Right of Way and legal obligations - what can I do?

Hi all,

I live in an upper conversion and another couple live in the lower flat. There is no access from their garden so they have a right of way through our garden and then down our driveway in order to take their bins out to the street etc.

There is a wall with a gate in it which secures the back of the house and the garden. This is fitted with two locks, a Yale and a mortise for added security, for which we both have keys.

The issue is that this couple consistently leave the gate unlocked and not even closed properly. This means that not only is is not secured from a security point of view, but that it bangs about in the wind (particularly in the winter) and gets damaged. My husband then has to fix it.

I am at a loss as to what to do. I want to play things with a straight bat, as it were and therefore what I really want to know is surely if you have a right of way over someone's land you have an obligation to adhere to certain rules? However, the issue is the attitude of the couple. In normal circumstances, the answer is "just speak to them", I know that, but they are a very odd couple. They are elderly and they are very mean-spirited and I know they are doing it deliberately and that they want a reaction out of us (for example they were dragging their bins around all day Sunday and Monday, doing nothing but taking them backwards and forwards, even though bin day is not until Friday). The hate that was there before became so wrecked that the lock no longer worked and the wood was all warped etc. They were very quick to put notes through our door insisting we fix it. We did, we replaced the whole gate and put mortice lock on. On one occasion when I left for work and forgot to lock it behind me, the wife was all over me the minute I got home because apparantly there was "someone" in the garden (which I find a bit convenient and hard to believe). Nevertheless, we fitted a Yale lock so it would lock automatically behind us. They are now putting the snib on the Yale lock and leaving it to bang about in the wind overnight.

As I understood it, they have a right of way over our land and through our gate, but the gate is ours and therefore a) it is our responsibility to maintain and b) it is up to us whether we lock it or not (or indeed even have a gate) as long as they have a key for access. However, I would expect that they would have an obligation to respect our property and leave the gate as they find it (ie locked), for both security and so it doesn't get damaged.

Oh, we also have a pet (who they hate) and are expecting a child (their attitude has got 100 times worse since we told them we are expecting; haven't spoken to us at all, to the point of ignoring us when we say "hello" in the street/garden etc :eek:) so having the garden secure is pretty important to us.

Any advice on the legalities of this much appreciated