In some neighborhoods, it is necessary to allow your neighbors to walk through a specific part of your property to access an area of theirs.

What would you do if you had that setup for your neighbor, but they were always causing problems while walking through?

That is what happened to the homeowner in this story, so he bought some extra property and made the neighbor walk the long way to get through.

Fences make good neighbors.

My parents lived in a house where the neighbor had right of access across my parent’s back garden to get to theirs’s. (Standard U.K. Victorian end terrace rules.).

There is really no need for this.

They were bad neighbors, they would let their grandkids run around our garden and drop their rubbish. They would also come out and stand in our garden while my parents had family BBQs and stare at us.

My folks couldn’t do much about it because they had the right to be there.

Can’t pass up an opportunity like that.

My parents were fed up of this, as well as them walking across the flower beds and leaving the gates open, so when the farmer who owned the land surrounding my parents house offered to sell about 1/4 acre of it, my parents jumped at the chance.

Imagine the original path to the neighbor’s back gate before the sale.

They would walk up the path besides my parent’s house, across the yard (where they could look into our kitchen) and walk to their gate which was located on the boundary between our two houses, about halfway up the garden.

Those fences will solve this problem.

My parents bought the land and erected two 7 foot fences around the perimeter of the land.

The fences were about 4 foot apart, the entrance was around 30’ away from the original gate and when you walked all the way around the new path, it led directly to the neighbor’s back gate.

Essentially they had their own path and didn’t need to enter our garden.

I guess the neighbors should have bought the land then.

The neighbors didn’t like this because it meant they had to walk much further to get to their back gate. My parents reminded them they have fulfilled their legal obligation to give them access across their land to the neighbors back garden.

It didn’t say anywhere that it has to be the shortest route.

The neighbors threatened legal action but didn’t follow it up.

I don’t see this as a waste of money at all.

The farmer sold the rest of the land to a developer. The neighbor contacted the developer to ask if they could create their own exit onto the developers land at the far end of their garden so they didn’t have to use our path. The developer agreed as that area was going to be a pathway.

They gloated to my dad they didn’t need our path anymore and he’d wasted his money for nothing. So my dad put a lock on the gates to ensure privacy as they no longer needed it.

This neighbor seems to complain about everything.

When the foundations for the first buildings went up the neighbor complained to council and company that they were too close (by 2 meters) and had to be moved.

The fuss cost the developer a lot of extra money so they sent a letter to all the neighbors informing them a path will no longer be running along the back of our gardens as it will now be used as garages to offset the cost of reworking the foundations.

Oh, i bet they hated that.

They built a garage block directly behind neighbors garden. The neighbors now had a gate at the bottom of the garden that led to an ugly concrete wall.

The neighbor then had to come cap in hand to ask my dad politely to removed the locks so he could start using the path again. My father obliged.

I bet that was a relief to see him go.

The neighbors only stayed a few more years as it seemed that the son in law actually owned the house and when he divorced the daughter, he sold the house and kicked them out.

Why is it that bad neighbors so often go out of their way to cause problems, which often just hurts themselves.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

I’m sure the easement will pass on to the new owners.

It is a common phrase.

This person thinks easements should be avoided.

The dad seemed very reasonable.

Easements can be a pain.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.