Cheeky fucker neighbours?

1
I think I’ve found the perfect place to vent!

I live in a semi on an 80s build estate, think too-small houses positioned very much on top of eachother. Never hear a peep from my attached neighbour, it’s the neighbour on the other side (70 year old man, Jim) who’s sending me round the twist.

Last May we finally got round to giving our garden a makeover and I warned Jim (he’s very nosy and chatty) that there would be workmen about for a couple of days, and explained exactly what we were having done. We had someone coming with a digger but because of the awful weather last year he kept having to put us back as he was getting behind on other jobs due to the rain. Finally the bloke said he could get to our job, but it was the week before the 6 week holidays and I didn’t want our garden to be inaccessible for most of the summer for our kids, so we agreed to postpone the work until September. I also informed Jim of this.

Day 1 of the school holidays and I looked out of the kitchen window to find that the wall and fence between us and Jim, which we are responsible for according to the deeds, had been torn down leaving a 6 foot drop from our garden to his. When I approached Jim about this he said that he was having a bricklayer come in to build a new wall all the way along, but 1.5 feet higher than the original. I was annoyed that he hadn’t approached me about this beforehand but wasn’t opposed to the plan, the more privacy the better in my eyes.

Fast forward to present day, it’s been over a year and we still only have half a badly built unsightly wall made from a mixture of breezeblocks and brick. Jim has done all the work himself and has made many promises that it will be finished “soon” but I think we’ve long since passed the point of taking the piss. We haven’t been able to carry out the work we had planned on our garden because we are waiting for Jim to fix his mess, we’re also unable to use our garden due to the safety issues and complete lack of privacy.

To add insult to injury Jim has now built a shed made out of breezeblocks (he calls it a summerhouse) and the wall of the shed is our boundary, complete with window looking directly into our garden. I’ve ended up reporting him to the council but I’m not sure whether they will help, if not we’re going to have to decide whether we’d rather spend thousands on putting a fence on our side to shut his mess out, or spend the same amount taking him to court to try and get them to order him to take the whole thing down and put it back to how it used to be which could take years. I really don’t understand why some people are so entitled that they just don’t consider anyone else! Apart from the legal implications of messing with the boundary, he’s potentially devalued our house and put off future buyers. All to keep himself busy with a DIY project.
 
Jkop said:
I think I’ve found the perfect place to vent!

I live in a semi on an 80s build estate, think too-small houses positioned very much on top of eachother. Never hear a peep from my attached neighbour, it’s the neighbour on the other side (70 year old man, Jim) who’s sending me round the twist.

Last May we finally got round to giving our garden a makeover and I warned Jim (he’s very nosy and chatty) that there would be workmen about for a couple of days, and explained exactly what we were having done. We had someone coming with a digger but because of the awful weather last year he kept having to put us back as he was getting behind on other jobs due to the rain. Finally the bloke said he could get to our job, but it was the week before the 6 week holidays and I didn’t want our garden to be inaccessible for most of the summer for our kids, so we agreed to postpone the work until September. I also informed Jim of this.

Day 1 of the school holidays and I looked out of the kitchen window to find that the wall and fence between us and Jim, which we are responsible for according to the deeds, had been torn down leaving a 6 foot drop from our garden to his. When I approached Jim about this he said that he was having a bricklayer come in to build a new wall all the way along, but 1.5 feet higher than the original. I was annoyed that he hadn’t approached me about this beforehand but wasn’t opposed to the plan, the more privacy the better in my eyes.

Fast forward to present day, it’s been over a year and we still only have half a badly built unsightly wall made from a mixture of breezeblocks and brick. Jim has done all the work himself and has made many promises that it will be finished “soon” but I think we’ve long since passed the point of taking the piss. We haven’t been able to carry out the work we had planned on our garden because we are waiting for Jim to fix his mess, we’re also unable to use our garden due to the safety issues and complete lack of privacy.

To add insult to injury Jim has now built a shed made out of breezeblocks (he calls it a summerhouse) and the wall of the shed is our boundary, complete with window looking directly into our garden. I’ve ended up reporting him to the council but I’m not sure whether they will help, if not we’re going to have to decide whether we’d rather spend thousands on putting a fence on our side to shut his mess out, or spend the same amount taking him to court to try and get them to order him to take the whole thing down and put it back to how it used to be which could take years. I really don’t understand why some people are so entitled that they just don’t consider anyone else! Apart from the legal implications of messing with the boundary, he’s potentially devalued our house and put off future buyers. All to keep himself busy with a DIY project.
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Does Jim own his property? If he does I would take him to court. If not find out who the landlord is and have a solicitor threaten them with court.
 
Here's one for you.....the woman that lives 2 doors away and I used to use the same window cleaner. Once a month.He was utterly useless, she admitted once she couldn't tell if he had been or not. I stopped using him. I'd rather do it myself properly. I told her. She's a very busy woman don't you know and when I did have him she used to ask me to give him the money for her as well. She continuously keeps putting the money through my door in an envelope asking me to pay him. I take it back and tell her I'm not using him. She says oh well can't you just give it to him anyway , it's inconvenient for me to have to wait for him!! I told her I'm afraid that's her problem.
This afternoon the other half comes in with a envelope in his hand. She'd collared him and asked him to get me to do it! I made him take it back to her and tell her to do it herself. He did. Tbh he had no clue. Cheeky cow.
 
Jkop said:
I think I’ve found the perfect place to vent!

I live in a semi on an 80s build estate, think too-small houses positioned very much on top of eachother. Never hear a peep from my attached neighbour, it’s the neighbour on the other side (70 year old man, Jim) who’s sending me round the twist.

Last May we finally got round to giving our garden a makeover and I warned Jim (he’s very nosy and chatty) that there would be workmen about for a couple of days, and explained exactly what we were having done. We had someone coming with a digger but because of the awful weather last year he kept having to put us back as he was getting behind on other jobs due to the rain. Finally the bloke said he could get to our job, but it was the week before the 6 week holidays and I didn’t want our garden to be inaccessible for most of the summer for our kids, so we agreed to postpone the work until September. I also informed Jim of this.

Day 1 of the school holidays and I looked out of the kitchen window to find that the wall and fence between us and Jim, which we are responsible for according to the deeds, had been torn down leaving a 6 foot drop from our garden to his. When I approached Jim about this he said that he was having a bricklayer come in to build a new wall all the way along, but 1.5 feet higher than the original. I was annoyed that he hadn’t approached me about this beforehand but wasn’t opposed to the plan, the more privacy the better in my eyes.

Fast forward to present day, it’s been over a year and we still only have half a badly built unsightly wall made from a mixture of breezeblocks and brick. Jim has done all the work himself and has made many promises that it will be finished “soon” but I think we’ve long since passed the point of taking the piss. We haven’t been able to carry out the work we had planned on our garden because we are waiting for Jim to fix his mess, we’re also unable to use our garden due to the safety issues and complete lack of privacy.

To add insult to injury Jim has now built a shed made out of breezeblocks (he calls it a summerhouse) and the wall of the shed is our boundary, complete with window looking directly into our garden. I’ve ended up reporting him to the council but I’m not sure whether they will help, if not we’re going to have to decide whether we’d rather spend thousands on putting a fence on our side to shut his mess out, or spend the same amount taking him to court to try and get them to order him to take the whole thing down and put it back to how it used to be which could take years. I really don’t understand why some people are so entitled that they just don’t consider anyone else! Apart from the legal implications of messing with the boundary, he’s potentially devalued our house and put off future buyers. All to keep himself busy with a DIY project.
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You need a couple of tubs of bamboo in front of that window.

Best advice, sacrifice the bit of land and build your own fence. You can never win with Jim types.
 
sistersofpercy said:
You need a couple of tubs of bamboo in front of that window.

Best advice, sacrifice the bit of land and build your own fence. You can never win with Jim types.
Click to expand...
If you do this you HAVE to make sure you know exactly where your boundary is. If they take an inch they’ll take a mile. Don’t let them have a cm of your land because you’ll never see it again.
 
This happened to my neighbours- they lost quite a big chunk of land in the end. The bolshy neighbours built on it - part of a drive which they had wanted all along. the nice neighbours had difficulty selling their house as the deeds/ plans were wrong. Never give an inch as some people will then take a mile. They know they can bully people into doing what they want.
 
Jkop said:
I think I’ve found the perfect place to vent!

I live in a semi on an 80s build estate, think too-small houses positioned very much on top of eachother. Never hear a peep from my attached neighbour, it’s the neighbour on the other side (70 year old man, Jim) who’s sending me round the twist.

Last May we finally got round to giving our garden a makeover and I warned Jim (he’s very nosy and chatty) that there would be workmen about for a couple of days, and explained exactly what we were having done. We had someone coming with a digger but because of the awful weather last year he kept having to put us back as he was getting behind on other jobs due to the rain. Finally the bloke said he could get to our job, but it was the week before the 6 week holidays and I didn’t want our garden to be inaccessible for most of the summer for our kids, so we agreed to postpone the work until September. I also informed Jim of this.

Day 1 of the school holidays and I looked out of the kitchen window to find that the wall and fence between us and Jim, which we are responsible for according to the deeds, had been torn down leaving a 6 foot drop from our garden to his. When I approached Jim about this he said that he was having a bricklayer come in to build a new wall all the way along, but 1.5 feet higher than the original. I was annoyed that he hadn’t approached me about this beforehand but wasn’t opposed to the plan, the more privacy the better in my eyes.

Fast forward to present day, it’s been over a year and we still only have half a badly built unsightly wall made from a mixture of breezeblocks and brick. Jim has done all the work himself and has made many promises that it will be finished “soon” but I think we’ve long since passed the point of taking the piss. We haven’t been able to carry out the work we had planned on our garden because we are waiting for Jim to fix his mess, we’re also unable to use our garden due to the safety issues and complete lack of privacy.

To add insult to injury Jim has now built a shed made out of breezeblocks (he calls it a summerhouse) and the wall of the shed is our boundary, complete with window looking directly into our garden. I’ve ended up reporting him to the council but I’m not sure whether they will help, if not we’re going to have to decide whether we’d rather spend thousands on putting a fence on our side to shut his mess out, or spend the same amount taking him to court to try and get them to order him to take the whole thing down and put it back to how it used to be which could take years. I really don’t understand why some people are so entitled that they just don’t consider anyone else! Apart from the legal implications of messing with the boundary, he’s potentially devalued our house and put off future buyers. All to keep himself busy with a DIY project.
Click to expand...
I think it might be worth looking into whether Jim’s breeze block monstrosity ‘Sunmerhouse’ is within permitted development of garden buildings. There are rules about where it can be placed, how tall it can be etc. before it requires planning permission.

I’d suggest you try and tackle him one more time setting out your issues and stressing how it is affecting your enjoyment of your own home and garden, any safety issues etc. If this is done as a chat then summarise in a letter. Set a reasonable timescale for work to be completed. If he ignores this, misses that timescale then pay for a solicitors letter to formalise this.

Ultimately he tore down your fence and the wall (unsure if this was also your responsibility) without seeking your agreement or approval and has not replaced like-for-like. If a fence needs to be re-erected it will be his responsibility to do this as he disposed of the previous one which I imagine was not unsafe, and even if it was should not have been touched without your agreement.

There are a curious group of people who seem to want to undertake ‘home improvements’ themselves without having the time, or crucially the ability to do this to a high standard, or in some cases at all. Living next door to one is bad enough, but having one do things that actively impact your own property is next level annoying!
 
Jkop said:
I think I’ve found the perfect place to vent!

I live in a semi on an 80s build estate, think too-small houses positioned very much on top of eachother. Never hear a peep from my attached neighbour, it’s the neighbour on the other side (70 year old man, Jim) who’s sending me round the twist.

Last May we finally got round to giving our garden a makeover and I warned Jim (he’s very nosy and chatty) that there would be workmen about for a couple of days, and explained exactly what we were having done. We had someone coming with a digger but because of the awful weather last year he kept having to put us back as he was getting behind on other jobs due to the rain. Finally the bloke said he could get to our job, but it was the week before the 6 week holidays and I didn’t want our garden to be inaccessible for most of the summer for our kids, so we agreed to postpone the work until September. I also informed Jim of this.

Day 1 of the school holidays and I looked out of the kitchen window to find that the wall and fence between us and Jim, which we are responsible for according to the deeds, had been torn down leaving a 6 foot drop from our garden to his. When I approached Jim about this he said that he was having a bricklayer come in to build a new wall all the way along, but 1.5 feet higher than the original. I was annoyed that he hadn’t approached me about this beforehand but wasn’t opposed to the plan, the more privacy the better in my eyes.

Fast forward to present day, it’s been over a year and we still only have half a badly built unsightly wall made from a mixture of breezeblocks and brick. Jim has done all the work himself and has made many promises that it will be finished “soon” but I think we’ve long since passed the point of taking the piss. We haven’t been able to carry out the work we had planned on our garden because we are waiting for Jim to fix his mess, we’re also unable to use our garden due to the safety issues and complete lack of privacy.

To add insult to injury Jim has now built a shed made out of breezeblocks (he calls it a summerhouse) and the wall of the shed is our boundary, complete with window looking directly into our garden. I’ve ended up reporting him to the council but I’m not sure whether they will help, if not we’re going to have to decide whether we’d rather spend thousands on putting a fence on our side to shut his mess out, or spend the same amount taking him to court to try and get them to order him to take the whole thing down and put it back to how it used to be which could take years. I really don’t understand why some people are so entitled that they just don’t consider anyone else! Apart from the legal implications of messing with the boundary, he’s potentially devalued our house and put off future buyers. All to keep himself busy with a DIY project.
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Basically Jim's a piss taking aunt. I'm afraid I would have given him the rollicking of his life the minute I saw what he had done. Don't be afraid to set boundaries for people who don't have any.......excuse the pun.
 
OnlyHereForTheLolz said:
Does Jim own his property? If he does I would take him to court. If not find out who the landlord is and have a solicitor threaten them with court.
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Yeah he owns it unfortunately so court is probably the only way to go. It’s just incredibly frustrating when that money could be put to good use making improvements on our house.
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sistersofpercy said:
You need a couple of tubs of bamboo in front of that window.

Best advice, sacrifice the bit of land and build your own fence. You can never win with Jim types.
Click to expand...
This is the route I’m leaning towards just because I can’t be doing with the hassle of trying to fight him, and the fact it could take years. At least if I put a 6.5ft fence on my land he can’t do anything about it - although he has already told me I can only have a 4ft fence so that I don’t block his window 🫠 I will of course be politely declining to observe this instruction!
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Clickbait said:
I think it might be worth looking into whether Jim’s breeze block monstrosity ‘Sunmerhouse’ is within permitted development of garden buildings. There are rules about where it can be placed, how tall it can be etc. before it requires planning permission.

I’d suggest you try and tackle him one more time setting out your issues and stressing how it is affecting your enjoyment of your own home and garden, any safety issues etc. If this is done as a chat then summarise in a letter. Set a reasonable timescale for work to be completed. If he ignores this, misses that timescale then pay for a solicitors letter to formalise this.

Ultimately he tore down your fence and the wall (unsure if this was also your responsibility) without seeking your agreement or approval and has not replaced like-for-like. If a fence needs to be re-erected it will be his responsibility to do this as he disposed of the previous one which I imagine was not unsafe, and even if it was should not have been touched without your agreement.

There are a curious group of people who seem to want to undertake ‘home improvements’ themselves without having the time, or crucially the ability to do this to a high standard, or in some cases at all. Living next door to one is bad enough, but having one do things that actively impact your own property is next level annoying!
Click to expand...
It’s a tricky one because the boundary is shown on our deeds as being our responsibility, but the original wall was obviously put in by whoever lived in the house before Jim as both sides of his garden match if you see what I mean so he’s just gone ahead and decided that both sides belong to him. I’m guessing at the time they will have had permission from whoever lived in my house, but from what I’ve been able to find on legal forums it doesn’t matter who put the wall there if it’s marked in the deeds as mine to maintain then it’s mine to keep or remove. I think from what I’ve read that we should be able to win a claim, it’s just the stress that comes with it!
 
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Haaaaaaaaaaaaaate my neighbours!

I’m of the considerate belief that you keep your garden and communal areas tidy, nope not my new neighbours! Sick of coming home and seeing a full wash load of clothes on the communal bush that divides our properties. She’s got a clothes airer but for some unknown reason instead doesn’t use that and instead she loves to spread it all over the top of the bushes. She then forgets to bring it in when it’s dried so after a few months of this said bush is now full of manky men’s pants which you can’t get because of the brambles.

Any rubbish they just leave outside in the communal area. So at present, I’ve got an old divan base, a broken high chair, a broken chair and a load of bricks. They don’t put their bin out on the right bin day so rubbish just accumulates. When I report it to the council she just sees it as an opportunity to replace the cleared shite with new shite!

Sick of it. I get out of my car and it’s literally like stig of the bleeping dump lives here. Does it not occur to them that their neighbours don’t want to see their tit piled up everywhere?
 
So today we were installing some solar lights to the privacy panel that we've put up between ours and our neighbours. That side is our side, we paid a couple of years ago over £2.5K for a custom built fence but we didn't think about it and it's actually a bit low, hence the need for a privacy panel. When the fence was installed we said to the neighbours that it was quite expensive and please don't hang anything off it or attach pots etc, just because we're trying to keep it good for as long as possible. We did however let them paint their side the color of their choice.
Fast forward a year or so we notice they've nailed pots etc into the fence. We asked them to remove them, they did.
Today while putting solar lights up we notice he's attached a trellis by drilling holes through the aris rail and using wire. Growing some tit or other up it. My hubby was raging, went to the garage, took his wire cutters and cut it off the fence. We messaged him to tell him what we've done but he hasn't replied. Cheeky fucker.

Just to say this couple are WEIRD. They are church goers.....but the wife is like a recluse, if she goes into the back garden she wears a coat with a hood up and dark glasses because the husband has told us she doesn't want anyone to speak to her. However she stands at the windows watching and he has told us she even takes pictures of whatever is going on and sends it to him at work. Another reason for the privacy panel.
If someone calls to the house they don't go in they have to stand on the doorstep.
He always ends any conversation with "have a blessed day". They've got 3 dogs but they only go in the garden to go to the toilet then are locked up all day, they don't get taken out ever. They don't clear the dogs mess up either and it sits there for months. The people the other side complained about the smell and they cleaned it up.
My next house is gonna be in the middle of a field. And soon.
 
I have the same issue with my fence being destroyed with nails, hooks and trellis growing heavy plants up their side; after paying thousands for it. They just laugh in my face and say they’ll paint it black if I carry on.
 
No fence issues here luckily but had Angela knocking on at 8pm last night asking if I could re-type, fix (aka redo), and print her Mum's friend's CV for the role of a breakfast chef at the local hotel because it was "HORRIBLE" (imagine that being said like someone was talking about an actual tragedy) because it didn't fully fill the page and the address was ever so slightly off centre in the original copy.

Flat refusal from me on many counts with every reasoning under the sun as she tries pushing back for a good 10 mins before I just started closing the door.

Who would even think "oh I'll get my neighbour to do all that on a Sunday evening before they go back to work?"
 
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