• Replies 65 replies
  • Subscribers 39 subscribers
  • Views 2014 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Irritating neighbours

Sporadic Sparkly

Do you have neighbours who annoy the heck out of you?

Back in the summer, I received an unexpected visit from my council housing officer and one of her colleagues. The reason being that a complaint had been made to the council about the state of my garden. Furthermore, the complainant had also contacted the MP for my area, which had resulted in the MP putting pressure on the council to get their tenant (me) to sort out their neglected and overgrown eyesore of a garden.

My son had been with me when this visit took place. Although the housing officer could not tell us who the complainant was, my son and I were both 99.9% sure that the complainant was a particular neighbour of ours who has a reputation for being a bit of a bully.

Fortunately for me, my local council know that I can struggle physically. It was made clear that if I was perfectly able-bodied, the pressure being applied by the MP would have resulted in the council pursuing the legal route and taking me to court. That said, if I was perfectly able-bodied, it's unlikely that I would have allowed my garden to end up becoming an eyesore.

It wasn't the complaint as such that irked me, but the fact that the complainant had not considered the option of sharing their concerns about my garden with me first. I'm not an unreasonable person, or at least I don't think I am. 

I have what I consider to be a good rapport with the rest of my neighbours, but it seems like this one particular neighbour seems to take great delight in trying to antagonise and intimidate anyone and everyone to get what he wants. As my son said, if the state of my garden was causing the neighbour distress, there was nothing stopping them from going down the neighbourly route and offering to help me get it sorted.

Parents

  • I think every street has a Tin Pot Hitler who thinks they have the right to enforce their will and what they consider right and proper on everybody else.

    If you get more complaints you could say you have a wildlife garden! If your neighbour's that bothered about it, then why not offer to help you?

Reply

  • I think every street has a Tin Pot Hitler who thinks they have the right to enforce their will and what they consider right and proper on everybody else.

    If you get more complaints you could say you have a wildlife garden! If your neighbour's that bothered about it, then why not offer to help you?

Children
  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Great idea! Contact Chris Packham - ask if he'd visit to look for interesting wildlife and insects. Then get the local wildlife trust to help put up insect and bat boxes and hedgehog homes, contacting the local rag to offer this as, 'save the planet' news.  You'll become local eco hero - annoying neighbour will be the one who's ostracized..

    Rats are very intelligent - I used to get told off for feeding them bird suet balls on the boatyard where I used to live. Unlike humans, rats self-regulate the size of colonies according to the food available. Pity that doesn't happen in social housing Wink .

  • in reply to TheCatWoman
    TheCatWoman said:
    If you get more complaints you could say you have a wildlife garden!

    If I'm honest, I'm inclined to think this might well have been what had driven the neighbour to make the complaint... the fear that my garden might attract the wrong kind of wildlife.

    Part-way through the course of last year, a number of us had been having issues with rats in our lofts. The Pest Control person who had visited my nightmare neighbour was of the opinion that the rats were getting in through my loft.

    My house is an end-terrace, and my back garden partially wraps around the side of my house. Much to my frustration (and the nightmare neighbour), I have self-seeding trees in my garden that grow like wildfire, with some that are hard to access.

    Whilst the Pest Control person who had visited me last year could find no signs of an entry point, the nightmare neighbour's opinion was that the rats were using the trees in my garden to gain access to my loft and the other neighbours' lofts.

    If I could afford the eye-watering cost, I would enlist the services of a tree surgeon to fell the trees in my garden, or at least get them to a height that my son could realistically manage.