It can be annoying to share a path or garden with a neighbor.
This person tells a story about their parents and how their neighbors have access to their back yard so they can have access to their back gate.
With their privacy violated, his parents decided to take a new path.
The neighbors were not happy!
Read the full story below for all the details.
My parents lived in a house where the neighbor had the right to access their garden through my parents' back garden.
These are the standard rules for Victorian end terraces in the UK.
They were idiot neighbors.
They let their grandchildren run around in our yard and drop their trash.
His parents couldn't do much about it.
They also came out and stood in our yard while my parents had family barbecues and stared at us.
My parents couldn't do much about it because they had the right to be there.
My parents were tired of walking over the flowerbeds and leaving the gates open.
When the farmer who owned the land around my parents' house offered to sell about a quarter of an acre of it, my parents jumped at the chance.
The old path allowed neighbors to cross his parents' yard before getting to their house.
Before selling, imagine the original path to the neighbor's back gate.
They walked up the path next to my parents' house, across the yard (where they could see into our kitchen),
And go to their gate, which was on the border between our two houses, about halfway up the garden.
So the parents created a new, longer path to ensure they didn't have to enter their garden.
My parents bought the land and built two 7 foot high fences around the property.
The fences were about a meter apart.
The entrance was about 30 feet from the original gate.
And when you completely circled the new path, it led directly to the neighbor's back gate.
Basically, they had their own way and didn't have to enter our yard.
The neighbors weren't happy.
The neighbors didn't like this because it meant they had to walk a lot further to get to their back gate.
My parents reminded them that they had fulfilled their legal obligation to give them access across their land to the neighbor's garden.
Nowhere does it say that it has to be the shortest route.
The neighbors threatened legal action but did not follow up.
They made their own path, so his father put a lock on the path he made.
The farmer sold the rest of the land to a developer.
The neighbor contacted the developer and asked if he could create his own exit to the developer's property at the other end of his garden so that he did not have to use our path.
The developer agreed as this area was intended to serve as a pathway.
They were happy with my father that they no longer needed our way and that he had wasted his money for nothing.
So my dad put a lock on the gates to ensure privacy since they no longer needed it.
Neighbors complained that the building was built near their house.
When the foundations for the first buildings were being built, the neighbor complained to the community and society.
They were too close (by 2 meters) and had to be moved.
The commotion cost the developer a lot of extra money so they sent a letter to all the neighbors informing them that there will no longer be a path along the back of our garden as it is now being used as garages to help defray the cost of the renovation will balance the foundations.
They had to ask his father again to reopen the path he had taken.
They built a garage house directly behind the neighbor's garden.
The neighbors now had a gate at the end of the garden that led to an ugly concrete wall.
Then the neighbor, cap in hand, had to politely ask my father to remove the barriers so he could use the path again.
My father obliged.
The neighbors only stayed for a few more years, as it appeared that the son-in-law actually owned the house, and when he divorced the daughter, he sold the house and threw her out.
I don't think I want to buy a house where the neighbors legally have to walk through my yard to get to their back gate.
Let's see what others have to say about it on Reddit.
Now you know why…
This user shares his personal thoughts.
“The father was so accommodating,” this person says.
Finally, an honest opinion.
In fact, good fences make good neighbors.
If you enjoyed this post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who was trying to disappear without a trace.