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Original poster

Neighbours using our driveway as a thoroughfare

173 replies

Notathoroughfare · 24/01/2022 15:18

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. Grin

OP posts:
tillytoodles1 · 25/01/2022 12:02

Our ex-neighbour was petty like that. The drive was narrow and we had to step out of the passenger side onto his drive, then walk around the car to get to our front door. He put up a fence and we had to extend our drive sideways and take up most if our front garden.

godmum56 · 25/01/2022 12:04

@tillytoodles1

Our ex-neighbour was petty like that. The drive was narrow and we had to step out of the passenger side onto his drive, then walk around the car to get to our front door. He put up a fence and we had to extend our drive sideways and take up most if our front garden.
oh boo hoo
godmum56 · 25/01/2022 12:07

@Notathoroughfare

Diagram.

There is no space whatsoever between the drives. Both drives are gravel/paving.They can’t get their car through their gate because it’s too big (minibus type of vehicle) and their house is a terrace directly on the pavement at the front with double yellows on the road so they can’t park there.

but this is not your problem....finding them a solution again not your problem.
Seeline · 25/01/2022 12:07

@Leftbutcameback

Hang on - why don't the visitors just go in through the front door? Isn't that the obvious answer? My mum had a similar situation in the town she used to live in, but the front door was still available for use, just not the usual one.
I assume as the house fronts onto road with yellow lines, no-one can park there so they come round the back to park in the OPSs road.
BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 25/01/2022 12:11

@tillytoodles1

Our ex-neighbour was petty like that. The drive was narrow and we had to step out of the passenger side onto his drive, then walk around the car to get to our front door. He put up a fence and we had to extend our drive sideways and take up most if our front garden.
I fail to see the problem. You needed to use your land to extend your drive to make it more useable for you 🤷‍♀️
FryingpanintoFire · 25/01/2022 12:20

Our ex-neighbour was petty like that. The drive was narrow and we had to step out of the passenger side onto his drive, then walk around the car to get to our front door. He put up a fence and we had to extend our drive sideways and take up most if our front garden.

This is a joke post isn't it? Isn't it??

MountainAshley · 25/01/2022 12:24

Parking diagrom of the week award goes to @Leftbutcameback for that spectacular diagram with the fish in the pond.

MountainAshley · 25/01/2022 12:24

diagram*

Snow1n · 25/01/2022 12:25

@tillytoodles1 so YOU had to make changes to YOUR property to make it fit how YOU used it - not your neighbours problem at all 🙄

MountainAshley · 25/01/2022 12:25

I tagged the wrong person too. I think this is not my day for posting! That was meant to be diagram of the week award goes to the OP.

Ladyof · 25/01/2022 12:35

Get a ring doorbell, then tell them it alerts your phone each time someone goes on the drive and you are fed up of it so can they stop haha.

WarmWinterSun · 25/01/2022 12:40

I think this is a bit petty and I would not damage my relationship with a neighbour over it.

MilduraS · 25/01/2022 12:45

@tillytoodles1

Our ex-neighbour was petty like that. The drive was narrow and we had to step out of the passenger side onto his drive, then walk around the car to get to our front door. He put up a fence and we had to extend our drive sideways and take up most if our front garden.
There's a wall between ours and NDN to our left. When I'm in the passenger seat I just hop out onto the pavement before DH reverses back onto the drive. We'd widen our drive but it's a mess and we don't have the funds.
NowEvenBetter · 25/01/2022 12:47

It’s not petty to not want people using your property. The neighbour is not concerned about neighbourly relations.
Like a lot of threads on MN this can be resolved by telling the person to stop, then, if they don’t, take steps to make them stop no theatrics, no ‘confrontation’, just common sense.

ginghamstarfish · 25/01/2022 13:02

Sorry but I don't get that diagram, how are the nbs guests going past your window? Anyhow yes they are CFs and hope you can put a stop to it. Shared driveways are a terrible idea, and not sure I'd contemplate buying a house with one unless there was room to put up a fence or whatever.

StarbucksSmarterSister · 25/01/2022 13:06

He put up a fence and we had to extend our drive sideways and take up most if our front garden.

Which is exactly what you should have done.

OP tell the CFs to get a smaller car. Grin

nomoneytreehere · 25/01/2022 13:08

I honestly think you sound mental being bothered by this. But I live in a detached house with no shared drive so don't have to deal with it and accept I therefore have a different perspective.

PattyPan · 25/01/2022 13:09

@BalladOfBarryAndFreda

I’m not sure why they have a large car is relevant anyway, owning one isn’t illegal. Obviously it doesn’t give the OP’s neighbour the right to spill over onto her property but the reason for ownership is by the by. They have it, it doesn’t fit in their designated parking area.
No, but if it’s because of a wheelchair user then most people might be inclined to be a bit more tolerant and there might not be as much the neighbours can do.
Leftbutcameback · 25/01/2022 13:23

@pattyPan good point.

Warblerinwinter · 25/01/2022 13:31

@tillytoodles1

Our ex-neighbour was petty like that. The drive was narrow and we had to step out of the passenger side onto his drive, then walk around the car to get to our front door. He put up a fence and we had to extend our drive sideways and take up most if our front garden.
When you bought the house did you not think about this and factor in that hte drive was narrow and you’d have to extend it into your garden? I did when I moved. Most drives bout before 1970s are very narrow, too narrow for todays cars. You can’t just claim rights to use someone else’s land and then call them petty becuase you didn’t either didn’t think it through before you bought or are too tight with your money to solve it using your own land when you realised.
KosherDill · 25/01/2022 13:38

@FelicityPike

Nope fuck that…fence. If it’s entirely on your side then nothing they can do about it, their car doesn’t fit their runway? Tough. (Maybe talk to them and tell them to stop trespassing on your property first mind you.)

Agree. I'd just do the fence.

Santahasjoinedww · 25/01/2022 13:39

Op get it sorted or cf ndn and half of mn will have you setting up patio furniture for them to enjoy your garden also.

Littlescottiedog · 25/01/2022 14:31

Took me a long while of studying that diagram, but I think I understand now. The road is on the right-hand side and neighbours' visitors walk up your drive and along your front wall to get to the gate. Gotcha.

Definitely put a fence up. Nothing else will stop them. It doesn't have to be all the way down, just long enough to go past the end of your car, to make walking up between your cars a dead end and they'll learn soon enough.

If your neighbour has that other massive bit of drive but can't get their car in, they should just get rid of the gate. But you at least can put a fence in and it's then their issue, as it should be anyway.

LittleMissTake · 25/01/2022 17:42

You have tried asking nicely.

Look after your own interests and put a fence up.
They can widen their drive by knocking down the wall and creating parking at the end of their garden.

Do not sleepwalk into allowing them to establish a right of way over your drive.

MoonGeek · 25/01/2022 18:00

Be very careful about this as after a certain amount of time it becomes a right of way. (It's a long time, 10 years?)

If you need work doing along the side wall then do the work, then put up the fence as the final part of that work.

It seems a small issue but you need to be aware of complications like damage to your vehicle and if someone were to slip and hurt themselves. And the right of way issue.

It's not petty IMO.