"FMurtz" wrote in message
...
I suppose it depends on the jurisdiction but I think you would find that
any one is allowed entry up to the front door unless steps are taken to
stop this.

They probably have to have a lawful excuse for being there, though.
Delivering letters, or putting fliers through everyone's letter box, or
touting for bob-a-job etc are probably regarded as legal, as is calling on
that specific person to see if they are in and want to go for a pint at the
pub.

But being there for no good reason (or even for suspected bad reason) would
be a different matter.

I lived next door to a policeman, and he kept an eye on the houses in the
estate on Mischief Night and Halloween for lads (not from that estate) who
were going round throwing eggs at people's front doors. He once nabbed a lad
who claimed that he was going to visit his gran to take her a box of eggs
that she'd asked for. When he couldn't say what her name was, and guessed an
incorrect house number, and couldn't explain why the box only had two eggs
in it, and there were egg-stains on the house next door, my neighbour nicked
him for malicious damage.

There is probably a pass-and-repass clause as well, as there is technically
for public footpaths in England and Wales: you are allowed to walk along a
footpath to get from A to B and back again, but you are not (technically)
allowed to stop and have a picnic or spend ages in the same place. I think
it was added to the public footpath legislation after a wealthy racehorse
owner objected to people stopping on a nearby public footpath, armed with
binoculars and notebooks to note how well his various horses were running so
they could sell this information to bookmakers that were taking bets on the
horse races.


I know that Scotland has implied "Open Access" for the whole of the country,
and so doesn't have defined rights of way ("everywhere" is a right of way,
subject to the exclusions like houses, railway lines etc), but I've always
wondered whether marked paths and tracks are still shown on OS maps to
denote whether there is a defined route that is habitually walked, so you
know that this will be compacted ground and not a ploughed field, and
probably way-marked, as opposed to land that may have all sorts of hazards
such as streams, bogs etc with no defined crossing points - in England and
Wales, you can *usually* assume that a footpath that goes up to a stream
bank and continues on the other side will have some means of getting across,
whether it's little footbridge, stepping stones or else is so shallow that
it can be forded as long as the stream is not in flood. Looking at a
Scottish OS maps, there don't seem to be any routes which are marked, not
just "you *may* walk here", but additionally "you *can* walk here without
getting stuck on impassable ground".