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Info regarding signs and the law please?

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My brother has a male staffy and has moved into an end terrace in woodhouse he has put a sign on the gate asking people whom have access round the back of his house to please close the gate.

 

One neighbour has said he should have a sign saying dog loose as sometimes the dog is in the garden when people are coming through gate.

 

how does he stand with signs and the law?

 

hes seen 3 signs

dog running loose please close gate

guard dog patrolling close gate

beware dog close gate

 

hes a soft friendly dog and isnt left out for long periods and never when my brother goes out.

 

 

can someone clarify what the law is please,thanks in advance

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The law is mainly to protect the dog and owner if the dog bites someone entering the garden. I don't think signs are of use in your case. I would fence off an area beyond the access /thoroughfare and put a self closing spring on the gate.

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Also depends if he owns the house, and if the property is leasehold.

 

If the deeds are right of access through the yard, then you can't cause problems with people walking through. No one is obligated to shut the gate, it's just courtesy.

 

We have a please shut the gate and a beware of the dog sign, because we own the property entirely and have a dog that doesn't really like strangers coming through, and absolutely hates the postman! But we have a cabin latch on the gate, so if I am out in the garden with the dog it stops people just walking in and surprising us. Then I can ask them to just hold on a moment, and put the dog inside before opening the gate. The dog is NEVER outside alone.

As it's our house and land, the police said we can do that. So far it's worked well, and I know the postman is happy he won't accidentally come face to face with my dog!

 

But the latch is never left permanently on the gate, because I cannot block people from coming though. I cannot cause an obstruction.

Edited by Elizabeth13

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I agree Elizabeth. Thats why I suggested fencing off an area so it doesn't affect the right of way through their property. I would hate the dog to escape and get hurt or lost.

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yes he owns the house his first home

 

it is freehold in a row of 3 terraced houses he has letterbox on front of his house but middle house has theres on the back so postman etc has to come round hes not sure if theres anything on deeds to say anything about right of way but guessing there will be,

 

he deffo doesnt want to loose his dog,

 

iv suggested a spring attached to the gate and a please keep closed sign

 

thankyou so much for your replies

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yes he owns the house his first home

 

it is freehold in a row of 3 terraced houses he has letterbox on front of his house but middle house has theres on the back so postman etc has to come round hes not sure if theres anything on deeds to say anything about right of way but guessing there will be,

 

he deffo doesnt want to loose his dog,

 

iv suggested a spring attached to the gate and a please keep closed sign

 

thankyou so much for your replies

 

It will be on the deeds, it's more common than not especially if the letter box is at the back and I bet it's the only access for neighbour bins too?

 

I'd advise him never to leave the dog out unsupervised. There are plenty of nasty people who will purposely let the dog out.

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We avoided buying such houses for our first home due to access through back gardens. A lot of terraces have a right of way through back gardens. A lot used to share toilet blocks and out houses in the back yards. I have seen some rows of terraces where the garden are split into two halves with a small road running through the gardens. This is to allow people to put garages in their back gardens.

 

Is there enough room to put a small locked fence close to the house without restricting the right of way area? It is usually highlighted on the deeds. This should have been highlighted to you during the house purchase.

 

Elizabeth - if you own the property and their is no right of way you can lock the gate. We have to padlock all our gates when the dogs are unattended as its not safe to enter our garden if our dogs don't know you. Even if they do know you, they play rough and can knock a child or small adult over and we can't risk that. Our neighbour once jumped over the fence with his friend who we had never met. The guy did the right thing and stood still when one of our dogs got hold of him. Luckily it was the dog who was generally soft mouthed, the other two would have sunk their teeth in.

Edited by Chez2

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Elizabeth - if you own the property and their is no right of way you can lock the gate. We have to padlock all our gates when the dogs are unattended as its not safe to enter our garden if our dogs don't know you. Even if they do know you, they play rough and can knock a child or small adult over and we can't risk that. Our neighbour once jumped over the fence with his friend who we had never met. The guy did the right thing and stood still when one of our dogs got hold of him. Luckily it was the dog who was generally soft mouthed, the other two would have sunk their teeth in.

 

If there wasn't right of way, we'd have the gate locked permanently. But like most there is right of way. Hence the postman bit etc.

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Oh, I see. :loopy: I must have got a bit lost somehow! :hihi: I thought you were discussing in more general terms about all owners of any property. Don't know how I got off track. :suspect:

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I don't think he should allow the dog outside unsupervised to be honest, at all. The same goes for anyone really unless your garden is fort knox.

 

Since the changes to the DDA, you can be prosecuted for incidents that happen on private property as well as in public. Obviously I'm not saying your friend's dog is nasty or anything like that, but at the end of the day he's an animal and you can't predict their behaviour or what a person passing through is going to do or how they will react to the dog.

 

The dog only need to be deemed as 'dangerously out of control', or a person claiming to be afraid they may be bitten to get in trouble, a dog doesn't actually need to attack to fall foul of the law. Your friend would only need some nasty person with a grudge and they could make real trouble.

 

These same rules apply in public too - that's why personally my dog is supervised on the garden and is put on her lead whenever anyone else is around. You can't be too careful.

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I was once told that if you have a "Beware of the dog" sign you are already addmitting your dog is going to bite an would be held responsable even if it bit an intruder. Not sure if it is true but i would look into it before putting any sign up.

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We're in a court of four terraces with a right of way across our back door. The newe neighbours next to us have the letterbox on the backdoor but are going g to move it to the front shortly and have said they'll probably use their front door more. When the house went up for sale recently we wanted potential buyers to know we have pets, including a Doberman, and after looming at various signs we came up with our own it shows sillouhettes of a Doberman, various cats and rabbits and says 'please close the gate so that we can't escape'

That was a subtle message to viewers that they'd be moving in next to a zoo, lol. Having said that, we never let our dobe out on her own

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