Neighbors new fence has a gate to my yard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build your own fence next to it without a gate. I would not allow people to walk through my yard as a shortcut.

The weird thing is I see other people using my yard on occasion but have never once seen this particular neighbor cutting through so I'm really confused why. Maybe they view it as some sort of service to the neighborhood or something and didn't think to ask me?

You need to google "easement."

You need to google easement. Neighbors cutting through a yard as a shortcut won't create an easement (and don't come talking nonsense about adverse possession, either). Of course, OP is well within her rights to stop it.

adverse possession is an actual thing. my neighbors have a prescriptive easement and a gate to enter my yard to get to the alley.

[Anonymous]

If an easement exists then he cannot block passage. The fence may deter passage but putting the gate there means access is still, technically, there. Your neighbor may have done this because they wanted a fence, didn’t want to deal with any possible issues of easements and figured this would be the easiest way of accomplishing that.

[Anonymous]

(a) make sure that there is, in fact, no easement across your property. Some recent (i.e., last 25 year) subdivisions DO have easements that cross private property for pedestrian access through the subdivision which were required by local zoning officials as part of the site plan. Check your title policy AND the site plan.
(b) assuming there is no easement, go talk to your neighbor and find out the thinking. The neighbor shouldn't be encouraging random people to cross either of your yards.
(c) consider building your own fence

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(a) make sure that there is, in fact, no easement across your property. Some recent (i.e., last 25 year) subdivisions DO have easements that cross private property for pedestrian access through the subdivision which were required by local zoning officials as part of the site plan. Check your title policy AND the site plan.
(b) assuming there is no easement, go talk to your neighbor and find out the thinking. The neighbor shouldn't be encouraging random people to cross either of your yards.
(c) consider building your own fence

+1 to all of this

Plus, fences don't go ON property lines. That's too risky and everyone tends to build a bit inside the line and working within existing trees in the yard. For that reason I consider cutting on property lines to be okay and no-man's land. Where we live there are even power lines so of course the power lines are an easement and people can walk along those. I would not even think twice about people at the edge of my yard, but we have big yards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is soooo strange. WTF. Can you ask them about it?

I am too conflict-avoidant and socially awkward. Hoping I can figure out an innocent story I can tell myself about why they did it

I can’t quite picture this and you haven’t said how far back from the property line the fence is. But, for an innocent story, it could be related to safety. Our backyard is fenced and we have a couple of gates. If there is a fire in our house and our only means of egress is the back, we have three gates that we could use to exit, depending on which one would lead us to safety.

[Anonymous]

So people could cut through before and they still can. What's the issue? Random prople might cut through less if there is a fence, even w the gate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP,

cCn you return and explain the logistics. Where are people coming from, going to (e.g., local school, the playground, a bus stop), that they cut through your and your neighbor's yards. I cannot I picture the set up. Are you next door neighbors and their next door neighbors also part of this? Or do they have fenced in yards?

Not op, but in my neighborhood the road parallel to mine has an outlet for a walking path that leads to a whole network of walking paths, ultimately leading to several community facilities. There’s an unofficial cut-through from our road to the other, because otherwise it’s more than a mile extra walk to access those paths. Only found out about it because one of the neighbors adjoining it mentioned it and invited its use.

[Anonymous]

Put a sign infront of the gate that says no trespassing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put a lock on your side

Yup

[Anonymous]

I’d assume it’s to make it easier to trim on the other side of the fence without having to walk around, but that’s me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build your own fence next to it without a gate. I would not allow people to walk through my yard as a shortcut.

The weird thing is I see other people using my yard on occasion but have never once seen this particular neighbor cutting through so I'm really confused why. Maybe they view it as some sort of service to the neighborhood or something and didn't think to ask me?

You need to google "easement."

DP.
Nope. You need to Google "trespassing".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a backyard that is sometimes used as a cut-through. Sort of annoying but not a big deal. So my neighbor who I have had absolutely no problems (and as far as I know does NOT use my yard as a cut-through) just put up a fence around his yard with a gate that goes to my yard. This gate would allow people to continue using my and my neighbors yard as such. Now technically the fence and gate is all on his property and completely within his rights. But I still find it a bit..I dunno...weird that he would do that without asking. Am I missing a reason he might want it there that only has to do with his own yard? Am I being totally nosey to even notice it's there? Would you be annoyed by it?

For the record, I don't plan to do or say anything about it except maybe some day build my own fence that would go right across the gate. But now I'm also wondering if THAT would be perceived as passive aggressive.

In what universe is adding a gate to a fence more annoying or guilty than no fence at all?

[Anonymous]

Just keep living as you were. There was no gate or fence before this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have liability if someone is hurt on your property, OP. I'd talk to the neighbors about it and consider chaining and locking the gate. What type of fence is it? Anyone coming on your property uninvited is trespassing and neighbor is enabling that. WTH?

That’s not true if you live in Virginia, unless you charge them to be on your property.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So people could cut through before and they still can. What's the issue? Random prople might cut through less if there is a fence, even w the gate.

This kind of what I was thinking....