Neighbours driving over our grass. would this bother you?

[Sarah7890]

I wrote a post not very long ago about our neighbours driving over our grass and causing parking issues on the shared driveway we all share between 3 houses. I had decided since then to take a step back and not mention anything and see how it goes. There has been a few incidents which i have let slide but the other morning was my final straw. The night previous i had seen a visitor squeezing past the husbands van and it looked like they were close to my car on the driveway so i waited until the morning to see if there was any thing worth mentioning and the person had zig zagged all along my lawn at the front to get past and i will attach a picture for you.

In the past my husband has always approached them but the other morning i went to speak to him and said it was all getting stupid at how much they are driving on our grass and that it is killing the lawn which it genuinely is. The damage from the weight of the cars is starting to show on the grass because when it is growing the effected areas dont grow as well. I also said to him that the front is what is seen the most and its effecting us. I was firm but nice about the situation and since then we no longer exchange casual hellos when we see eachother at the front of the houses.

Its quite frosty the atmosphere, i know it has only been a few days but there is no love lost. I dont think they are the most respectful of people since moving in 4 months ago there has been more than a few incidents. My question is would this annoy you? Thanks in advance Sarah

Bit difficult to visualise without a pic or diagram, but yes, that would annoy me too. Can you fence it or create some kind of barrier with plant pots or something? Or even plant a hedge?

cant figure out how to attach a picture sorry (sad)

It would definitely bother me. Can you block the way with ornaments, boulders or a small fence?

It would annoy me a lot if a neighbour drove on my grass and ruined it. What did your neighbour say when you approached them about it?

Take a picnic chair and a thermos, sit and have a coffee on their front garden, say you are also being a cf neighbour today!!

I don't understand-why are they driving on the grass-are you blockingbthe drive?

No my car is on our driveway but we are on a shared driveway off the main road which is narrow and you can only fit two cars side by side therefore you are meant to always keep the right hand side for access. They are the end house so whoever is at the end has to reverse the whole way. It looked like he was arriving in his van while the visitor was leaving so they were passing eachother but since the van takes up alot of room the visitor ended up half on our lawn and leaving a very evident zig zag pattern where they had been monovering. To be honest he was not very apologetic at all he is a bit of a wet blanket his wife seems to have more about her. I was surprised at his reaction but i made it clear that i was not happy. I think we are going to have to take away part of the border and add plants but its not the best time of year for it and its something i shouldnt have to do. Otherwise they are going to kill the grass. No win

Yes it would annoy me. Don't dig up the border - just add a little push-in picket fence or something like that. And take photos every time there's damage.

(If you want to post photos here, there's three "brownse" buttons underneath the posting window - if you click on the first you can then find the photo you want to upload.)

They shouldn't drive on your lawn but is the van yours ? You say it takes up a lot of space. If that's the case would it be worth making a gravel border you can use to ease the van over a bit. The problem with car spaces is that they aren't big enough to accommodate a van and opening doors. May be your van even though is in your space isn't leaving enough room for people to open doors and access the space easily.
If this isn't the cause then your neighbours need to respect your property.

The van belongs to the next door neighbours husband usually he parks at the end of the shared driveway in his parking space (which they have aswell as their driveway) but because someone was visiting they needed to pass each other. Does that make sense? its hard to explain in writing me and my husband were in the house with one car on our driveway and his car in the garage so totally out the way as always

It would really really annoy me!

I would put in one of those little picket fences, or get some large rocks and/or plants in plant pots and put them along to they can't drive over the grass.

Sorry, im not very technical i blame old age :( still cant find where to upload the pictures.

I would also get some big rocks, if you plant a border they'll probably just drive over that as well.

I'd put a rock border around your lawn so they can't drive over it.

I'd be putting in some rocks or drive in a wooden post and plant prettily.

OP where it says under the box "choose file", you are given a choice of stuff to upload.

This is difficult - they're entitled to use the driveway, but that doesn't mean they can just drive over your lawn and damage it. On the other hand, it's only a bit of grass and you don't want to be petty. If you are both parking on the same side to allow access further down, why can't you agree to park the cars both on YOUR side of the driveway, so people going past carelessly go onto your neighbour's lawn rather than your lawn? Failing that, you are well within your rights to install a barrier such as a picket fence at the edge of your property. Perhaps you could compromise slightly and install it 6" inside the actual property line, with a gravel edge outside the fence to allow for vehicles driving right at the edge of the driveway.

I'd be fuming. Total lack of respect. I'd put something there so they can't do it like a little fence as someone suggested earlier.

They had problems with people parking on a verge near to my parents' house, and the council planted up the verge with grasses, cordylines and other structural plants. The problem hasn't recurred. Could you do something similar? You're definitely not being unreasonable in asking for this.

A small push in picket fence as mentioned would stop this, they are really cheap and easy to use. Just push it round the border of your grass and this should give your grass a chance to recover, they are really short so you can step over it if needed. Hopefully longer term they will respect your space and you can remove.

This seems to happen so often. A neighbour does something unreasonable and when the affected neighbour politely & quite reasonably mentions something (after having said nothing in the hope that the behaviour would stop), the offending neighbour gets the arse and ends up giving nice neighbour the silent treatment. No apology or anything - just acts like the victim.

My old neighbour didn't bother to even acknowledgement me in fact I got the feeling that the minute I parked up they couldn't get into their house quick enough but it didn't stop them knocking if they need help with something.

We had a neighbor like this. We put down foam with tire shredders. Normal body weight wouldn't crush the foam but a car will. He got upset but it's our property and there are signs. Ultimately he had to pay us for damages.