New neighbour wants to own the entry?

[danilyon]

Hi,

A new neighbour bought the house next to us about 3 weeks ago. She knocked and introduced herself and said she wanted to pop around the following week to talk about the back gardens. She came round and spoke about putting a fence in the back garden between our house and hers, which is fine as it's something we've been meaning to do but not had the money for. She also asked about putting a gate on the entryway that runs between our house, which is also fine with us.

She then went on to say that she would sort all of this out and that she would like to legally own the entryway that runs between our houses and that she would maintain the entryway. Our house is a terraced house in a row of 4 and our house and the neighbours are in the middle. Above the entryway is one of her bedrooms and her bathroom I think. The entryway is shared between us both and as far as my hubby and I are aware the boundry line runs straight down the middle of entryway. It is the only access we both have to our back gardens. When she mentioned getting her solicitor to send us the paperwork to have a read through hubby made a few non-commital comments but I think she thinks it's a go from us.

We've had no paperwork from any solicitor as of yet, but after me and hubby have had a chat (obviously couldn't do it whilst she was here), we are wondering why would she want to have ownership of the entryway? Obviously a part of our problem would be if she fell out with us for whatever reason and denied access as it's our only access to the back garden? Also what would happen when we sold our house - we think this could hinder a sale if we agreed and told the new owners that actually the neighbour owns the entryway?

I'm worrying what to say to her now as we are not keen to sign anything to give her the entryway completely. We only use the entryway to take the wheelie bins from the back garden out to the front on collection day anyway so it's not like we have all kinds of people coming round the back to see us etc. Does anyone have any advice on what we could say to her? Obviously we don't want to 'sour' relations with her because we are refusing to give her the entryway legally.

Any advice would help. Thanks! :)

Entry-gate!

Great news! At least you can relax in the knowledge that you've made it clear to her solicitors, so she can't later try to claim you've promised her x, y or z. Hopefully her solicitors will now give her a reality check and charge her for the privilege

Good luck with the rest of the pregnancy - do come back and let us know when you've had the little bundle of joy

Oh - thank you for the update.

Sorry to hear you have been in hospital.

P.s. I do not think you have heard the last of your neighbour yet.

Thank you for the update. Sorry to hear you have been in hospital, feel a bit mean now looking for updates. Hope all is well.

Dani - really glad you checked out ok. Feet up now, love! Come back with the important announcement via hubby's dongle
(I imagine her solicitor is totally sympathetic to your position re: the entry. Sounds as though she's developing next door for rent or re-sale?)

Well just a little update. Firstly I had my 2nd daughter on 30th June and we are both well, blood pressure seems to have returned to normal. Thank you for your well wishes!

Secondly, I think our loopy neighbour has started hijacking our black wheelie bin(s)! We still aren't back in our house (will be in the next week or two though). A few weeks ago our black wheelie bins went missing, I searched high and low for them and even had a sneak peak in next doors back garden - no sign of them. Builders have left plenty of rubbish in the garden all bagged up so we need to start trying to get rid of it before we move back in. Was a bit miffed off at skanky bin robbers, especially after I read we may have had to pay for a new bin, but luckily I was able to order one for free and the council dropped it off and put it in our back garden for us. Hubby went round to our house on Wednesday just gone and went into the back garden via the gateless entry and there, in loopy neighbours back garden, was 3 black wheelie bins (2 were ours and one was hers). Obviously hubby took our two bins back and filled those and our new black bin with rubbish ready for collection this coming Monday. Fast forward to yesterday and hubby was back up there doing work on our house again. You can see through the entry into our back a little bit as your walking towards the house and there were black bin bags, some split, over the floor near the outhouse. Hubby said some cheeky twunt had emptied the brand new bin of all the rubbish and taken the new black wheelie bin. Now, am I wrong in thinking that it is very likely that the loopy neighbour has possibly taken our new bin since we took the other two back? Hubby says we can't assume it's her, but when the other two bins mysteriously turned up in her back garden when there was no sign of them when I looked there before ordering a new bin, I say that we can.

Maybe she's trying to prove that this is what happens when you don't agree to your neighbours crazy ideas get a gate for the shared entry or have a fence?

She sounds erm...unhinged. Can you keep the bins inside the house and take them out on bin day?

Paint your house number on the bins, in very large number with bright paint! Shes really really odd.

Hahaha, a bin lady! She is getting worse and worse as time goes on!

Don't open any formal dispute with her, though, as you have to declare all of those in any future sale. However, if she sells before you do, that would bite her harder than you (as you would hopefully be able to tell any buyers that madwoman is long gone).

Oh, glad this thread is back. Congratulations on new little girl.

Yes, yes, to painting numbers on them - all of them ha ha ha Or skull & crossbones or "Beware. Dead Animals in bin". You could have fun. I hope so as otherwise she sounds extremely tedious.

Congratulations on the new baby.

Sadly, I knew she'd be back. But I have to confess I do love a mad neighbour story having so many of them of my own.

Like everyone says, paint your bins. The bin store sounds a great idea too.

I wouldn't be bothered about the impact the dispute might have on a future sale. My neighbour from hell brought this up to ramp up her bullying and try to prevent us doing anything about her.

If it does escalate and you need to speak to the council or take legal action go ahead and do it. Hope it doesn't get to that, but don't be afraid.

Neighbour disputes happen all the time. I've only seen one newspaper story where a new buyer tried to get money off the purchase price retrospectively by complaining that the seller hadn't declared a previous dispute.

The judge threw it out because he considered the dispute to be resolved and so the sellers weren't obliged to record it.

Congratulations! So glad you came back for an update and that your DD has arrived safely.
Neighbour sounds like she's totally barking, first she was after your entry, now it's your bins. I hope if you have any pets you've had them microchipped!

Seen our new bin today - guess what house number is on it?! She isn't in at the moment but I am debating whether or not to go around and let her know we are aware of her bin robbing antics, especially as the rubbish that was in there was emptied over our back garden. Should I have a chat with her? Write her a letter? Just ignore the crazy witch? Seriously, I am so annoyed right now - at least I got to say I told you so to hubby

on your behalf.
I think you should write her (recorded delivery) so that you have a paper trail. take the bin back and decorate it unsightly with your number. maybe give her the number of the council so she can order a new bin herself lazy bitch

Write to her - enclose receipt or order form from the council plus the phone number so that she knows where she can buy one of her own .

Write to her and cc her solicitor

How many bins does this woman want? I am a bit confused as to whether she wants one (the new one), two (the two old ones) or three (all of them).

You could wrong-foot her by saying she can keep the sodding new bin, and you will keep the other two, but you will report her for flytipping if she continues this pissing about. Have you taken pictures?

Put the stress on her emptying rubbish over your back garden, as that's a completely uncivilised thing to do.

Reclaim your bins and keep them locked so she can't steal them. She sounds unhinged. I agree with pulp, it's flytipping.

take her rubbish out, paint over her number and lock the bin up then go round and have a serious word with the daft mare, i think you'll need to shout a lot bit.

Definately a nut job there! Have you moved in yet?

Poor you.

Can you chain the bins so she can't take them?

Have a word with her. Follow it up with a letter telling her not to enter your property without your permission. Don't accuse her of trespass, theft or damage. Keep it calm.

Sadly, she'll probably ignore you and carry on.

I stopped my neighbour coming into my garden by installing a security camera and writing to inform her of it and reminding her of my previous request for her not to enter my property.

The realisation that we would have proof stopped her little visits and the damage. She carried on upsetting us in other ways though.

I think our camera cost about £200 which was quite cheap. That was because it was designed for indoor use but we could prop it on the windowsill facing out and still capture her unlovely presence. Could you do that? It had sound too. It was movement-triggered and we linked it to the PC.

Trespass isn't a criminal offence but criminal damage and theft is so talk to the police. The Met has Safer Neighbourhood Teams - don't know if that's just a London thing - but your police will have something similar.

They were very helpful and invited her to attend the police station for a chat. She didn't turn up and hadn't done anything they could arrest her for but the threat pulled her up.

She did make a formal complaint about the two officers who spoke to her though. Loon. It didn't get anywhere.

I feel very sorry for you. The way to deal with these people is to close them down after every incident so they eventually run out of things to do. It's tedious and depressing though.

Good luck and enjoy your daughters.

Oh, I'm a bit confused. Are the bins she's taken clearly marked as yours? Suppose it would be okay to accuse her, in that case.

Do talk to the police. Sadly, they won't nick her for dustbin larceny but they will tell you what you can do.

Thanks for the replies.

Nocake -

I've written her a very composed letter after redrafting many times and posted it through her letter box. She's not been round yet to discuss said letter so god knows. Unfortunately my hubby didn't think to take any pictures. We aren't so bothered about the taking of the bin but the emptying of the rubbish on our garden and I have stressed this in the letter. We moved back in mid-August.

WorzsalMummage - She keeps her black bin locked in the outhouse, which is where we think she put our bins when she first took them as there was no sign of them in either back garden, which is why we ordered a new bin in the first place. Unfortunately this means we can't take the bin back from her.

mrslevy - The bins that we found in her back garden did have our number on yes and were clearly marked as ours. The new one however didn't yet have anything on it, as the house was completely empty and we had no left over paint. Hubby did go up the next day with some fresh paint and was intending to paint our number on the bin before he did some painting but obviously said bin was not there. There was no way that other people would have known it was there though, as you could only see it if you came through the entry way and into the back garden. Plus I simply refuse to believe that someone would come in off the street and empty a wheelie bin completely of it's rubbish to then cart it off again. I could maybe believe that more if it was empty but it was full to the brim and it is just too much of a co-incidence.