across this, it's pretty common with older terraces, but obviously not all terraces.

I am wondering if you can legally justify putting a lock on for two reasons:

1. Security
2. Keeping a young child and dog safe because they often don't close the gate.

Our house has this, so we go through our neighbours garden, and "other side" go through our garden then neighbours.
We only use it for bins or bikes really.

We fenced the top off with a gate below the path, to keep the dog in.

@Smallorveryfaraway , I remember that one. The wall was already there but they made it taller.

She's allowed to use it. You're allowed to install motion activated sprinklers to water your garden.

It's a free country.

Would that not be a fire hazard, blocking off an exit route?

We had some success - not an identical situation though - by adding a carabiner to our gate. So it wasn't locked, no one was blocked, it was just a bit more annoying for people to open. It tipped the balance enough for them to start going round the other way. The official reason was to stop the gate from flapping open. Of course it was only flapping because of the people using it and not closing it properly.

If the deeds and legal advice other pp are suggesting does not come to anything.
Ia it possible to install a fence allowing a narrow passageway across to her garden?
I think I would rather lose a foot of my garden than have people trampling through every five minutes? Plhs its your garden you can install a fence if you want.
Or even bamboo partioners??

That says they have the rights as identified in part a .. what does it say there?

Same! - and I’ve lived in terraces but always alleys at the back. I assumed no alley meant access to garden from the back just meant you had to traipse through the front

I lived in a row of terraces where there was an access down a neighbour's garden to an enclosed back lane every 5 or 6 houses. It was a clear path, fenced off from my neighbour's garden, with a locked gate. When I moved in, I was given a key.

None of us took the mick like your neighbour does. I used it maybe once or twice a year, except when I was having my garden redone - the only access to my garden was either through the house or via this enclosed back lane.

So, I think you probably need to get a narrow path at the side of your garden fenced off, to make it very clear that that is the right of way, not your whole garden! And get a new gate wth a lock. Get the lock one of those that the key can't be reproduced except by you, and give your neighbour a key.

The access is for the other house wner, not anyone who goes to that house. She can use her front door - god knows why she's so weird as not to want to use it.

Do you own or rent this house???

if you own it why on earth did you buy a house meaning people could come traipsing thru???
if you rent it I’d be looking for something else asap

I would add something to make it more difficult for them to use, like the carabiner mentioned above, or make it a Chubb lock that auto locks when it closes (and give them one key only “for bin day”) and say it’s for security. Also give them a copy of the deed where it says subject to them contributing and ask them for money to help with the repair you had done!!

Absolutely no way are you being unreasonable. You have the right to privacy on your own property, especially as you have young kids and a dog. Anyone could be coming and going checking out your situation. Tell your neighbour your concerned about the safety of your kids so the back gate will no longer be accessible to anyone apart from yourself .

Exactly.my next door neighbour never uses his front door and chooses to come and go through his back garden gate.leaving it blowing open and shut for hours on end

It says the access is subject to their contribution to the maintenance... Do they contribute to anything? For example when the gate broke? Might be worth talking to a legal advisor to find out what their duties are, not just your rights. Also since the contract mentions reciprocity, I would look into that. But really, go and speak to that person explaining the situation. The dog, the children, the constant flow of people and your right to peaceful enjoyment of your property...

Yanbu this is wild

My brother in law was viewing a house with this arrangement and he was in the garden on the second viewing and the neighbour came over and went batshit saying she had an arrangement with previous neighbour that she could use this as her main access etc - it was wild

she also had a structure at the bottom of the garden that had a window that overlooked the garden - the fence stopped at the structure (the building then continued and had a big window)

I told him not to buy and he fed back to the seller (son of owner who had died) and he spoke to the neighbours and put a fence up

Well because I'm really stupid obviously! 🙄
(I bought it because it's a nice house in a nice area. The park and the library and my children's school are all just a few mins walk away. The transport links to my work are great. And crucially, I was desperate to get away from my abusive partner. I've lived in terraces all my life and never known a situation like this).

I’d check the deeds it may say to access bins only or something it shouldn’t be a main route at all.

@Deepblueokay , check the deeds. Most of the replies on here will be from posters who have zero experience of this. Sleep peacefully.

Oh dear I must be in the minority! I'm the person at the end of the row of terraces - I have to walk through three people's gardens past their kitchen window to get to my back door which i use as my main entrance. There's nothing in my deeds that says I can't do that. It's my right if way. I must go through our neighbours garden at least twenty times a day, plus the postie, Amazon driver, Tesco delivery and I have business clients 😂. I just thought that's normal for terraced houses. Everyone uses their back door as their main entrance on our row of terraces.