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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

  • Bizarre thing I find about living in a block of flats, I barely see my neighbours. I assumed you'd see them more living in the same building but I've lived here for a long time now and I so rarely even walk past them. I don't hear them an awful lot either fortunately. I did have one younger person living opposite me for a short amount of time who liked a party, that was a struggle. But she didn't live there long.

    I don't have a garden either which is a good thing because I'd never get on top of it.

    You are right though, they should have approached you first and discussed it with you. It might just be TV warping my perception but I feel like the modern world has taken away a lot of neighbourlyness. Communities are not as tight knit as they used to be and rather than take an interest in your neighbour people are just ready with the complaints instead.

Reply

  • Bizarre thing I find about living in a block of flats, I barely see my neighbours. I assumed you'd see them more living in the same building but I've lived here for a long time now and I so rarely even walk past them. I don't hear them an awful lot either fortunately. I did have one younger person living opposite me for a short amount of time who liked a party, that was a struggle. But she didn't live there long.

    I don't have a garden either which is a good thing because I'd never get on top of it.

    You are right though, they should have approached you first and discussed it with you. It might just be TV warping my perception but I feel like the modern world has taken away a lot of neighbourlyness. Communities are not as tight knit as they used to be and rather than take an interest in your neighbour people are just ready with the complaints instead.

Children
  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum
    Expecto_Patronum said:
    Bizarre thing I find about living in a block of flats, I barely see my neighbours.

    This actually doesn't surprise me. With houses, I have often found it to be the case that there will be neighbours who arrive home from work around the time, or be out in their gardens at the same time, therefore providing an opportunity to stop and have a conversation.

    In the modern world, I think neighbourliness possibly has a lot to do with age and upbringing. In the cul-de-sac where I live, it seems to be the case that the neighbourly neighbours are 40+. Some neighbourhoods seem to be more neighbourly than others.

  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum

    I understand how you feel, I also live in a block of flats and I rarely mix with my neighbours.   Only contact with people below was them complaining that water was leaking from my flat into their ceiling.