Neighbour Dispute

PasturesNew

I always go out the back.... it's the way I want to leave/enter the house and the way my 3 adjoining neighbours also do it. The other neighbours use their front, which is their choice.

The front is for formal/coffins; the back door has always been "the way the family come and go", by tradition, in a lot of homes.

I've no formal back door - I am even building an entire extension so I have a back door to actually leave/arrive by!

Mr.Generous

Get a blind and start looking for another house.

melanzana

Can I ask (trying to picture it in my head), if the passageway ends at the back walls of both your houses. You go in left (or right) to your back door and they go vice versa to theirs?

If that is correct, is there anything stopping you from putting up a gate and a fence on YOUR side ie to access your back door?

I would also put a voile panel on the kitchen window permanently. Or that film that allows you to see out but others cannot see in. Doesn't work when the light is on indoors, just to mention!

Maybe I have the layout of the passageway all wrong. OP you might confirm yay or nay. Thanks. I am intrigued!

dippynina

melanzana wrote: »

Can I ask (trying to picture it in my head), if the passageway ends at the back walls of both your houses. You go in left (or right) to your back door and they go vice versa to theirs?

If that is correct, is there anything stopping you from putting up a gate and a fence on YOUR side ie to access your back door?

I would also put a voile panel on the kitchen window permanently. Or that film that allows you to see out but others cannot see in. Doesn't work when the light is on indoors, just to mention!

Maybe I have the layout of the passageway all wrong. OP you might confirm yay or nay. Thanks. I am intrigued!

My neighbour has to go along the front path, along the side of our house, passed the hall window, through a gate, round the corner, pass in front of our kitchen window, then our back door then the dining room and through another gate and then she reaches her back door.
Yeah think I'll need to put something else on the window!

dippynina

PasturesNew wrote: »

If the neighbour has the right - then this would be unlawful. It'd also probably start to count towards "neighbour harrassment" and even "elder abuse"...

If the neighbour has the right of way - she has it - that's it. While gates can be erected etc, they must not prevent access by the said neighbour at all... including making the lock/bolt inaccessible.

That is the way to start a full blown neighbour dispute - and I suspect the old lady's son probably already thinks the OP is "starting to harrass my old mum as they think she can be bullied now she's on her own"

So far, the actions have just been "bullying the old dear", but the OP is clearly heading for outright harrassment!

I'll try not to take offence at that 😊 We had a very good relationship with our neighbour for years. Since her husband passed away, we have looked after her, helped her in the garden and house. Her sons make an appearance once in a while and recently it's them that harass the poor woman as they have ongoing family issues. It's not the first time my husband has had to intervene when they have been shouting at her at her back door. It's the grandchildren that mostly use the path. Can I ask then how you would stop strangers using our path to go through our garden to get to the canal at the bottom of it?

Davesnave

melanzana wrote: »

Can I ask (trying to picture it in my head), if the passageway ends at the back walls of both your houses. You go in left (or right) to your back door and they go vice versa to theirs?

It's probably like many of the terraced houses in the old town near me, with the pathway across the back of the houses, literally outside the back doors.

This does not stop the owners making their gardens, which lie beyond, more private, if they so wish.

OP can be glad the neighbour doesn't do open gardens, like we do here for charity, with well over 100 people traipsing through in an afternoon! :rotfl:

dippynina

PasturesNew wrote: »

I always go out the back.... it's the way I want to leave/enter the house and the way my 3 adjoining neighbours also do it. The other neighbours use their front, which is their choice.

The front is for formal/coffins; the back door has always been "the way the family come and go", by tradition, in a lot of homes.

I've no formal back door - I am even building an entire extension so I have a back door to actually leave/arrive by!

Thanks, so can I confirm you go through your neighbours garden when you do this?

PasturesNew

dippynina wrote: »

Can I ask then how you would stop strangers using our path to go through our garden to get to the canal at the bottom of it?

If it's private, yours and with access only to your neighbour, then a simple "Private" sign of some sort should be enough. Or "No Entry".

People do take notice of signs if they see them - many others have the attitude that if there's no sign it must be all right.

Are you sure there's no public right of way to the canal?

Davesnave

dippynina wrote: »

Can I ask then how you would stop strangers using our path to go through our garden to get to the canal at the bottom of it?

Block that exit off with a lock? prickly bush? fence? w.h.y?

None of us can see your garden, so asking for solutions to questions like that is likely to be very hit & miss.

Geoff1963

Now as far as I'm aware she should only be using the path for taking bins out and for workman etc.

If someone official / qualified told you that, you can ask them why they believe it.

Is there a defined path across the garden ? Could that be fenced in, to form an alley / corridor, then gates put in for you to ( securely ) access your garden beyond ? A hedge on both faces would make it blend in a bit.
I would certainly put up some window foil, and CCTV ; ROA can only be for bona fide visitors.