My mum’s house is in a terrace of six (maybe seven). There is a fairly secluded alley running along the back of all of their gardens and everyone has a back garden gate onto it. It’s a dead end at one end and opens onto a very quiet side road at the other end. Behind and perpendicular to my mum’s house is another house, which is side on to this alley and also has a back gate onto it.

A new family have moved into this house at the back and the bloke has put up an iron gate at the road end of the alleyway. A couple of days ago all the neighbours had an anonymous note through the door along the lines of ‘hope no one has a problem with the gate, this is the number for the padlock’. They’re all a bit bemused as there have never been any problems with this alley in the twenty years plus that they’ve all been there.

Anyway, she’s not really that bothered that the gate is there, she’ll just tell everyone she needs to (window cleaner, gardener, postie) what the number is, but are there any legal implications with this. I’m thinking along the lines of if the alleyway isn’t used much then can this bloke eventually claim it as his? Not saying that’s what he’s planning, he’s apparently more of a jobsworth type always sweeping up and that, but who knows. I think the alley is probably the council’s responsibility at the moment.

As I say, she doesn’t really mind it being there, but are any potential issues that could arise?

EDIT wrong forum whoops

I would have thought that the back lane was under the Council’s control. Can’t imagine that they’d be happy with a gate being fitted across it.

Is your Mum’s house, and the others, council property? If anyone one of them is then the alley is probably owned by the council and the council should be informed of his actions and he should be told to remove it.

If all the houses are privately owned then your Mum and her other neighbours should get together and tell him to take it down or at least remove any method by which it can be locked. He doesn’t own the passageway or have any rights over the control of access. The passageway is probably shown in their deeds as common property.

If he fails to do it they should be within their rights to remove the padlock and or the gate, provided they return both to him.

Failing that he should be reported to the council for anti-social behaviour.

The houses are all privately owned. I don’t know if they were local authority originally. My mum’s been there 20 years+ and they were all private then. I also suspect the alley is the councils responsibility.

At the very least it’s a bit cheeky, whatever his motives are.

What colour is the gate ?

You will probably find that the alley is an access way and by law cannot be closed of to anyone, including non householders. It may be in the deeds saying it is open access. Our private street has that in the deeds.

sounds to me like he’s just worried about security & prob thinks he’s acting in everyone’s interests

bit odd not to ask first though

if the others really care, I’d guess it’d be easy to make hime remove it

Why would the path have been adopted by the Council? It serves only private land. (If it is publicly lit though, it probably has been adopted).

I’m guessing this is England…so I’ll not comment further, Scots property law being different.

Forgot to ask her that.

sounds to me like he’s just worried about security & prob thinks he’s acting in everyone’s interests

I agree, that’s by far the most likely reason. I think it’s a bit rude not to speak to other people it affects first though.

As I say, she’s not really bothered that it’s there, she just doesn’t want it to lead to any access problems or disputes in the future, which is something neither of us know much about, hence the query.

Very odd to not ask first before fitting it.

Only possible prob I could think of was fire brigade access to the back of the houses if there was a fire. But I guess they carry big power tools to sort out such probs 🙂

sounds to me like he’s just worried about security

How long do you think a combination lock will delay access by a burglar?

If it’s shared access / right of way then he shouldn’t gate it with a lock as far as I’m aware. We’re at one end of a terrace of 4 and there is a shared path across the back of the houses that cuts across our garden. The opposite end house has put up a large, lockable gate and I think houses number 2 and 3 are currently getting solicitors involved to ensure it’s taken down as matter of principle. We’re staying out if it – it all predates our move to the property.

If he can gate it off and restrict access to others then eventually he may be able to claim it as his own – when we bought our house the neighbour claimed that we had about 3 foot of their garden – supposedly the hedges were in the wrong place compared with their original deeds to the property (back in the 1920’s). Because the boundary has been as it currently is for the past 30 years+ our solicitor basically told them they hadn’t a hope trying to get it back.

sounds to me like he’s just worried about security

How long do you think a combination lock will delay access by a burglar?

I said he’s probably worried about security, not an international advisor on the subject !

and, … maybe long enough for them to try another back alley ??

As above, probably means no harm but should not block shared access without consulting the other owners first, which would concern me too. Why would you do this without consulting the neighbours first?

Security against kids drinking or, heaven forbid, playing down it I reckon. Which never happens anyway.

Funny that the fire brigade should be mentioned – my mum’s first concern was if her house was on fire, and she could only get out the back door, she then couldn’t get out of the alleyway because it would be locked. It’s not a big garden and that would still be far too close to a burning house for me.

I phoned her local council just for some advice. It looks to them like it’s their responsibility so someone will go and have a look at it and see what’s what. Never rung a council before, feel like a bit of a jobsworth myself now. Got to look after your mum though.