How to Keep Neighbors From Driving on Your Lawn? (Try This!)

You work hard to make sure your lawn looks nice and tidy. The last thing you need is an inconsiderate neighbor driving across your lawn and messing everything up. But how do you keep neighbors from driving on your lawn?

Keep neighbors from driving on your lawn by politely asking them to stop this behavior. If that doesn’t work, install barriers like hedges, outdoor pots, and lawn rocks to block access. As a last resort, you can lay down yard spikes to scare them from driving anywhere near your property.

Before you burn bridges with your neighbors, we have some handy tips and ideas to keep cars off your grass. If you’re looking for some passive-aggressive suggestions to protect your lawn, this article is for you.

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How Do You Keep Cars off Your Lawn?

Parking is one of the reasons for neighbor disputes. Some people would even park in a spot that doesn’t belong to them – worse, they could be blocking your driveway. It’s also possible for some inconsiderate neighbors to use your lawn to access their own driveway.

Not only that, delivery trucks and visitor cars can do the same as well. And if you’ve worked so hard to maintain your lawn, that can be a really big problem. But you can solve that problem in many different ways, such as: 

• Talking to your neighbor
• Making your lawn inaccessible
• Reporting to the Homeowner’s Association
• Calling the cops

Talking to Your Neighbor

As we’ve mentioned many times over in our previous articles, talking to your neighbor is still the first step in dealing with this kind of issue.

Your neighbor probably doesn’t realize that they are destroying your lawn. Some neighbors would even park on someone’s lawn without thinking that it’s unacceptable.

Maybe it only takes you telling them to stop so they will stop. If you’re lucky enough, your neighbor will realize that he/she was in the wrong and won’t ever do it again. If not, then you can consider taking the next step – which is to make your lawn inaccessible.

Making Your Lawn Inaccessible

Making your lawn inaccessible is a good strategy to ensure you’re protecting your property. When you have someone driving on grass, damage is inevitably incurred. While your grass won’t die there and then, it will eventually be killed off, especially if your neighbor repeatedly drives through.

To make your lawn inaccessible, you have to block off access to your neighbor’s driveway. Some people just like to use someone else’s driveway to get to theirs and if you’re sick of that, this strategy would work. Also, if you’d rather not confront your neighbor, this is also a great passive-aggressive solution.

Blocking of access can mean several things, such as putting up signs and putting up barriers. Keep reading as we will discuss all these further below.

Reporting to the HOA

Have someone mediate the problem. If your neighbor just won’t stop despite talking to them and you don’t want to have to pay for barriers, you might want to ask for help from your Home Owners Association (HOA).

Calling the Cops on Them

You might not want to be “that kind of neighbor” but sometimes, calling the cops will work. This should be the last option for you as it can easily strain your relationship with your neighbor. 

You might also enjoy our post on How to Keep Neighbors From Parking in Front of My House

Is Driving Through Someone’s Yard a Crime?

Driving through someone’s yard is not a crime, but is considered a civil matter in most jurisdictions. You would need to file a police report against the offender, and it would be up to law enforcement whether or not they decide to pursue the matter.

There may be instances where the person driving through someone’s yard causes accidental damage to their property.

In this case, you’re totally within your rights to file a police report and sue the individual. This will usually go to small claims court if the damage is minor, and a judge will decide the amount they will have to pay.

How To Stop Cars Driving on Grass Verge

Grass verges often are neglected and are easily driven on. If your neighbor does this and you don’t like how unsightly the grass verge can become if it gets run over repeatedly, you can also stop it when you block access to your driveway.

Usually, homeowners will put some barriers on their side of the grass verge so that nobody can drive through it. 

You might also enjoy our post on What to Do if Your Neighbor Keeps Cutting Your Grass

Ideas To Keep Cars off Grass

Below are some creative ideas to keep cars from driving on grass. Whether you just don’t want anyone driving through your driveway or you want to maintain the lush grass verge, here are some product recommendations to check out.

Safety Cones

Some homeowners use Sunnyglade Safety Cones and line them up on the driveway. While the brightly-colored cones do send a message to keep off the driveway, they can easily topple – especially if you have a rude neighbor.

Start with safety cones and if it fails because you have insensitive neighbors who keep running them over, you have other options.

Putting up Boulders

Lining boulders in your driveway not only serve as a deterrent for inconsiderate neighbors who love to drive on your lawn. It also adds an aesthetic appeal to your property. Anyone who attempts to run over one of the large rocks can end up having a damaged bumper. 

You may go for real rocks but some homeowners have had success installing artificial landscaping rocks, like ones from EMSCO Group.

Signs

Putting up signs is a traditional way of keeping people off of certain spots. While “Keep off the Grass” signs are popular, people tend to ignore them, but not if you choose a classy sign like the SmartSign Stay Off Grass Sign with Stake.

Putting Pots

You can also put decorative pots with plants or flowers on the side of your driveway. That way, your neighbor would think twice about driving through. Unless of course, your neighbor is too inconsiderate to even bother and would just dart through destroying all the pots.

But if you put large flower pots with big growing plants, then that should be good enough to block the passage. Aesthetics is also a bonus especially if you go for themed pots like this rustic whiskey barrel planter.

The Kante Outdoor Planter is a heavy-duty solution that’s sure to prevent anyone from driving across your lawn anytime soon.

Landscaping

This might be a pricey option but it works really well, especially if you’re a big fan of beautifying your lawn. To keep cars from driving on grass, you can make your landscaping have more rocks.

You might also enjoy our post on Can You Park Cars In Your Backyard?

Hedge Box

If you don’t want to maintain a full-fledged landscaped lawn, you can simply go for hedge boxes to put along your driveway. Hedge boxes are somewhat pricey but it will definitely get your message across. 

If my neighbor keeps driving over my lawn,I would choose this option. It’s a great way to beautify the area along your border as well as excellent driving on grass protection. 

You can either have a real hedge box or you can have an artificial one like AGPL Boxwood Hedge Wall. A real hedge means more work but an artificial one would do less maintenance work.

Fencing

Fencing your property line with something like the Manchester No-Dig Vinyl Fence ensures that you will never have a pesky neighbor to deal with. Just make sure you are fencing along your property lines to avoid more disputes. Also, remember that installing a fence can also be expensive.

This would be the best option if you want to isolate your property from other people. It also gives you the privacy you need. A fence can also add beauty, especially when you have the design you wanted. 

Pole Markers

Using Pole Markers to line your driveway or front yard is a great way to keep cars from driving on your lawn. These markers are also reflective to help people see, which is helpful if you have a neighbor who likes to drive through your lawn and is drunk.

While pole markers can protect your lawn and it’s also affordable too, it may not look appealing. But if you’re not keen about how your property should look, then pole markers will do.

Yard Spikes for Cars

Yard spikes placed on the lawn are usually done so to deter animal pests like raccoons from destroying vegetation.

But because of their intimidating design, they can also work on your neighbors or anyone who likes to drive through your lawn or park on your grass.

They may not deflate tires, as opposed to installing steel spikes, but they should make your neighbor think twice. Steel spikes are illegal since they can hurt people and damage property.

If you use it to stop people from driving on your lawn, it could backfire on you as you may need to pay for the damaged tires.

You might also enjoy our post on Neighbor Has Too Many Cars at Their House

How Do I Keep My Neighbors From Parking in My Yard?

Putting barriers in your yard is just another way of keeping your neighbors off your yard. You can either choose those that add beauty to your yard or those whose sole purpose is to act as a barrier.

Another way on how to keep cars off a lawn is to put up a surveillance camera in your yard.

Having a surveillance camera can provide you with evidence as to who keeps destroying your lawn with their cars.

When you put a sign about the existence of a security cam, it also makes some people uncomfortable and they might decide against crossing your property line.

Conclusion: How To Keep Neighbors From Driving On Lawn

There are several ways to keep your neighbors from driving on your lawn. You can talk to your neighbor and let them know how you don’t like them crossing over your property line. Sometimes, that works; other times it won’t.

If confronting your neighbor doesn’t work, putting up barriers is the second-best option. While this will involve you spending on different products, it can help ease your mind as they do their job well in deterring people.