Neighbor throwing trash in the alley between us

gilbutre

Just to be clear the alley in the picture lies between our "houses" (same overall building divided into separate accomodations) and leads, through a locked door that we can both open, to a corridor with one door to a storeroom in my house and the same in their house. At the end of it, there's a door to my garden but no access to their garden.

I assume neither of us can throw trash in that passage if the other isn't OK with it. I already talked to them about it and they stopped for a couple weeks, only to resume doing it. Now I know it's not a lot of trash but it looks ugly and it does bother me every time I pick through the window (which I do a lot).

Is there anything I can do about it at this point?

NameUnavailable

Chuck it back over the wall?

marcia_

 Yup agree just put it back over the wall. 

_Penny_Dreadful

gilbutre said:

Just to be clear the alley in the picture lies between our "houses" (same overall building divided into separate accomodations) and leads, through a locked door that we can both open, to a corridor with one door to a storeroom in my house and the same in their house. At the end of it, there's a door to my garden but no access to their garden.

I assume neither of us can throw trash in that passage if the other isn't OK with it. I already talked to them about it and they stopped for a couple weeks, only to resume doing it. Now I know it's not a lot of trash but it looks ugly and it does bother me every time I pick through the window (which I do a lot).

Is there anything I can do about it at this point?

Are you 100% sure it's them and not litter blowing in from the street or when the bins are collected?  Unless you've witnessed your neighbour tossing litter into the alley I wouldn't bag it up to put back on their side.  I would probably just clear it up myself and get a better hobby that curtain twitching.  

Abbafan1972

Do you know it’s them doing it and not the wind blowing the rubbish about. Rubbish and leaves always  blow from further down the road and I always have to clean it up regularly, but I know it’s not my neighbour chucking it there. 

I would have to weed it as well. Our shared path between our neighbour gets weeds coming up and I always do it and put weed killer down, as I know she won’t do it. She doesn’t cut her back lawn half the time, so she’s not going to be weeding (she gets one of her little minions to do it once in a blue moon). 

ThisIsWeird

Hi Gilbutre.
I was going to suggest the same as Abbafan - thoroughly de-weed, and brush out that alleyway. Even jetwash or otherwise clean the slabs too, if you can bear it. That might, in itself, be enough to make it stop.
If the neighbour (hopefully) appears at any point, say summat innocently-bemused/exasperated like, "I hope tidying this will stop folk chucking their rubbish down here - can you believe some folk, eh?!" You could even add, "If you see anyone doing this, could you have a word, please, or let me know?"
If it continues, and you can evidence it was them, then a 'disappointed' approach; "Awww, maaaan - I didn't think that you were doing this, but I just saw you from my window. Why, man?" Use whatever term of address fits best!

bouicca21

That sort of litter regularly appears in our (similar) communal area.  I just pick it up and put it in a bin.

Exodi

The picture was disappointing after reading the opening post, I thought there would be washing machines and torn up sofa's discarded down there.

As others have said, I regularly get the odd bit of paper or packaging blow up on to my drive, I usually just put it in the bin rather than go on a crusade trying to find the perpetrator, life's too short.

Do you actually have any way of telling it was your neighbour, or are you just assuming it was because you share an alley and you know it wasn't you? I mean the rubbish is literally paper and card, it could have blown from a different street for all you know.

And also as others have said, it's inconsistent to be precious about a waste envelope in the shared alley, but have no issue with the alley being overgrown with weeds.

Abbafan1972

It gets very windy here sometimes as we’re quite high up. Rubbish regularly blows up our side entry that’s shared. I just pick it up and put it in the bin. Asda is down the road and quite often the rubbish is Asda receipts lol. 

ThisIsWeird

Ah, re-reading the OP's OP, I see that he has tackled the neighbour over this in the past, and that it seemingly stopped for a while. So that puts paid to my 'innocent' approach

Gilbutre, are you sure it's your neighbour? When you asked them to stop before, did you also ask "Why, ooohhh gaaawd, WHY?!".

Are these Freehold houses or LH Flats? Who is shown as the 'owner' of that passageway - chances are it'll be shown on the deeds as belonging to one property, with the other having a RoW over it. Any idea? And what else do your - and their - deeds say about it - that it needs to be kept in good order/shared maintenance, etc? Read them closely.

And, do you have Legal Protection in your house insurance?

I still think a damned good de-weed and clean is the start of any resolution process, then backed up with whatever is required. This could be a further appeal to the miscreant - provided you are certain it's them - and ask - repeatedly - why they do it. Askaskask until they give an answer. Oh, and have your phone set to record during any conversation...

You have a good view of the passageway from that window - you could set up a discrete inside camera to cover it, masking off anything beyond the top of the neighbour's wall - ie, include the wall top, perhaps an inch or so of their drive, and they'll still have 'privacy' (so no CCTV signs required), but anything coming over from their side should be captured. If anything appears, go through your recording in large jumps until the item isn't present, and then FF until you see it appear...

Read your deeds and see what it says about shared responsibilities there. Call up your LegProt for advice and guidance.

But, clean up that alleyway, and your own weeds too - show that you are actually concerned about tidiness. :-)

Albermarle

The picture was disappointing after reading the opening post, I thought there would be washing machines and torn up sofa's discarded down there.

Yes I was expecting at least an old mattress.

More seriously I could hazard a guess that the neighbour is maybe just a bit careless when putting rubbish in their bin.