Rear neighbour using right of way

MotherOfDragons

I'll try to keep this brief but apologies if I go on a bit!
I own an end of terrace house with an adjoining alley (on our deeds) which gives access to the back gardens of our house plus 5 neighbours. It has a gate with a code which (in theory) only we and those neighbours know.
On the other side of this alley are the back gardens of the next road. Those houses are all semis so all were built with side access to the gardens and don't have gates onto the shared alley.
The neighbour immediately behind us has built a side return into their side access and has now put a gate into our alley so they still have access to their back garden.
We have a few concerns... Increased traffic in the alley, reduced security for us and neighbours, but mainly the sheer bloody cheek of it!
Can we insist they remove the gate? They sure can't just remove their perfectly good access and just use someone else's instead can they?!
Thanks if you made it this far!!!

Aylesbury_Duck

You can't insist they remove the gate but you can insist they don't trespass on the shared alleyway, therefore rendering their gate useless. Is it worth the potential argument though?

theonlywayisup

As above. You can't insist they remove the gate but you "in theory" can prevent them using it if the access is into your land.

A pic may help

Fire_Fox

MotherOfDragons wrote: »

I'll try to keep this brief but apologies if I go on a bit!
I own an end of terrace house with an adjoining alley (on our deeds) which gives access to the back gardens of our house plus 5 neighbours. It has a gate with a code which (in theory) only we and those neighbours know.
On the other side of this alley are the back gardens of the next road. Those houses are all semis so all were built with side access to the gardens and don't have gates onto the shared alley.
The neighbour immediately behind us has built a side return into their side access and has now put a gate into our alley so they still have access to their back garden.
We have a few concerns... Increased traffic in the alley, reduced security for us and neighbours, but mainly the sheer bloody cheek of it!
Can we insist they remove the gate? They sure can't just remove their perfectly good access and just use someone else's instead can they?!
Thanks if you made it this far!!!

Welcome to MSE.

No you cannot dictate where other people fit a gate in a boundary that they own.

"Mainly the sheer bloody cheek of it" is a rabbit-hole to needless and costly neighbour disputes. Your rear neighbour may erroneously believe that the rear alley is public land as they often are, or they may believe that they have right of way through a privately-owned alley. It is not cheeky to be mistaken.

The obvious is to communicate with the rear neighbour and to change the code on the gate. You could communicate face-to-face, by informal note or formal letter.

If we are misunderstanding can you please clarify we, our and us. I think you (and your partner?) own the side access alley, not sure if you (and your five terrace neighbours?) own the rear alley.

Davesnave

It should be an easy matter to change the code on the gate, but it sounds as if you have a 'mole' among your neighbours who has passed it on. Perhaps they and the semi folk are pals and the gate also affords access to each other's houses as well?

Do you own any part of the shared access, which you describe in your heading as a 'right of way?' i.e. is any of it inside the red line on your title plan?

TheCyclingProgrammer

If you own the land then you are entitled to take steps to prevent people from trespassing on it so long as you do not prevent its use as a right of way by those who are entitled to use it as such.

In practice this could be as simple as telling the owner of the rear house not to use the right of way on the first instance. If they use it anyway then you would need to erect a barrier on your land behind their gate.

Do you actually own the alleyway to the rear? If it provides access to the rear of each garden then I would imagine you do not, I would have thought the boundary of each house extends to the alleyway for each house so you all own part of it (with the end terrace owning the side alley hence the need for a right of way for adjoining owners). What do your deeds show? You can only take steps to stop them trespassing on the land you own.

rach_k

Have you spoken to them? Perhaps they assumed it was a public path (not sure if that's possible with you having a locked gate but people can be incredibly stupid when it suits them!). I'd go and knock to ask them in a friendly way who gave them permission to use the private access.

Mistral001

If you own the land in the alley you could build a fence or other barrier just in front of their gate. I have actually seen this done where a developer was the one who put up the fence. The large palisade fence is still there about ten years after it was erected, so obviously there has been no movement on either side The fence is an eyesore on the whole neighbourhood.


I think you should be firm and remind the people who put up the fence that the right of way is only for access to the property on your side of the alley way. You might want to check that that is in fact the case legally before making an approach.

MotherOfDragons

Thanks everyone for your replies! We will try to get this resolved amicably as we do/did have a reasonable relationship with the neighbour and have no desire to enter into a dispute if it's not needed. The alley is on our (my husband and me) deeds and right of way is granted to several of the terraced houses. It seems as though we've brought this on ourselves a bit - we allowed the neighbour access for some works but then they have made the arrangement permanent without further discussion.

It is possible it's a misunderstanding but it feels unlikely. It feels like a "give them an inch and they'll take a mile" situation. Husband has sent a message asking about the situation and inviting a discussion so let's see......

Thanks again for all your replies!

Mistral001

MotherOfDragons wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your replies! We will try to get this resolved amicably as we do/did have a reasonable relationship with the neighbour and have no desire to enter into a dispute if it's not needed. The alley is on our (my husband and me) deeds and right of way is granted to several of the terraced houses. It seems as though we've brought this on ourselves a bit - we allowed the neighbour access for some works but then they have made the arrangement permanent without further discussion.

It is possible it's a misunderstanding but it feels unlikely. It feels like a "give them an inch and they'll take a mile" situation. Husband has sent a message asking about the situation and inviting a discussion so let's see......

Thanks again for all your replies!

I think you need to be firm with neighbours in these situations. Tell them the reasons that you want them to remove the gate or not to use it. Your reasons could be privacy, or crime prevention, or so that a right of way through this gate is not established through continuous use. I would seek legal advice on the matter so as you to know exactly what your rights are before contacting the neighbour. Even if the solicitor tells you nothing you do not already know, if the neighbour does become resistant to your request, you can tell them that you have sought legal advice on the matter. That way they will know that you are taking the matter seriously.

Davesnave

It takes 20 years for a right of way to be created by prescription. This thread rings many bells for me. In the scenario I was involved with, I was the person in the semi-dee.:o

However, I consulted all the owners of the properties in the shared pedestrian access, which wasn't gated. They were fine with it, especially as many of them knew me or my OH. We didn't consult the (corporate) owners of the strip we had to cross to access it though!


In those days, it was relatively easy to get a young, keen solicitor to visit, so she was our witness to the date when the gate was installed, literally the day after completion.

That rear access served us excellently. Because of the geography, it cut a whole 5 minutes off the walk into town. Like a lot of these little lanes, it ended up largely disused, so it was me who used to spray off the weeds annually.

We sold the house with the access in place, by then a proper RoW. The corporate owners of the access strip probably have no idea, or any interest in it being there now.