Fence issue with aggressive neighbours

goldlemontree

Hello, I'm not sure if this is the right forum but I couldn't find anything else fitting!

I am having some trouble with my neighbours and would really love some advice as it has been getting me down a lot quite frankly.

I bought a house in September and have only started decorating/ working on it now since the weather has been better. My neighbour leant some mattresses against two fence panels and damaged them irreparably. I took some pictures while they were leant against it in case I had to prove this.

I went over and spoke to her son who took my number and I asked him to tell his parents to call me at their convenience to discuss it. I've never met them before as I haven't really lived in the house since I bought it, so have only seen a few of the neighbours every now and then really.

They didn't get in touch for a few weeks, and in that time the fence completely toppled so there is a massive gap in my garden leading into theirs. They didn't come over or even acknowledge that this had happened.

I went over again, the lady who opened the door was hostile from the very start I could tell. This made me a little nervous I guess so I might have come across as accusatory. I said I had spoken to her son a few weeks ago because they had been leaning some things against the fence which had broken it. She said "they weren't leaning on the fence", to which I replied that they were and that I had pictures in case things were to get difficult. To this she became immediately aggressive and said she couldn't believe that I was there talking to her about the fence when she was clearly busy with clearing rubbish (I didn't see how this was relevant, I also had no idea of this anyway since I haven't really been living there). I said I didn't wanna fall out over a fence, but I didn't want to pay for it either. She said she didn't have time for it along with some other things and slammed the door in my face.

I knocked on the door again and she opened it and started yelling "GET THE !!!! OFF MY YARD" and getting quite physically intimidating. She also told me to stop parking in another neighbours space (Again, I don't see how this was relevant, and I don't think I have since I'm only there about 10 mins a day to feed the cat!). I said she would be hearing from my solicitor and she said fine and continued to swear at me to go away.

I left her a note saying I wanted her to reconsider as court would be a waste of both of our time. She sent one back saying that the fence was already that way before I moved in and has steadily been getting worse, and also that she didn't like my approach towards her and for also not introducing myself as a neighbour (I hardly think this was the rudest thing that happened during our exchange). She also said the cost of fence panel isn't worth going to court so it would never get there, I feel that this is true...She also wrote that she would be happy to have a "responsible chat" about it when she is ready. I don't think she is capable of this and I don't really want to deal with her again, but judging by the way her garden looks I have no idea when she will be 'ready' to talk about it if at all.

Would really like some advice about my options please if anyone has any idea! I live alone so feel worried everytime I pop home that I'll bump into her and also if I take things further, but really want that fence fixed! I looked in my deeds, and it doesn't specify which side of fence is my responsibility but the sellers wrote in a questionnaire I wrote them that they 'maintained' the fence on the right (which is the one that is damaged now). I don't know if the neighbour was telling the truth and the fence actually was in bad condition, but regardless, it was absolutely fine before they leant mattresses etc on it and broke it!

MX5huggy

A perfectly fine fence does not fail from having a mattress lent against it. Fix your fence and forget about it.

good_advice

Pay up for the fence and be nice to your neighbour. You have to live next to each other.

justme111

I suppose it is either apply to court or do it yourself. Or drop them a note apologising for the scene that happened, suggesting you replay it and suggesting meeting for a coffee on a neutral territory with time specified or if inconvenient asking her to say what time is convenient.
If applying to court may be difficult to prove those were her mattresses that broke it. I would say a fence that was broken by leaning mattresses were on the last legs
I do not think it was a clever idea to chose the first conversation with neighbours to be grievance about fence.
Specially knocking on their door for it.
May be rough/ish neighbourhood . Or may be you were not as polite as you are writing here.

Tiddlywinks

goldlemontree wrote: »

Hello, I'm not sure if this is the right forum but I couldn't find anything else fitting!

I am having some trouble with my neighbours and would really love some advice as it has been getting me down a lot quite frankly.

I bought a house in September and have only started decorating/ working on it now since the weather has been better. My neighbour leant some mattresses against two fence panels and damaged them irreparably. I took some pictures while they were leant against it in case I had to prove this.

I went over and spoke to her son who took my number and I asked him to tell his parents to call me at their convenience to discuss it. I've never met them before as I haven't really lived in the house since I bought it, so have only seen a few of the neighbours every now and then really.

They didn't get in touch for a few weeks, and in that time the fence completely toppled so there is a massive gap in my garden leading into theirs. They didn't come over or even acknowledge that this had happened.

I went over again, the lady who opened the door was hostile from the very start I could tell. This made me a little nervous I guess so I might have come across as accusatory. I said I had spoken to her son a few weeks ago because they had been leaning some things against the fence which had broken it. She said "they weren't leaning on the fence", to which I replied that they were and that I had pictures in case things were to get difficult. To this she became immediately aggressive and said she couldn't believe that I was there talking to her about the fence when she was clearly busy with clearing rubbish (I didn't see how this was relevant, I also had no idea of this anyway since I haven't really been living there). I said I didn't wanna fall out over a fence, but I didn't want to pay for it either. She said she didn't have time for it along with some other things and slammed the door in my face.

I knocked on the door again and she opened it and started yelling "GET THE !!!! OFF MY YARD" and getting quite physically intimidating. She also told me to stop parking in another neighbours space (Again, I don't see how this was relevant, and I don't think I have since I'm only there about 10 mins a day to feed the cat!). I said she would be hearing from my solicitor and she said fine and continued to swear at me to go away.

I left her a note saying I wanted her to reconsider as court would be a waste of both of our time. She sent one back saying that the fence was already that way before I moved in and has steadily been getting worse, and also that she didn't like my approach towards her and for also not introducing myself as a neighbour (I hardly think this was the rudest thing that happened during our exchange). She also said the cost of fence panel isn't worth going to court so it would never get there, I feel that this is true...She also wrote that she would be happy to have a "responsible chat" about it when she is ready. I don't think she is capable of this and I don't really want to deal with her again, but judging by the way her garden looks I have no idea when she will be 'ready' to talk about it if at all.

Would really like some advice about my options please if anyone has any idea! I live alone so feel worried everytime I pop home that I'll bump into her and also if I take things further, but really want that fence fixed! I looked in my deeds, and it doesn't specify which side of fence is my responsibility but the sellers wrote in a questionnaire I wrote them that they 'maintained' the fence on the right (which is the one that is damaged now). I don't know if the neighbour was telling the truth and the fence actually was in bad condition, but regardless, it was absolutely fine before they leant mattresses etc on it and broke it!

Fences are pretty robust normally - leaning a mattress against a panel isn't likely to break it.

You could have handled things a lot better - why one earth did you threaten going to a solicitor? If you really did intend to do that then that would have been an epic waste of time and money.

Your neighbour has offered to have a sensible chat about this so wait for her to contact you.

Realistically, you should agree that you both started off on the wrong foot and say you were feeling stressed by the move.

goldlemontree

I only mentioned a solicitor when she had slammed the door on me as it was obvious she didn't want to discuss it at all. It wasn't just mattresses - it was the heavier frame/drawer parts of bed too - and even if it was not in the best shape, it was in serviceable condition before they did that so surely the polite, normal thing to do would be to at least acknowledge and admit it, and be willing to talk about it when I bought it up about a month after I had actually noticed it had happened?

goldlemontree

Also, after being shouted at quite a lot by this woman, I did write in the note I posted to her that I didn't want our chat to go like that and would still like to be friends since we're neighbours, along with asking her to reconsider, to which she replied with that note.

pickledonionspaceraider

I would buy a fence panel for all of £20 and try to at least be civil - seems to be the less of two evils and parting with twenty quid for a fence panel is going to be a lot less stressful long term than pursuing the start of this neighbour dispute

missbooboo

I too am having some issues regards to fences & nasty neighbours.

Your neighbour should not be leaning anything against your fence regardless even if it was on it's last legs! Owning a house has a lot of responsibilities, why do some people take them seriously and others make up their own rules?!

She is obviously not the kind that cares about boundaries and laws - good luck with living next to her! The fact she denied that she had anything leaning against your fence means she cannot be trusted...tread carefully. If your photo's are dated that should help towards your case. How much would it cost to fix this fence issue?

You have her attention after the mention of a solicitor otherwise she wouldn’t bother writing back. I think you have done the right thing, it's never easy being the new kid on the block and why should you be bullied by this nasty behaviour!

NewShadow

missbooboo wrote: »

Owning a house has a lot of responsibilities, why do some people take them seriously and others make up their own rules?!

She is obviously not the kind that cares about boundaries and laws - good luck with living next to her!

Out of curiosity... is there some rule or law I'm not aware of that means someone shouldn't lean something temporarily against a fence which (presumably) makes up the boundary between two properties?

Yes, you shouldn't do anything which breaks said fence, but...

PeacefulWaters

I just think you approached it all wrong and set the tone.