Garden Access Rights

Norman_Castle

Its very likely they would have found you a bit weird if you had gone out and shouted at them. Its very likely there is an easement allowing "random" people access across your garden if they have a legitimate reason to be there. No requirement to tell you beforehand.

http://www.boundary-problems.co.uk/boundary-problems/easements.html

Jonesya

If the neighbour has a right of access and the route is like the back way to their house and garden then I doubt they need to tell you exactly who is coming or going.

I had a relative with a similar access route cutting across their back garden, it cut across a number of gardens quite close to the houses and it was shared with several houses, it functioned as private footpath used by all the houses. It cut straight across the gardens, so most had a little wall or small fence with a gate, to separate the footpath from the two parts of their garden. It was well defined as a shared access.

Perhaps you could make the neighbour's access route more clearly defined, give them a clear route so they can't stray into your garden?

mr_stripey

Jonesya said:

If the neighbour has a right of access and the route is like the back way to their house and garden then I doubt they need to tell you exactly who is coming or going.

I had a relative with a similar access route cutting across their back garden, it cut across a number of gardens quite close to the houses and it was shared with several houses, it functioned as private footpath used by all the houses. It cut straight across the gardens, so most had a little wall or small fence with a gate, to separate the footpath from the two parts of their garden. It was well defined as a shared access.

Perhaps you could make the neighbour's access route more clearly defined, give them a clear route so they can't stray into your garden?

Yes this was exactly the arrangement in my old house - my first house in fact. It was in a terrace block of four house (or which mine was number 3), For some reason, many years before a wall had been built between 3 and 4 meaning that Number 4 has it's own access via the RHS and No 1,2 and 3 shared access from the left. (This did crop up in the purchase process as the deeds said "our" access was via No. 4 but in practice this was not possible because of the wall). The "path" ran directly behind the terrace, so actually in between the houses and the gardens. Thus I had to walk through No 1 and 2 to get my house. 

Fortunately, we had pretty good relations with the neighbours on all sides and there was never any issues.

TELLIT01

If the access path is at the bottom of the garden you may want to consider putting a fence up nearer the house to obstruct the view, but not restrict their access.