Hi everyone
First time poster and sorry this is a bit long.
We bought an end terraced house back in March.
During conveyancing we found out that left hand neighbour in attached terrace has right of access through our side gate in order to bring wheelie bins back and forth weekly. No problem at all. She's been lovely, respectful and we've made a lovely friend in her.
Right hand neighbour in detached dormer bungalow, rang our bell one day and said that they wanted to let the window cleaner into our back yard to deal with windows on the side of their property (the house is built right up to the boundary line and actually guttering etc overhangs it and our summer house).
We agreed and expected to go and unlock the gate and let them in. Turns out they had a key to the gate and let themselves into our yard.
I'd just got out of the shower so couldn't act in the moment but chatted to DH about it and we decided to let it go for now.
A few weeks later we were again interrupted on a hot day of sunbathing in the garden with the man letting himself into our yard to let the window cleaners through. But instead of just doing that, he wandered around our yard, stuck his head through the summer house door (where our hot tub is and we are frequently nuddie in) and when I went over to see what was going on, he ignored my obvious annoyance and tried to chat me up about our nice garden, love what you've done with the place etc.
Based on this, we changed the locks (as is reasonable when moving into somewhere new especially as it was previously a rental) and gave LH neighbour a key.
Fast forward to this week.
They tried again to let themselves in our yard.
We were at work but saw that they angrily rang our ring doorbell several times which we ignored.
They knocked on LH neighbour and asked her to let them through which she refused.
They repeatedly came to the door until they eventually found us back from work.
They produced a house deed showing that they have right of way despite our deeds not showing this at all and the vendor stating that only LH neighbour had access. We had them in to be respectful and find a solution but the man became really aggressive and unpleasant so we asked them to leave. They wouldn't leave and so we threatened police. They eventually left.
Turns out vendor had given them a gate key to "be neighbourly" and never knew that they "had rights".
Our conveyancing solicitor says they're not responsible as there's nothing on our deeds to suggest there's any dispute and vendor had stated what he had.
HM Land registry shows all associated documents as only being LH neighbour access.
What is our next step and has anyone else been in this situation?
If they had not overstepped and man hadn't been creepy and abusive we would have facilitated occasional access for maintenance. As it is, I already said I clean their windows and I do..