I wouldn't overthink this. What if your kids end up babysitting his kids or vice versa? What if he's just thinking about a fire escape route? Having said that, my neighbors behind us have a gate in the fence that precedes us. I would never use it to cut through their yard, but when my kids were little and it would have shortened our route to the bus stop to do so, I was surprised by the number of people (not the neighbors in question) who suggested that we cut through.

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."

What? Neighbor can make put up a fence made up from hundreds of gates. Put up your fence and don't ask them anything.
It is an emergency fence.

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.

+1

I briefly toyed with the idea of building a fence with a gate just so the kids next door could easily get whatever they accidentally tossed over the fence in our yard. But then I thought that would be weird if we (or they) moved out one day.

Your neighbor perhaps wanted to respect the cut through that people have been using, yet I do think it's a little odd to build the gate without asking. If I had done so, I would have asked the neighbors for their opinion and respected it before building the gate.

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?

Atlthough they have a fence now, they don't mind the cutting through. They figured that since you have not done anything to stop the cutting through (e.g., put up a gate) you must be ok with it, too. They included the gates to maintain the status quo (people able to cut through).

Maybe it's to get a lawn service through

I don’t understand. Neither of you guys had a fence, and your yard was used as a cut through, correct? And now there’s a fence built by your neighbor with a gate…essentially maintaining the cut through. That you admittedly said was not a big deal. So you are in the same situation you were before the fence. I’m not seeing the problem.

Anonymous wrote:Plant a shrub or some flowers that would make it hard to walk through…

I recommend a Mermaid rosebush.

I wish my neighbor had a gate so our dogs could play instead of having to walk all the way around the block.

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?

The bigger question here is WHY DO YOU ALLOW this?

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.

+100 Not sure why you have allowed this OP. It's not ok for people to cut through YOUR yard.

Op, do you have a fence around your yard? If so, put a lock on your gate. We had to do this because the smaller kids in our neighborhood kept leaving our gate open when they cut through. We also have a gate in the fence between our yard and our back neighbors, but it was there when I bought the house.

The back neighbors just sold the house and the new neighbors haven’t moved in yet. I’m very curious to see if they will put up a new fence without a gate. I don’t care either way.

Plant a shrub or some flowers that would make it hard to walk through…

*is the gate*

Does it make it easier for him to get out to trim weeds on the other side of the fence? (Or, would it not be easy to walk around otherwise?). I don’t think it’s weird to ask either. I would say, smiling, hi, I like the fence, I’d the gate so you can visit me more often?