UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi, Am obvious newbie to forum but not to the problem we have faced since Sept last year. We live on a small estate which is made up, in the main, of 5 blocks of flats, all of which are ground floor 1 bed flats and 2 bed flats above. Each block consists of the smallest (ours) 6 flats (3 ground floor and 3 1st floor-am sure you may have the picture) and largest of 10 ground and 10 1st floor.

It is important to the issue that you know each block is surrounded by communal gardens, which are then enclosed with 3 ft high black railings. To the front of each block there are gates leading to front doors and garden to front. Then each block has rear communal garden again enclosed fully via the railings. I should also describe that, for the ground floor flats, their bedroom and kitchen windows look directly out onto the rear communal garden. Residents of each block have access to rear communal garden via a single gate and then again there are double sets of gates to allow grass cutting. These gates have slide along close mechanism. If you are in rear communal garden you can go right up to each of the ground floor flats bedroom and kitchen windows.

We, our neighbours & other residents have always thought (as we have had to find out ourelves) that the communal gardens that surround each of the 4 blocks were the 'property' of that block & this is where issue lies. Our social ladlord is of a different view and has, throughout many emails, contended that each of the rear communal gardens are for use by every other tenant/resident, although no other tenant had actually used another blocks rear garden/lawn. It is only since last year that tenant family of other block have been walking their dog on 'our rear communal garden'. (I will expand why this has arisen and on the further problem of dog fouling later).

So, the query is, if I have described the small estate well enough, would you consider the commnal garden surrounding any of the specific blocks of flats as 'belonging' to that block, or that any tenant can have access to the rear communal gardens of anothe block?

Many thanks for reading and for any replies.

I can barely digest all the detail here.Is this a housing association? Who has responsibility for the gardening upkeep of the areas in question ? If you have a lease what does it say about the gardens? If this is all down to one tenant not cleaning up after their dog,the obvious answer is to complain to them directly.The dog warden would not get involved in a private matter like this,and your landlord probably expects the tenants to cooperate together.Other than the dog mess,are these people causing you or others any great invasion of privacy or disturbance?