Terraced house shared access?

[whichwaywhere]

Anyone have any experience of this? Gates in each fence so neighbours can bring their bins etc through to the side alley.

I once lived in a house where our only access was through a neighbours garden.

Its not for those who want absolute privacy and you have to get on with your neighbours

Yeah Victorian terraces with bisected gardens are pretty much the only housing where I live. What would you like to know?

I once looked at a house like that, my concern was people not closing the gate properly, so I would probably have fitted some sort of closing spring to it.

It's not ideal for privacy or security but most terraced houses have some sort of compromise. We ended up buying one with a small attached back yard and then a garage and garden the other side of a wide public rear access road (meaning we never use the garden because it means locking the house, going out of the gate, locking that gate, unlocking the gate to the garden, you get my drift!)

Thank you. I wanted to know how intrusive it actually is? The estate agent has been non-committal about the neighbours, and I guess you can't guarantee who you'll get in the future.

Honestly it's never been a problem because that's all we've ever known really. The only time we'd see people walking past is when we're in the dining room or in the garden. If your access alley way doesn't have a lockable gate that can pose a security risk, but you just have a good lock on your shed. It can be noisy on bin day if you're at the end and have 4 other houses drag there bins past your back window, but bin day's noisy anyway and lots of people keep their bins out the front because it's less bother. The biggest problem we face is building work access. We looked into getting a side return extension but the cost for craning the digger over the tops of the houses was HUGE! The only neighbour who we regularly come across is our directly next door neigbour because our kitchens face each other, so we can see each other doing the washing up! 🤣

I had a bisected garden, years ago, in my first house. It wasn't an issue as it was a small path separating a courtyard garden 15ft long from the house, from the main garden (that consequently we didn't use much). Our no hassle neighbours only used it weekly for bins. It depends on where the path is located and how much privacy you have. Your neighbours might get replaced with totally unreasonable people who use it daily for visitors, parties, builders, kids to play in, think worse case scenarios. Personally I'd avoid.

Depends if you’re the house that facilitates access or if you’re the one gaining access. I lived in one of these houses and always felt like was intruding when passing through the neighbour’s garden. For that reason I kept the bins in the front garden.

neighbours were always more than accommodating and kept saying not to worry about it, but I always felt weird. Only really used it for tradesmen etc in the end.

Interesting comments. It is a row of Victorian terraces. There is an open alley way in the middle. So if the houses on one side of the alley are a, b, c, d, e , then homeowner 'a' can go through b, c, d, e to get to alley.

The gates are at the top of the garden built into the fences, so neighbour would pass just outside kitchen window with his bin.

Avoid all shared access. I had a great neighbour I shared access with but then she moved and someone awful came they made my life really really hard.
I also had a friend the same thing happened to with access to the back of her house. The new owners turned nasty and it all went to court. She won but it ended up costing tens of thousands.
I wouldn’t share any access with anyone. Even a shared drive. Absolutely never.

Do you mean the neighbours have a right of way across other neighbours gardens to get access to the shared alley or an alley that has gates from each garden directly to the alley?
If the latter, I lived in a Victorian terrace when I was young which had an alley that a few houses could access from their gardens, no problems that I recall.
I've also just moved from a semi detached house that had a shared alley with nextdoor, again no problems, we had an agreement that we wouldn't block or store anything in the alley, lived there for 20+ years, absolutely fine

Neighbours have right of way across each others garden to shared alley.

With a Victorian terrace the bisected garden is the least of your worries! Try the lack of parking, downstairs bathroom, drafts, bastard freezing single skin kitchen/bathroom, galley kitchen with no space for a dishwasher no matter how hard you try. And where the hell does all the brick dust come from?!

And the front door opening right into your front room, and not a single wall is straight 🤣

We lived in a terrace like this years ago. We were the second to last house. We made sure to never look in peoples windows on the way past, never had any issues in the 5 years we lived there.

@BellaBella38 I feel like I have triggered you! 😂
Bathroom is on the top floor (3 storey), and there is a driveway- but yes, kitchen space is an issue and front door opens into lounge.

End of terrace here. So middle two neighbours have rights of access across garden. Our experience has only been positive, including shared maintenance costs for path/gate and actually feeling a bit safer, especially when on holiday/away as very easy for neighbours to keep an eye. We have small children and free range chickens and never had a problem with gates being left open.

Our neighbours (past and present) have been lovely though. Would recommend trying to meet them before you move in. It's shared access not shared garden so there's little scope for extreme disruption however as PP say, if you live next to arseholes - anything is possible! However, if you do live next door to arseholes in a terraced house you're sharing walls with them, whatever happens!

I wouldn't like this, also know friends who had the perfect neighbours in this situation who moved, replaced by nightmare neighbours with a big dog that they allowed to walk through the gardens off lead. Actually, I would absolutely hate it.

One of my btl has shared access through an alley. There is a combination lock on gate and my tenants/me have the code and so do neighbours. Never had any issues at all. Gate kept locked most of the time unless one of the 2 houses wants to wheel bike or pushchair through. Then locked again. I suppose it depends on how reliable both parties are in keeping lock on gate.

@whichwaywhere Na I think I'm too old for triggering! Most Victorian terrace problems are just life and you get on with it. Except the bathroom which during a cold snap will go down to 8°, but the rest of the year it's fine. And do I secretly dream of the day we're rich enough to afford a house big enough for a dishwasher... hell yes! 🤣

Yes. Lived in a small row of terraced houses. Neighbours had access through our back garden and round the side of our end of terrace next door neighbours to get to the kerb. The only trouble we ever had was with our next door neighbour (end of terrace) - when we put our house on the market she asked if she could buy the access of us - but that would have involved the rest of the row of houses also agreeing. We declined but she got very arsey about it. Tip: don’t buy the house if you mind your neighbours walking down your driveway to the kerb.

I live in a terrace like this. My neighbour has access across our garden, to the entry between us and our other neighbour. It's annoying when he puts his bin out at 6am, the entry runs under our bedroom, and it's sometimes a bit of a surprise when you're washing up and he walks past the kitchen window. Very annoying when he had workmen who thought they could use our garden for their fag breaks and to store their tools. Mostly the neighbours are generally considerate though. We have a gate at the end of the entry that is locked with a Yale lock so only the three houses with access can get in. It's quite secure. We've all been here a long time so know to shut the gate after if we've needed to prop it open for any reason.

If only you could guarantee your neighbours were quiet, respectful and unobtrusive!

OP if you're saying neighbour(s) pass your kitchen window with bins, then it's a hard no from me!

You can say that for any where though. You can have nightmare neighbours in detached houses just as much as terraced. Most people living in terraces are respectful because they can also hear/see you too.

You never really know until you live there, because it will depend on your neighbours and how they use it.

These houses are cheaper for a reason.

If you can get into the mindset of feeling that your back garden is pretty much the same as your front with open rights of access then you will have no issues. If you are the type who wants to get possessive about "your territory and space" then it's probably not for you.