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Skutter47
Posts: 15 Forumite
Hi All,
My neighbours have a back door that opens into my privately owned yard, one member of the household constantly ignores our polite requests (both verbal and written) to respect our privacy and not use our back yard for access to their house, further they deliberately leave the back gate to our yard open, simply to annoy us. They have a front door, and thus no easement of neccessity to use the yard as access. It is only one visitor to the household, all the others are happy to respect our rights, but their mother refuses and wanders through our yard whenever she visits them, which is often. The arrogance of it is upsetting, as we have asked for no more than our private property to be respected, which is perfectly reasonable.
I have inspected both the title register and plan to their property, it makes no mention at all of any right of way over any neighbouring property, and no specific mention of the back yard at all. Their title plan shows a red outline of their property, and no other markings at all.
Our title register and title plan also make no mention of any right of way and show no other markings other than the property boundaries.
There are two flats in my building, we share the freehold, and the lease states that neither of us may allow anybody to establish a right of way over the property. Neither of us wish them to use the yard.
I am confident that neither the owners nor the tenants have a right of way over the property.
I wish to make certain that no easement by prescription be established over time, and to simply lock the back gate with a padlock and put up a sign stating it is private. My thinking is that this would mean they would have to use legal "force" to enter the back garden, by breaking the lock or scaling the wall and ignoring the sign.
Do you concur? Any other advice? Any pitfalls to this approach?
My neighbours have a back door that opens into my privately owned yard, one member of the household constantly ignores our polite requests (both verbal and written) to respect our privacy and not use our back yard for access to their house, further they deliberately leave the back gate to our yard open, simply to annoy us. They have a front door, and thus no easement of neccessity to use the yard as access. It is only one visitor to the household, all the others are happy to respect our rights, but their mother refuses and wanders through our yard whenever she visits them, which is often. The arrogance of it is upsetting, as we have asked for no more than our private property to be respected, which is perfectly reasonable.
I have inspected both the title register and plan to their property, it makes no mention at all of any right of way over any neighbouring property, and no specific mention of the back yard at all. Their title plan shows a red outline of their property, and no other markings at all.
Our title register and title plan also make no mention of any right of way and show no other markings other than the property boundaries.
There are two flats in my building, we share the freehold, and the lease states that neither of us may allow anybody to establish a right of way over the property. Neither of us wish them to use the yard.
I am confident that neither the owners nor the tenants have a right of way over the property.
I wish to make certain that no easement by prescription be established over time, and to simply lock the back gate with a padlock and put up a sign stating it is private. My thinking is that this would mean they would have to use legal "force" to enter the back garden, by breaking the lock or scaling the wall and ignoring the sign.
Do you concur? Any other advice? Any pitfalls to this approach?
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Comments
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Lock your gate so she can't come in?0
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I'd have had a padlock on it months ago!
If they want access, they'll have to shows rights to it. If they break the lock, they'll be committing criminal damage, trespass and b&e.0 -
If they have a door leading directly into the yard, that suggests they've got some sort of right to go through the door! What's your understanding of the rights they do have to enter your yard?0
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An MS Paint pic would help to visualise, but is there anything stopping you putting a fence up 1ft from their back door?0
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They have a few steps outside their back door which are their property, everything beyond is mine. The title register and plans show no right of way over my property at all.
It's my understanding that if it is not mentioned in the title register or title plan of either property, then no right of way exists.
If anybody knows any differently, I would appreciate opinions on that.0 -
Well Ithaca, that's the kind of thing I am worried about, presumably they have the right to escape out of the back door in the event of a fire, I would obviously not have any qualms about that, and do not wish to do anything illegal and dangerous, I just wish to prevent them from wandering through my garden whenever they feel like it.0
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Another vote for "just lock it".
You might be at risk of her creating a prescriptive easement if you just leave it.
Sooner you put that lock on the better. Then you'll be safe from that risk and she won't be able to enjoy winding you up any longer. Yes - characters like that do derive some sort of perverse enjoyment from doing things like that trying to wind people up (gawdknowswhy but they do:huh::huh:). I guess it's some sort of "power game"?0 -
Hefty padlock.
They clearly have a right to exit their back door to access the 'few steps' which are part of their property.
And I'm sure you would not begrudge them trespassing further into your yard in the case of a fire.
But using your yard for other purposes (going to/fro) is not acceptable.
Either just padlock the gate, or padlock the gate and write them a polite letter explaining.
If the padlock/gate gets broken, call the police (not 999......!)0 -
My neighbours have a back door that opens into my privately owned yard, one member of the household constantly ignores our polite requests (both verbal and written)...
As a starting point, what do they say when you ask them about it?
Do they believe they have a right of way?
If so, what evidence do they have that they have a right of way?
If they have no credible evidence of a right of way, and you can find no evidence of a right of way, I'd just be tempted to padlock the gate.0 -
Do these 'few steps' from their door lead out of your yard? If so can you not redo the fencing so they can get into that door without using your land?0
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