right of access

[shiny123]

Hello, i live in an end terrace house and my neighbours who live in the middle house have right of access through my back garden. this was not much of a problem at first, but now it appears to be in constant use and not just by them. when they have visitors to their home, other family members or friends etc, they all just come through the back. today the daughter's friends have started coming through on their bikes etc to call on the girl, instead of knocking the front door! the lady is very house proud and i can only assume she does not want people walking through her front room, which you enter straight into when you open the front door.surely the right of access only applies to the residents of that middle house and not anyone that visits their home. we are fairly tolerant and don't mind that the neighbour brings his motorbike through etc but we have absolutely no privacy. i thought access was mainly for taking bins through etc. i have a very big garden, would there be any problem with moving the access further down? they are younger than me (i'm 39) and quite sporty so i would assume that it would not be any hardship for them to walk a bit further around.any advice would be gratefully received. thanks

[buildersmate]

This is not easy because above all you really will want to do this without hacking off the neighbour too much. Equally it is never surprising how many people take the P.
What they have a private right of way across your land. Whether it is described sufficiently as a specific route (that can't easily be changed) you will have to discover by inspecting your Land Registry title plan and register. You can get copies of these here for �6.
http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/
Look at the two documents - the plan may describe a specific route - often hatched in a different colour on the plan - the register will describe in words the nature of the access and cross-refer to the plan.
Armed with that information, you can decide if you can change the route. It is perfectly feasible to 'fence off' or otherwise partition your garden to force the following of a specific route through it. Indeed owners of land on which public pathpaths run often do this and essentially 'give up' ownership of the land forming the public path by putting a 2 metre fence up alongside the public footpath to stop the public straying and to maintain their security.

[buildersmate]

Part 2
Now then, about the people using it. They are taking the P. This is a private right of way not a public right of way. It is my understanding that it means the people who permanently live in the house. It means that visitors knocking on their door have no right to go trapsing through your land. There's a grey area, of course, because if the daughter comes back to the house with friends, are they allowed to accompany her through your land? - I'm not sure but suspect the answer is yes. It would be unmanageable to suggest that only family members can walk through there with others accompanying having to enter via the front door.
The way to manage the access, if you have to resort to this, is to discuss the issue with the neighbour, say around the issue about security, and suggest that you lock the gate between your land and the public highway, but give them access by key. Perhaps one key for each family member. Insist that they must lock it each time. It might work - but if they are bloodyminded enough, they just won't co-operate.

[shiny123]

thanks for your help, much appreciated. with regard to the daughter and her friends, the little girl is actually only four years old and doesn't have friends knocking on the door as such. these were older children that live further up the street and got talking to her mother then said that they would play with the daughter at their house. they then spent at least half a dozen times backwards and forwards between their house and hers! each time coming through my back garden, instead of knocking the front door. i just think its a bit much really and i agree that i think the neighbours do take the P quite a bit. Thanks for all your advice though.

[Twenty20]

Do as buildersmate says and check your Deeds to see what the access actually is. I'd guess it's actually a Right of Way (possibly pedestrian only) but that would mean that you can't block it and that anyone visiting your neighbour's house on foot can use it. You could get it changed after discussion with your neighbour but this might cost you money.

[maclarencat]

I had a similar problem at my last house but they also had a vehicular access. Drove us mad! Then visitors to them started parking on our property because there wasnt room outside the neighbours. We erected a gate across the access saynig we were worried that anyone could access the property and if they got into our property they could then access theirs and gave them keys to it. It really helped as people visiting didnt have a key to open the gate. Eventually they stopped locking the gate but the very fact there was a gate there discouraged their visitors from using it. Our deeds said the right of way was for the use of the residents and their agents and servants (or something like that) Anyway the gate seemed to sort it out without an argument.

[shiny123]

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my question. i really do appreciate it you all taking the time to help me. thanks again

[cassa333]

If the deeds say something along the lines of access for any and all purposes then you are scuppered as visitors come under a private row.

Some often say there are restrictions such as on foot only so cycles would be out of the question.

As has been said check your deeds.