Neighbours using our driveway as a thoroughfare

[Notathoroughfare]

Our neighbour’s house has a front entrance on one street and a rear entrance on our street, which means their drive is directly adjacent to ours and he has a gate at the top of his to access his garden. It’s not a shared driveway. For some reason, they never use their front door and always use the rear as an entrance/exit for them and any guests.

Because his car is massive, it takes up the whole width of his drive, which means anyone entering or leaving their gate has to walk on our driveway and it’s really starting to piss me off. They drag their bins down our drive every week, use our drive to get in and out of their car and if our car isn’t parked on our drive, they will literally just walk straight across.

We did previously ask them not to do this as they were having work done and their workmen kept using our drive to get in and out of NDN’s garden as well as leaving stuff on it and sitting on it to have their lunch. He apologised and it stopped, but increasingly, anyone who visits them will walk up our drive to get to theirs.

We can’t put a fence up because it would mean their driveway was unusable - there’s a wall on the other side of it and their drive is literally only wide enough for their car. This would also be a pretty nuclear option and we don’t want to fall out with them as if we need to do any work to the side of our house, we need to use his sideway.

I really just want to discourage them and their guests using our drive as an extension of theirs. It sounds petty but it’s several times a day and they’ve even been known to go up the middle of our drive and squeeze between the front of our car and our window to get to the gate if our bins are in the way.

There’s no room for planters down the edge of the drive so the only thing I could really think of was creating a small bin store at the top of our drive which is right by their gate. We’re on civil terms with them but not particularly friendly and I’d rather not risk a row because I’m fairly sure he would think we were being unreasonable!

If anyone has any suggestions for deterrents I’d be interested to hear them. We can’t put gates or fences on our drive as there isn’t space. Land mines also not an option.

Put up a fence. If you don’t have the space to put up a fence, this means you don’t really have enough room either to get by with just your own driveway.

You could park your car in your drive, thus blocking it.

Hmmm. Thinking about it, when I get out of my car I have to step onto my neighbour's drive. And to reverse out, because of the shape of the bay that we live on, my car wheels go onto their drive too. I wonder if it annoys them. I don't have a big car either.

If the drives were made rather too narrow for comfort, it's going to happen. I'm not sure why you find it so annoying (and I can get irritable about a lot of things that others don't!)

As the drive is at the back of the house, I totally understand why they don't use their front door.

I'm usually pretty good at visualising peoples parking woes without a diagram, but I'm really struggling with this one 😁

Is the minor irritation of it worth harming neighbourly relations? No matter what you do, it'll be obvious why you've done it. If you otherwise get on well with neighbours and they are nice then I wouldn't be looking to upset the apple cart over something so minor.

Can you park your own car up to the edge of your own drive. If your car is there they can't walk there. If they don't stop get a small fence and put fairy lights up between the posts. Just enough detergent to stop them.

I would put a fence up need it to keep my dogs in..meh if it makes their drive unusable they can get a smaller car. One of the reasons we didn't buy our dream house as there was a right of access which they'd need to use every time the bins went out and that would bug me.

Diagram please. Without one I am going by the mental image I have created - could you put up a short piece of fence that runs just a couple of metres from your house along the boundary (not the entire length of the driveway alongside the entire car). It won't stop them stepping onto your driveway, nor will it stop them parking their car but as it will run down as far as the front end of their car before the car door, it will mean passengers (and visitors) won't be able to fit around the front of their car and so they will need to go around the back of their car to their house. This will be inconvenient for them all an may deter them and make them park at the front

I would park my car on my drive if I were you

Seems like they have scope to widen their drive by taking a bit of land from their garden.

You have tried being nice and got nowhere.

I would start fencing your section off now to avoid creating an informal right of way that ends up become a formal legal right.

If you don't want to put a fence, you could still create a barrier with pot plants, railway sleepers or stones.

I can’t picture this at all, but can’t imagine why you can’t put a fence along the boundary?

What are the drives made of? Some solar posts banged in would be easy, but they are quite passive aggressive.

Fgs grow up is it hurting you chill a bit

Diagram, fence.

Normally I don’t really need a diagram, I just like them, but I can’t picture this! I can picture an irate neighbour trying to wedge his giant car into a too-small driveway though

It’d hack me off too but I fully accept that I am petty re stuff like that.

can you mark the boundary with rocks or logs?

Neeeeeed a diagram please.

This would annoy me.

Are there sensors that will send out a loud aggressive dog barking sound when triggered by movement?

That would be fun watching trespasses jump.

Again, need a diagram, but Im wondering whether since you cannot have a wall between drive, could you have a gate at the top?

You can defo put a fence up. Doesn’t matter if it makes their driveway unusable.

I do empathise as we had a similar problem. One fence panel between us and NDN blew down in storm and they didn’t replace it as it gave them a great shortcut! I was worried about cars getting scratched with all the people traffic, but then one dark evening I got out of my car just as one of them was slinking past and I almost had a heart attack! We put up our own chain until they replaced the fence panel.

Put a fence up to show where the boundary is. If it makes their drive unusable then it's not big enough for their needs. They either widen the drive into their garden or get a smaller car. By allowing them to use your property you are enabling their CF behaviour and setting a future precedent for new owners.

It would annoy me. But I’m a bit of a petty bitch.

@DesdemonaDryEyes

It would annoy me. But I’m a bit of a petty bitch.

Me too

It would definitely annoy me! Assuming I'm picturing it right.

Fence. Who cares about their driveway. They do not care about you or yours!

YANBU. We have a semi detached garage and parking space outside. The garages sit in front of a row of houses and ours is the side closest to the house. My NDN walks in between our car and garage door to access his own garage rather than walking around the cars and it drives me MAD. Accidentally shut the garage door on his head once because I just press the button when I’m in the house without looking…but he shouldn’t have been walking there 🤷🏼‍♀️

OP I’m not sure what you can do apart from some kind of physical boundary. What about raised planters? They feel less antagonistic than a fence?