Can my neighbour come through my back garden to get to his?? Ok

[dg8484]

I've moved into a rented property before (never rented before, recently divorced so moved out of mortgaged home)
I was in my kitchen today cleaning and getting ready for Fridays removal van. When out the corner of my eye, I saw a man directly walking past the kitchen window. It is a row of town houses, I am the first one, so instead of using his front door, this man is opening the side garden gate to the house I'm in, and going through to his garden. I will be phoning the rental company in the morning, but surely this isn't right!? I am going to tell the rental company I want to put a lock on the gate. Also, I have a heavy garden table which I've put directly next to the gate. If I see him climb over it then I won't be happy. It's not a communal garden, it's individual gardens. Any advice??

It is common to have access through gardens in terraced houses.

We used to lived in an old cottage that had a right of way through the garden behind the house.

You haven't answered though, is there a gate between your garden and your neighbor's garden?

She has answered that - yes there is a gate between her and neighbour’s garden

She has answered that - yes there is a gate between her and neighbour’s garden

Thanks! I must have missed it. Then, yes, he probably does have access. You should have a chat about making sure to shut the gate.

Ah, I loved end of terrace life. We used to sit on our back door step in the sunshine and chat with our neighbours coming through.

I don't think people in terraces think they're inconveniencing or intruding on the neighbours by 'tramping through their gardens'. It's just...using the back door.

Any news op?

I live on a terrace of 12 houses, and we have an access path right down the row, it's a fire path, so we arent allowed to lock gates (if we have them) or leave anything on the path. Some of the houses on this row are rented, some are owned, some are holidays houses and one is a student house. The rules are the same for all. The only people that come up the path are the coal man and the gardener for the end house (we only have access at one end). It used to worry me about leaving my back door open, when I was pottering in and out, but now i dont care, if people want to look at my old lady carpet on their way past they can 😂

I do get that it feels intrusive, and I’m pleased that my current house does not have this, but at the time it was fine as everyone was perfectly considerate. It’s a pain though if there is a right of access that the landlord/agent didn’t make this clear, and the neighbour isn’t considerate.

q

If you’re struggling to upload a diagram, draw a picture on paper and take a photo with your phone. It’s easier to upload.

The OP says she is new - I can’t remember how long you have to have been a member to be able to post photos. It is to stop the newly-signed-up porn trolls in the middle of the night iirc!

Had a similar set up in student houses. Terraced house, and the front room where to front door came in was used as a bedroom, so we couldn't actually use the front door as a front door. Communally alley way was 3 houses down, this lead to house 1 back garden gate, which lead into house 2 garden and then into ours. We didn't actually have gates though, there was just a pathway that ran down the back of the house by the window and fenced up to this path if this makes sense. Quite a common set up around there, but you should have been informed about the communal access at the time you signed the tenancy agreement. Are you sure there is nothing in that? Did you not notice when you looked at the house either?

I would ask the landlord to move the gate to the bottom of the garden, and fence that off if the neighbours MUST have access.

I'm afraid you can't do this. The access has to stay where it is, unless there is a whole legal thing to move it.

It really is common, and there have been threads on this before.

What I don’t get is that surely she looked at the place before moving in and noticed a gate between her garden and the neighbors garden. Or maybe it’s not that simple.

The house I grew up in was like this. We were in a row and backed onto other gardens in a row. So no side access to the back garden, just through the house. Our neighbour was at the end of the row. He agreed to have a gate put between our gardens incase of fire. So if we ended up escaping out house into the back garden, we would be able to get out without coming over 6 foot fences. Going into any of the other surrounding gardens would have resulted in us being stuck in their garden with no other access so his was the only way out.

Posted too soon!
So we had a gate between gardens but no right of access. It could be just something like that, but your landlord will tell you.

Waiting on a reply from the letting agency once she's been in touch with the landlord! Hopefully soon

We need a diagram. It's the rules.

flumpybear

If a gate was placed somewhere else in the fence could he access from elsewhere?

Probably not. If he does have right if way it will probably be specified where it is and in theory moving it is not allowed.

And of course it may be a right of way for other houses in the terrace too, so theyd (and the landlord) would all have to agree to it being moved.

I hope he doesn't have access. That would really piss me off

Other people might have greenhouses or sheds at the bottom of the garden which would make it difficult to reroute the right of way. Also the residents near the alleyway would have people walking the whole length of their garden to reach the path. It wouldn't work.

As others have said, it's quite normal. My daughters house is in the centre of a terrace, so to put the bins out, she needs to use the shared access through the gates in her neighbours' fences. Also if she has parcel deliveries, they're left at her back door by delivery people who use the shared access to reach it.

He neighbours need to walk along the path in her garden too. It's no big deal. But they all shut the gates.

I wouldn't find this acceptable. It makes your garden pretty much unusable. How can you sit out ther when anyone could potentially walk in? Not to mention fuck knows who could be creeping round your garden & door/windows at night, with a perfectly acceptable excuse. Fuck that for a laugh.

“It makes your garden pretty much unusable.”

Depending on the layout, it really doesn’t when neighbours are considerate, as the vast majority are in this very common setup

“Not to mention fuck knows who could be creeping round your garden & door/windows at night, with a perfectly acceptable excuse”

Actually the terms of the right of access are not that broad. It’s not public access.

Can I just say a word of warning about installing gate closing mechanisms?

The issue can arise with trapping little fingers as the gate can often close with sufficient force to cause damage.

Friend has permanent deformities on the fingers of one hand when a self closing gate crushed her hand

It absolutely doesn't make your garden unusable. My daughter's used hers all summer, and I've joined her for barbecues etc.. No-one's walked through while I've been there, but even if they had, they're known neighbours and it takes 5 seconds to cross those few feet of path next to the house while we're sat on the grass.