Neighbour nightmare

sleepless120

Hi all

I bought my house a few years ago. Next door rent privately through a private landlord - I believe this is an unofficial rent through someone they know who now lives abroad. We are not attached to next door, but our gardens are divided by a hedge.

They have 6 children and we never used to have a problem until the past couple of years. Namely:

1) During the warm days they are incredibly noisy inc. swearing (they are age 3-15) which used to keep my own son up at night. They would be outside until after 9pm most nights. The noise was so loud I could hear it over the tv. The noise can be heard from the front of the house despite them being at the back, which is hard for my pregnant wife when she is trying to sleep.

2) The boys kick 1 or more balls over into the garden on an almost daily basis. They have the audacity to go into our garden and retrieve them ourselves, via a huge hole they have made in the hedge (as per the deeds, the hedge is our responsibility). My wife planted bushes/plants in the hole to block it and make it look nice, but they trampled them all down and killed them so they could get their balls. We have seen them walk the whole length (150 feet) of the garden looking for their balls. This is despite us telling them to stay out of our garden.

3) They drop litter in our front garden and sit on our front wall regularly.

4) Their dog (a breed with a bad rep) enters our garden through the hole and went for me on one occasion when I went near it. My son is now terrified it will kill him or his baby sister if they go outside.

5) A ball came over the hedge today and hit me hard in the chest. I then had next door's mum arguing with my wife because I shouted at the 15 yo for it. She seemed to find it unfair that I yelled at him to kick it the other way, whilst I find it alarming given that last year the same thing happened and it skimmed my 3 yo's head by mm.

6) My wife is heavily pregnant and on the rare occasion the 15yo knocked to ask for the ball, she told him she would look after he kept saying he'd get it himself. She has severe spd and can barely walk but bless her went to find it. She couldn't see it so came inside. When I came home 30 minutes later they were swinging on the fence shouting "hello?!?!! get our ball or we will come and get it" and had been doing this for 30 minutes. They only stopped when their mum came home.

7) Countless times of them touching our expensive car and scratching it by accident as they use it to hide behind etc.

8) Throw stones at my 5yo the one time he plays in the garden.

9) Throw their rubbish into our garden regularly.

10) Dog barks incessantly during the day.


That's all I can think of atm but I am seriously p*ssed off now. My 5 yo is terrified to use the garden and my wife won't want his friends coming round incase they go home telling their mums about "the strange boys coming into the garden". The thing is, they know we are home, and they still do it rather than knock!

We put up with it for 2 years but then my wife had enough and told their mum about them coming in our garden, who to be fair has told them off about it and I don't think they have done it since. My wife gets on well with their mum until the most recent incident. We all have to live here, but now my poor wife is dreading having the baby next week because she doesn't want to live here anymore. She wants to sell up and move. Tbh we are getting fed up to the point where we just want to leave.

We never use our garden anymore, because the 2 attempts we have used it so far this year there have been incidents. We can't enjoy the garden or let our child play by themselves or with friends out there incase the boys come in, or they get yelled/sworn at by the boys, or a ball hits them. My wife is scared to death that a ball will come over and hit our baby when it's born if she takes it out in the garden. It's really no way to live. The 5yo is scared the dog will hurt him or his sister.

What gets me is that they use their garden every single day, they get to enjoy their garden in the weather from 7am until late night, whereas we can't enjoy even 30 minutes without something happening! We can't relax when we're out incase they damage the garden or house. We spent a fortune buying it and renovating it and now we can't even plant flowers without them being destroyed by balls.

Worst thing is, the gardens are huge - there is no reason for the ball to go over our side, they could move the goal away from our hedge and kick it downwards instead of towards our garden! It never seems to go into the garden at the back of theirs, probably because they can't vandalise the fence to get it back like they can destroy our hedge!

I don't see why I should have the expense of fitting a fence in front of the hedge to stop them and tbh they'd probably just smash it down anyway.


I want to report them to the police but the wife doesn't want any more aggro because she's here all day and I work. We all have to live here, so what can I do????

moneyistooshorttomention

Possibly a prickly type plant put to fill that hole in the hedge might be a start? - eg blackthorn (aka sloes).? These can give some pretty nasty scratches for anyone trying to reach through them and that might make them think twice.

Another thought being dig up a few nettle plants and put them in place there?

Maybe you could get away with not even planting thorny plants there - but find somewhere to just cut some growing wild and lay them across that hole wedged into place?

From your own personal pov - ie to ensure your own children couldn't get hurt by these plants - then I imagine it would be easy enough to put some barrier around those plants - so that your children couldn't manage to get through to them?

Leeds_House_Mover

Build a fence.

Accept that kids playing football is actually a great thing and throw the balls back straight away.

moneyistooshorttomention

Mind now boggling at the thought of paying for 150' feet of even cheap level fencing:eek:.

I'd be willing to bet these louts would find a way to bash holes through wooden fencing even and only walls would deter them at that level. Don't even go there to start investigating the cost of walls - you don't want to know just how much they cost, even if you're in an area of the country that thinks walls can equal "concrete block walls" rather than proper walls (ie brick or stone). Your hair will go white at the cost....

bambos

Personally if this was me I would put in spiky bushes and nettles then put in concrete posts directly in front of the hedge attaching galvanised steel wire fencing which from afar won't be seen but will prevent kids/dog/ball going into your garden. Make it a sensible height too so it covers the hedge and stops the balls flying over.

In relation to them sitting on your wall I would suggest non drying paint which can be brought from B&Q/Homebase and paste it on top of your wall, they'll only sit there once.

As for the car being used as a hiding place invest in a motion sensor alarm where it goes off when someone goes near it.

moneyistooshorttomention

Further thought here - ie re that dog.

Personally, I would be sending them a letter stating re the occasions on which it had come into my garden and that I would be seeking legal redress if it should harm me or mine in any way (keep a copy).

That would then place the onus on them that you had provided yourself with the evidence you needed as to the date at which they could reasonably have known they might cause damage to yourselves or your property. Well...that's how it works when it comes to employer-related health damage and the employee can produce proof of a date from which the employer definitely knew they were at risk of harming their employee (that's the reason for Accident Books at work). That is voice of personal experience there...;)

moneyistooshorttomention

bambos wrote: »

Personally if this was me I would put in spiky bushes and nettles then put in concrete posts directly in front of the hedge attaching galvanised steel wire fencing which from afar won't be seen but will prevent kids/dog/ball going into your garden. Make it a sensible height too so it covers the hedge and stops the balls flying over.

In relation to them sitting on your wall I would suggest non drying paint which can be brought from B&Q/Homebase and paste it on top of your wall, they'll only sit there once.

As for the car being used as a hiding place invest in a motion sensor alarm where it goes off when someone goes near it.

Barbed wire is indeed another thought.

I'm currently asking for ways on another thread as to how to deal with getting through this - and this is where I am "in the right". That is = I'm a walker wondering how to get through barbed wire a farmer has deliberately put up to block public footpaths that happen to cross his land.

NB; Bear in mind that it would cost you thousands of £s to deal with taking the "Lets Move to get away from these louts" route. I've recently moved from a comparatively cheap house in one area of the country to ditto elsewhere (ie beneath £200k in each house) and it cost me around £9,000 I would say for the costs involved. That is without taking account of the work I have had to do on my "new" house - you don't want to know again..but it is WELL up into 5 figures....

Much cheaper to try and find ways to deal with these louts...

bambos

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Barbed wire is indeed another thought.

I'm currently asking for ways on another thread as to how to deal with getting through this - and this is where I am "in the right". That is = I'm a walker wondering how to get through barbed wire a farmer has deliberately put up to block public footpaths that happen to cross his land.

I agree. I think if the wire is on the op's property then no onus is on op if injury occurs as it's technically trespassing.

In addition to your query I think if it's public land then the farmer can be reported to the local authority for preventing access. I would enjoy my walks armed with reinforced steel mesh lined gloves and a pair of heavy duty wire cutters tbh. HTH

DRP

I would put up a fence to stop the dog - your family's safety is your prime concern. This will have the added benefit of stopping the kids too (1.8m fence).

The rest of the stuff although annoying is difficult to counter, as arguably it can be considered just kids being kids (noisy, retrieving footballs, playing close to parked cars) - i bet my neighbours said similar things about me and my mates 25 years ago...

moneyistooshorttomention

Put it this way - if they have SIX:eek: children then...ummm...I'd take a guess on very good odds that they might not necessarily be capable of fighting articulate "fire with fire"....:cool: - one way or another.....

phoenix_w

I agree with the fence suggestion. 6' high fence. If they try to climb it, put up some of the plastic prikka strips on the top.

Be polite but firm - tell them you just want everyone to enjoy their houses and gardens without infringing on anyone's privacy. Tell the parents to keep their kids away from your car, wall and garden otherwise you'll get onto the plod and report it as anti-social behaviour. Tell them that if they lose their ball you'll throw it back when you're able, but if they so much as lay a toe on your lawn you'll add it to the catalogue of bad behaviour to report.