Neighbor weaponizing High frequency cat scarers.

missile

"Also as much as I wish I could go and turn them off I do not want to be accused of vandalism."
I would do it in the dark when no one is looking.

theoretica

You might find some specialist advice if you contacted either your council care/social services department or Age Concern.

FaceHead

You don't have a viable legal route in order to get this resolved. Environmental health or solicitors could write letters, but won't actually disable the devices. To actually get something like this through the courts at the moment is going to take a completely unacceptable amount of time and money. 

Based on your account the neighbor is unlikely to listen to reason and take them down if shown they are disrupting your life and/or unlawful, and the legal route would be an actually enforceable order. 

Unfortunately you're left with only the unlawful remedies already suggested. Sometimes it's just got to be done. As such, do not involve the council, police etc. as this only points the finger at you should the sabotage be exposed. 

naf123

Also remember the impact on your property if you were to declare it when selling up....

Doozergirl

Niall02 said:

She'll know the letter is from us if the Environmental health do write one. But as the law is not on our side my worry is she will up her game and order more. She seem to know what shes doing and I had wondered if dementia was at play. No family or friends. I did go around offering to get shopping when covid hit and left my number and relevant telephone numbers incase of an emergency or needing food. It's such a shame respect is not a two way street!

It's such a shame it fulls under civil matter as I do not want to drag an elderly person who may be suffering from dementia to court. Also as much as I wish I could go and turn them off I do not want to be accused of vandalism.

The kindest thing to do, for everyone's sake, is to disable them.  

You spending more time in your garden (in January?) means nothing.    I think you're being a soft touch if you even think that a perfectly reasonable letter from EH is a problem. 

She puts more in, you turn them off.  Discretely.  She's none the wiser.  

fenwick458

they don't work anyway, I tried them.  years ago the neighbors cat used to curl one off regularly on my lawn, tried several solutions before I found the one that works: a water scarecrow. cost £20, you connect it to your hosepipe, it runs off a 9v battery and anytime anyone or a cat goes infront of it they get soaked. I took great delight in watching the cat leap 6ft off the ground backwards the first time it got blasted with it, and it never returned.
If I were in your shoes i'd try buying one and fitting it for her, then removing the noisy ones

Emmia

fenwick458 said:

they don't work anyway, I tried them.  years ago the neighbors cat used to curl one off regularly on my lawn, tried several solutions before I found the one that works: a water scarecrow. cost £20, you connect it to your hosepipe, it runs off a 9v battery and anytime anyone or a cat goes infront of it they get soaked. I took great delight in watching the cat leap 6ft off the ground backwards the first time it got blasted with it, and it never returned.
If I were in your shoes i'd try buying one and fitting it for her, then removing the noisy ones

I don't think the neighbour is trying to deter cats... 

Jeepers_Creepers

Now, that's a thought... :-)

A water-scarecrow - mounted at top-of-fence height facing her garden so she gets soaked whenever she moves.

Ok, that would undoubtedly be considered either harassment and/or physical assault. My point being - what's the difference between being assaulted by water and high-frequency sound, both of which are aimed at you? Serious question.

I reckon - due to the way she's set up and aimed these devices - this is a legal matter. I reckon the local Bobby would tell her to 'cease and desist'.

(Still quite taken by Doozer's 'quietly disable them' suggestion, tho'. I wonder how easy this would be, without doing something obvious like snipping the cable - I presume they are very low voltage?)

Jeepers_Creepers

fenwick458 said:

they don't work anyway, I tried them.  years ago the neighbors cat used to curl one off regularly on my lawn, tried several solutions before I found the one that works: a water scarecrow. cost £20, you connect it to your hosepipe, it runs off a 9v battery and anytime anyone or a cat goes infront of it they get soaked. I took great delight in watching the cat leap 6ft off the ground backwards the first time it got blasted with it, and it never returned.
If I were in your shoes i'd try buying one and fitting it for her, then removing the noisy ones

What you mean is, they don't work on cats... :-(

mug2007

We use to live in a cul de sac and had lots of problems with cats using our garden for their convenience.  Thankfully before we even thought about getting an ultrasonic cat scarer our neighbour explained they had bought one and had to decommission it straight away as the children next door could hear it.  If only all neighbours were so considerate.  You could suggest alternative ideas like using chicken wire, planting thorny plants such as roses or the motion activated deterrent spray suggested earlier. We ended up living with the problem.

So frustrating that your neighbour doesn’t seem to be listening to your concerns, it’s really not on.