Foreign people on estate use my shared garden as communal area

Gordon_Hose

I also like how the title is 'my shared garden'.. either it's shared, or it's your own?

If the garden is shared and a resident wants his friends over, then there's nothing you can do.

If they aren't picking up the dog doo and leaving the door unlocked you need to report it to the LL/Managing Agent.

moneyistooshorttomention

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

There's a language barrier, a cultural barrier and an entire close and tenacious community ready to close ranks against anything they perceive as an attack.

I've been on the wrong side (and entirely innocent) of a dispute with a member of an expat community. Mine happened to be Georgian but it could have been any nationality. Expat British are probably the same.

The extent to which so many perfectly respectable people were prepared to lie and pay for false evidence in order to support 'one of their own' was truly frightening.

Don't ever underestimate that feeling.

It does sound rather like that is what is happening here.

You never know (until you are somewhere "different") just what your cultural expectations are. I'm middle class English - so my personal cultural expectations are@

- peace/quiet/privacy in your own home
- no-one else even tries to tell you what to do in your own home
- a high level of "maintenance" is done on the house/garden (absolutely taken for granted that the very first thing you do on moving into a new home is to sit down and analyse what work you are going to do on the place...). So you moan/work out the finances/show everyone around after you have done the work and expect "respect" for having tackled it in the first place.

...but it honestly may not strike you unless and until people from different backgrounds and/or cultures are around you that that may not be "Just how things are and what EVERYONE thinks/expects" until you are somewhere where one or more households think/expect different to what you do personally.:(

I know I couldn't personally handle a "feel free to make free" ethos around my home because, by now, I have adapted to that background I personally have and have adapted to that "peace and quiet"/expectation of privacy expectation. That's the thing...and we all do a certain level of adaptation to our personal surroundings. I know my own limitations on that, so understand, and they boil down to "I will adapt in many respects, but if anyone expects "respect" just for being elderly, then they can jog on...because it wont happen" and that's my own personal take on moving from England to rural-ish Wales (ie I am used to people being judged as individual people and that's that and the end of...and external factors that aren't to do with the "person" themselves are totally irrelevant to me personally).

Maybe that is what is happening here...ie these people have come from a more "social" culture than us Brits....and the clash is being felt visibly....so the onus is basically on them to adapt to our culture on the one hand. On the other hand...there may be ways in which it may or may not be reasonable to expect that (ie as we are a HIGHLY privacy-minded culture and a little bit "cold" by world standards - yep me included..because we adapt after many years of being British).

dekaspace

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Not relevant at all, and I'm little offended by it.

I'm foreign-born, and the area close to where I live (having a large airport) has a large number of foreign nationals from countries that are close to mine, and we often meet up./QUOTE]

You are offended as you are jumping on the PC bandwagon, I never meant they were disrespectful because they are foreign but as they are foreign they stick with people from their own country, therefore its relevant since their behaviour is based on their foreign community. I even said foreign so I was not accused of racism based on accusing people from a certain country.

And fyi my grandparents are from the same country as these people, I never got to learn the language as they died before I was born and my parents were raised with English as their first language and I want to go to the country someday and each time I speak to someone in detail from that country I mention my grandparents and my surname which is from that country(my father changed our family name back to the foreign name after grandparents died)

If you want to get into foreign born my mother was born when my grandfather on her side was in the army and she spent many of her pre teen years abroad and has a foreign birth certificate and can get a foreign passport from the country of her birth

Backing up all the people who come round are from the same country as the downstairs neighbour, if all the people who came round were British I would have the SAME problems just a few differences

By the way I can be offended by the fact you used the word English since to me that means you think everyone in the UK is English and I am Scottish.

dekaspace

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

I also like how the title is 'my shared garden'.. either it's shared, or it's your own?

If the garden is shared and a resident wants his friends over, then there's nothing you can do.

If they aren't picking up the dog doo and leaving the door unlocked you need to report it to the LL/Managing Agent.

It seemed to make the most sense than other titles, but I could of maybe reworded it to communal garden being used by non residents I was trying to word it in such a way that it was clear it was part of the property I stayed in that was shared by others in building

The issue is not that the resident wants his friends over its that they come in as if they live here and dont even go near the foreign neighbours property its straight through to the garden as if its their garden, if they came to visit my neighbour and all went in the garden then the only issue would be IF I wanted to go out to the garden say with my own guests I would be treated like I have no right, or that if I wanted to go to my shared garden for peace and quiet and people who dont live in property just walk into garden and use it as if its a playpark

And the people with the dog seem to walk across open door, either by a key or someone buzzing them in and go to garden and let dog run around and do its business and do not go near their friends flat so thats not the same as the tenant having guests and being in garden with them,

Pixie5740

You haven't answered the question about where in the UK you live as there are different rules in place about how you can tackle the nuisance neighbour. Then there's a question about whether the neighbour in question is an owner occupier or a tenant. These things do matter.

For example in Scotland a landlord has a responsibility to ensure their tenants aren't a nuisance to the neighbours by say, leaving the security door open and letting dogs poo all over the place.

So if this person is a tenant and you live in Scotland then a word with the landlord might get it sorted out. If the landlord does nothing or tries to shirk his/her responsibility then contact the council.

I had a problem with a noisy neighbour and their landlord didn't do anything and made out like it wasn't their problem. I contacted the council and the council went through the landlord like a dose of salts. The problem got sorted out after that.

princeofpounds

I also like how the title is 'my shared garden'.. either it's shared, or it's your own?

Whilst I expect that the OP was using an imprecise term, it is actually entirely possible to own a shared garden. That sort of arrangement happens all the time with shared driveways for example.

jjlandlord

dekaspace wrote: »

You are offended as you are jumping on the PC bandwagon, I never meant they were disrespectful because they are foreign but as they are foreign they stick with people from their own country, therefore its relevant since their behaviour is based on their foreign community. I even said foreign so I was not accused of racism based on accusing people from a certain country.

It's not about PC, it's about you repeating that they are foreigners at least once per sentence.
At some point people might see that as xenophobic (you thought just saying 'foreigner' would make it all nice and cuddly?)

This is actuallly an useful piece of advice for you, especially if you intend to bring the matter further to the management, landlord, council, etc. : Stick to the facts of their behaviour.

dominoman

dekaspace wrote: »

The issue is not that the resident wants his friends over its that they come in as if they live here and dont even go near the foreign neighbours property its straight through to the garden as if its their garden

I still don't see what it has to do with being foreign. When you speak to the council or the landlord I'd really advise not mentioning that at all - as it will make them suspect this is about a racial intolerance.

Have you read your lease. What does it say about the use of the communal garden? It may talk about it being for the use of residents and their guests. If non-residents are using it without being accompanied you could simply ask them to leave - or if you don't want confrontation ask the management company to do it.

The issue with the door should be easily solved. Check it is always locked, and that the management company checks it is locked regularly. In our last block someone put up a *polite* sign on the door asking residents to check it was locked as non-residents had been in. That did the job. (The sign didn't mention foreigners)

However, all this can be circumvented by the tenant if they really wanted to. Instead, why not invite them around for a beer, introduce yourself properly and make friends. They may not even realise they are doing anything to upset you.

dominoman

dekaspace wrote: »

You are offended as you are jumping on the PC bandwagon, I never meant they were disrespectful because they are foreign but as they are foreign they stick with people from their own country, therefore its relevant since their behaviour is based on their foreign community.

A few years ago I studied in Bordeaux for a year. At the time I often hung around with a group of other English people from the neighbouring university. They used to come into our halls of residence and we'd congregate as foreigners do, talk loudly in our foreign language and drink our foreign beers.

I'm glad my fellow students were a tolerant bunch. If they told us to shut up it was because we were too loud - not because we were foreign.

egoode

dominoman wrote: »

A few years ago I studied in Bordeaux for a year. At the time I often hung around with a group of other English people from the neighbouring university. They used to come into our halls of residence and we'd congregate as foreigners do, talk loudly in our foreign language and drink our foreign beers.

I'm glad my fellow students were a tolerant bunch. If they told us to shut up it was because we were too loud - not because we were foreign.

But did your friends come into the halls of residence and drink beer and make a noise and mess when you weren't there? I think the OP has a legitimate complaint in that people who don't live in the block are using the yard when their friend who does live in the block isn't there. Personally I think they should only be allowed to use the space if they are actually there with their friend.

As to what he OP can do about it try and find a translator to come with you when you next try to speak to the neighbour so they can't claim they doesn't understand!