Our public/private back yard!

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We've been living in this house for about 20 years now. WHen we bought it a garage was not really a must, and sure enough this one didn't have one. THere was a fence on each side, separating our house and back yard from that of the neighbors beside us and the rest of the space was open all the way to the lane way. Like many other houses in here, part of the back yard is often used either to build a garage or to use as parking space. THere is a laneway in between the back yards of the houses in our street and the ones from the street on the other side. When we got our home we had no kids and there really weren't that many kids in the neighborhood. We never had any problems. WIth time we made a small fence halfway in our back yard just for some privacy, and left the other end - the one that ended in the lane way - open to put our cars. We never closed it or felt the need to. Sure a lot of people in the other houses fenced their back yards all the way to the lane way. SOme added garages. Some just made it so they could open the gate/fence to put their cars in and close after. I think there are only 3 or 4 that are open like ours. But one has a boat and an old car on theirs , two have huge sheds, and one looks like the jungle, nobody can get there :) Ours is open and free so we can park our cars there each day. It is paved and clean. Two months ago the house beside us on one side was sold. The back yard on that house is nice, closed and has no parking space. Instead it is nicely done with grass and benches. All that is fine each person does what they won't in their property. The problem is the new owners seem to view our space for our cars - in our property - as a public parking space. It's not our fault that they can't park on their own back yard. The first time I noticed I looked at the window and see a van parked outside. It was not ours and we weren't expecting anyone so I was a bit puzzled. I meant to go out to check what it was but I was doing something and didn't have a chance. An hour later it was gone. A few days later there was a truck there. And then another. I had to go and check. Apparently they were doing some renovations on the house next door and they thought they could park there. But nobody asked us if they could or not. Last week my husband came from work, parked the car and a man in a van told him" You took my parking spot" my husband was laughing already " What? Does this look like public parking? " "Oh. the owner of the house gave me permission" it sure wasn't any of us " THe owner of that house" and he pointed to the house beside us. "Well, does it look like this area belongs to that house? WHy would the owner of the house next door have the right to tell you to park in my property?" SO we talked to the new owners. Apparently since they have no parking space they feel that they have the right to use ours!!!! But it doesn't end there. THe new owners - they bought it about a year ago - of the house on the other side fenced their back yard a few months back. THe problem is, to open the gate, they need to go on our property, or else get a stepladder. What is our property? Public space? But there is more. In the house directly in front of our back yard across from the lane way. THey started to build a fence. But we are not really sure of what they meant to build, because there is a huge 4x10 wood post about 2 feet from the side of their property. WHat happens is that to park their car they can't maneuver unless they enter our space first and then back up into theirs. DOes this make sense? To make things worse, there are a lot more kids in the neighborhood. THey all play in the lane way and for some reason use our parking space as their quarters. THey assemble there, they bring their skates, bikes, scooters, helmets, dolls, etc ANd then they leave everything there. HEck last weekend I found a woman from a few houses down, with a lawn chair sitting there watching the kids playing and doing crochet.. excuse me? Last week they left two bikes right in the middle. It was just by luck that I went there and saw them or else when my daughter came back form work at night, she might not have seen them and damage the car - couldn't care less about the bikes. So we decided to close it. Hubby has been building the two doors so we can open it for the cars and close it once they're in. And now they are all really upset. One because he can't use it as his parking space - since when was he allowed to use my property? Do what we did, divide the backyard in half and use it to park your car-, the other one because he can't open his gate - who would build something in a way that you need to enter the neighbor's property to open? - the other because she can't maneuver her car to park on her own backyard without using our space - easy take that single post out of your own property, the car will then enter - and the others because now the kids have to play in the lane way - duh! My kids had to do the same. Even though there were more open ones when they were kids I always explained to them that it wasn't our property so they weren't to even get in. I taught them to respect other people's property because I felt that it is important. So now after almost 20 years of no problems we have to resort to close it, because people are taking our space for granted. Have you ever encountered people like this? How did you deal with it?