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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.

  • in reply to Sporadic Sparkly

    The shape of the problem seems a bit clearer. It is not simply a matter of a poorly mannered neighbour. It is not even the case that collective action between you and the neighbour could necessarily achieve sufficient progress. It appears that the authorities should tackle the issue because they have the budget and access to the specialist skills to deal with the trees and the rodents in a comprehensive way. Ignore my advice if you feel that it is simplistic, but could your son, instead of engaging in difficult tasks, contact the authorities (via an assistant of your MP or otherwise) to tell them that if they don't invest and act appropriately they are putting the safety and cohesion of your neighbourhood at risk? While budgets are tight following years of austerity they must understand that not sorting out trees and rodents in the short-term will have cost implications in the long-term. If the authorities can be persuaded to take the environmental problem seriously then issues between you and your neighbour could be dialled down. Perhaps you might then see that it was not simply that your neighbour was a nightmare but that both of you were put in a nightmarish situation by the inadequate response of people who have the resources to do a better job. I apologise if this advice has already been tried and I appreciate the fact that you might feel that significant better neighbour relations are a bit of a fantasy. Good luck.

  • 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. 

  • Yes. My neighbour in the upstairs property moved out and let her property. Before she did this she installed an en suite bathroom and toilet directly above my main bedroom. I have been told there is nothing I can do about this. The tenants are not considerate of waking people during the night. Tenants and owners do bit have the same tolerance as owner neighbours, even if you talk to your neighbours they might still go behind your back.

  • 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?

  • Neighbours can be hard work. If they had a problem with your garden, they could have explained it carefully in a note and put it through your door. Having read about their specific concerns, you could have contacted them with a view to a negotiation. You are not unreasonable, but we live in a world with the unreasonable. The only thing that we can do is remain calm. If we behave to a better standard than the people who mistreat us, then ultimately we prove that we are deserving of better treatment. If we keep our self-esteem high we will be well-positioned to sort stuff out.