Lawyer explains what you can do if neighbour keeps walking across your garden

Lawns and boundaries are often the source of neighbourhood disputes, but tensions can arise when a neighbour walks over your lawn without your express consent to do so. A lawyer has explained what happens when you notice your neighbour doing just that and how you can handle it. Solicitor Claire Dunn, whose many specialities include UK property law, offered her advice to one disgruntled homeowner who explained that they, and their occasional visitors, tend to walk across their neighbour's lawn as it lies on the side of their driveway.

When they asked what their rights were, Claire explained that they, in fact, were not entitled to walk across their neighbour's lawn without their consent. "There are no rights to walk on your neighbour's land without their consent, unless it states so in your title deeds, or this has taken place in excess of 20 years, in which case you claim prescriptive rights," she revealed.

She then referred to a piece of legislation called the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992. She explains that this piece of the law "allows you to access neighbours' land for the preservation of your own property".

The Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992 is described as an "act to enable persons who desire to carry out works to any land which are reasonably necessary for the preservation of that land to obtain access to neighbouring land in order to do so; and for purposes connected therewith".

There are various reasons that people can make an application for access to their neighbour's land. One of them, the law states, is for those who "desires to enter upon any adjoining or adjacent land" for the purposes of "carrying out works to any land".

Additionally, an application can be made if you need, but do not currently have, consent from some other person to enter the property.

However, access will not be granted if "the respondent or any other person would suffer interference with, or disturbance of, his use or enjoyment of the servient land" or if "the respondent, or any other person (whether of full age or capacity or not) in occupation of the whole or any part of the servient land, would suffer hardship".