Evil Neighbours Thread

['WellDel]

40 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

At my mum's a few weeks ago, a couple of guys came to the door offering to power wash the drive.

 

I told them thanks but no thanks; I did it in April. They moved on.

I have since found out that the cut mum's neighbour's grass. This is a couple in their 90s. They charged them £850, didn't even do the edges.

You see some folk getting fleeced by these obvious chancers and it's hard to feel sympathy for their stupidity. Absolutely boils your piss though to see them taking advantage of the old and  vulnerable. No conscience whatsoever, the dirty bassas.

[BigBo10]

I was cutting the outlaws grass and the door chappers appeared. Went to the gran in law across the road and I politely told him she wasn’t interested. What’s its effin to do you was my response.  That’s my gran’s house suitably answered that and the older man then came to speak to me. I explained that the next five houses were all old people who didn’t need any help and they buggered off. I dread to think what they could have “earned”.

[BigBo10]

But on your fence, take the slats off you side. Whack their bit with a big hammer for ventilation holes and then explain as it’s your fence you do do whatever the hell you want to it. 

[Bert Raccoon]

Torch the fence and if need be their house. Yes the fire may spread to your own property but it's a risk you just have to take. 

[scottsdad]

1 hour ago, Boghead ranter said:

Pretty much my reaction when mum told me.

Their line included "we've done your neighbour's garden",pointing at my mum's. They believed them. Twenty years ago auld Peter would have told then to f**k off. Now the guy can't even put his bins out.

[parsforlife]

2 hours ago, scottsdad said:

At my mum's a few weeks ago, a couple of guys came to the door offering to power wash the drive.

I told them thanks but no thanks; I did it in April. They moved on.

I have since found out that the cut mum's neighbour's grass. This is a couple in their 90s. They charged them £850, didn't even do the edges.

There was a someone local during Covid who was trying to earn a bit more cash cutting grass, think they were quoting £40 which is far more than the tight fifer in me would part with for 20 minutes work, but if they got a few dozen who maybe struggle a bit or don't have time or can't be fucked then fair enough, that can be considered legitimate business.

If someone has a similar business and clocked a nice car or that there wasn't much competition or whatever and decided to charge £60 I think they were chancing it but it's not ridiculous.

If they decided to charge 3 figures then I think it would be pushing away from opportunism and towards being exploitive.

£850! That deserves jail time.

[Sergeant Wilson]

8 hours ago, scottsdad said:

 Twenty years ago auld Peter would have told then to f**k off. Now the guy can't even put his bins out.

Tell him you'll  do it for £200 a week.

[Nkomo-A-Gogo]

1 hour ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Tell him you'll  do it for £200 a week.

Sounds like he has no end of money anyway. 

Imagine the money you would save by being decrepit. I can't wait.

[thistledo]

17 hours ago, eez-eh said:

Not exactly “evil” but I would like the good people of P&B’s opinions on what I think is my neighbour being a self-absorbed arsehole.

When we moved into our house not too long ago we got fences put up along the sides of the back garden (the property developers only left it with a pishy wooden barrier on either side of the garden). No one was living in the next door houses on either side at this point, so this was organised and paid for by ourselves. Wasn’t particularly cheap either.

Fast forward to just now and the neighbours on one side are getting their garden done up. Without saying to us they have completely boarded up “their side” of our fence. There are no longer any gaps for wind to pass through so I’m starting to worry that it’s going to cause some damage when the stormier weather arrives in autumn or winter.

The absolutely cowboys who were doing it also used screws that were so long that they penetrated all the way through the fence and are sticking out into our garden. So I’ve got jaggy metal screw tips sticking out my fence that could easily injure the wean or dog.

Cowboys have twice came to “fix” the screws. Despite me repeatedly telling them to take them out altogether they’ve completely ignored this and either cut them or hammered them back through - leaving huge dents on the fence in the process. There are still loads of screws sticking out that they either missed or only partially cut off, and the bits that they cut off they just left lying all along my garden, so I had to go scouring through the grass picking up dozens of screws before wean or dog stood on them.

Cowboys haven’t been seen since yesterday morning and the fence is still a state. The neighbour initially showed a wee bit of concern over the screws but is now avoiding us. After being too soft at the beginning I asked them to take the boards down and they’ve refused.

I was really trying not to get into a neighbour feud but I’ve lost any goodwill I had for them. Was initially giving them the benefit of the doubt that they maybe thought it was shared but after showing them proof of us paying for the fence they still aren’t backing down.

If they’d done the courteous thing and let us know before it happened I could have made sure they knew it was our fence and we probably could have worked something out, but they just went ahead and did it without any warning.

To top it off, they’ve painted it a disgusting bright blue colour which has came over to my side. And one of the cowboy builders squared up to me yesterday after I very strongly told him I wasn’t happy with the fucking mess they’d made of my fence, after he was being a rude b*****d.

Have any P&Bers ever had a notable fence dispute with a neighbour?

Could get complicated. Is this one of those essentially shared boundary fences between new builds? Would have a look at your title deeds in relation to fences and for boundary lines. If it's in your boundary and they have damaged it, it's a police matter if deliberate or your neighbours home insurance matter if accidental. If it's a boundary then there is usually a marker on title plans to indicate responsibility, which could be a real pain in the arse if you are responsible but don't own it. 

All speculation until you read the deeds, can get them from RoS for a small fee, unless you have them already. I had to do a bit of research recently due to doing an extension, my boundary fences are shared responsibility, my neighbours are alright though, we recently split material costs and did our own labour to repair a fallen fence. 

[hk blues]

13 hours ago, scottsdad said:

At my mum's a few weeks ago, a couple of guys came to the door offering to power wash the drive.

I told them thanks but no thanks; I did it in April. They moved on.

I have since found out that the cut mum's neighbour's grass. This is a couple in their 90s. They charged them £850, didn't even do the edges.

Fair play to them for still being able to do manual labour at that age, albeit a bit on the pricy side.  

[steelmen]

we have what we refer to as the good neighbours and the bad neighbours.

Good neighbours - Really nice family, happy to chat away. They came to us with a really well thought out design for the fence between us and 3 costings for different options, everything 50/50. they did the building, I was the labourer and supplied the bacon rolls.  Only a hurricane is bringing this thing down.

Bad neighbours - Its been one hellish thing after another with this family. After agreeing we could start cutting back the horrific bush (our side and top of it)that had eaten the fence between us, they went mental at the company we got in to do it. Saying they loved the bush (insert kenneth williams gif here) and they wanted the hight left alone.

3 months later we wake up and the bush and fence is gone. Their son in law decided to put a new fence up, no notice or asking us for money. He proceeded to build the fence using postcrete like we did on the other side but so they got maximum hight put less than half a foot of the post in. For privacy, rather than double skimming it, like we did on the other side they hammered in another slat to cover the gap. So now we have a fence that is barely in the ground and has no gaps so air can get through. I know what is happening with that in the windy season!

 

We got a company in to build the fence at the back of us, It covers 3 houses. 1 family don't care as they have a massive hut that covers it all from them, another house it just covers a small bit so they weren't fussed. the middle family, who can see it all, just asked if they could put a slat in the middle for privacy but ensuring plenty air gets through. This is how it should be done.

 

 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

4 hours ago, thistledo said:

Could get complicated. Is this one of those essentially shared boundary fences between new builds? Would have a look at your title deeds in relation to fences and for boundary lines. If it's in your boundary and they have damaged it, it's a police matter if deliberate or your neighbours home insurance matter if accidental. If it's a boundary then there is usually a marker on title plans to indicate responsibility, which could be a real pain in the arse if you are responsible but don't own it. 

All speculation until you read the deeds, can get them from RoS for a small fee, unless you have them already. I had to do a bit of research recently due to doing an extension, my boundary fences are shared responsibility, my neighbours are alright though, we recently split material costs and did our own labour to repair a fallen fence. 

Agree with you for the most part but it wouldnt be a police matter, theres no vandalism, its not like they’ve set it on fire, they’ve built onto the fence mistakenly or chancingly thinking its theirs too (which if its on their property they may have a claim) its a purely civil matter, a boundary dispute. 

[RH33]

20 hours ago, scottsdad said:

At my mum's a few weeks ago, a couple of guys came to the door offering to power wash the drive.

I told them thanks but no thanks; I did it in April. They moved on.

I have since found out that the cut mum's neighbour's grass. This is a couple in their 90s. They charged them £850, didn't even do the edges.

£850? 

Hope someone round about has ring cameras and reports them.

[HeartsOfficialMoaner]

On 16/07/2024 at 19:50, eez-eh said:

With the way they’ve gone about until now I doubt it. Even if they did, I’d rather own 100% of a fence that’s going to last than 50% of one that I’ll need to replace the first time there’s a big gust of wind.

You left it too long, you should have stopped them right away and let them know the fence belonged to you. Try and get something back for it or ask them to pay for repairs if the fence falls down.

[Pepper]

Sounds like a new build development so the Title Deeds will likely have a Deed of Conditions in the burdens section that will clearly set out the responsibilities for erecting and maintaining fences between plots. As it sounds like the house is surrounded on three sides by other plots and is not on the outer perimeter of the development it should be set out pretty clearly. 

Usually the cost or erecting and maintaining boundary fences is shared equally between the adjoining plots, and unfortunately the fact that you have paid the entire cost of erecting the fence due to the other houses being empty at the time does not mean you actually own it (unless the deeds specifically state otherwise). It is in effect a shared boundary fence.

In reality the neighbours can do pretty much whatever they want with their side of the fence and you are in a situation where you are heavily reliant on common courtesy when it comes to double slattiing, painting or attaching on to it.

There are just so many people out there that do no give a f**k.

If the screws are still an issue I would try and ground them down, and if that isn't enough you could try and use light weight wicker panels or some sort of decoration to hide them. 

[Boo Khaki]

Boy in the flat directly below is a massive stoner. I have no issue with this, even though at this time of year the reek tends to come in through my open windows. He keeps himself to himself and is generally so quiet that you wouldn't know there was anyone in the flat... except for the days he has his washing machine going.

It's not the machine itself. I can hear it on spin and feel the vibrations, but it isn't overly noisy and doesn't cause any nuisance. What I can't get my head around, is that on any day the machine is going, and only on the days his machine is going, usually just once a week, there are intermittent colossal thumps coming from his flat that sound like he is chucking a small car around and battering it off the walls. It causes the entire building to jump and even though I'm used to it it's seriously fucking annoying. 

I have no idea what he's doing, or why it's intrinsically linked to his washing machine being used, but it was so unnerving the first few times it happened I actually phoned the polis, they went in his flat, but reported back that they could see no obvious explanation for it. It's definitely him, not the flat below or to the side, and it only ever happens on days his washing machine is running. Baffling.

[Plumpy]

Obviously he's washing a small car but the gear is making him think it's a pair of joggers

[SlipperyP]

I'm old enough to remember when there was no fencing, or at least no high fencing, maybe a hedge to separate gardens.   Then folk started buying their council houses and the fences started to go up.  New property, first thing is to build a fence for 'privacy'.

What are people doing in their gardens that need so much privacy?

It's the same here. I stay in an old Thai style house, no fencing, nothing.  All thr new builds (last 30 years) all have high walls and a locked gate.

People have changed, and it's really not for the better.

Peace and Love, community is dead! You bought into it...

[Leith Green]

9 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

Boy in the flat directly below is a massive stoner. I have no issue with this, even though at this time of year the reek tends to come in through my open windows. He keeps himself to himself and is generally so quiet that you wouldn't know there was anyone in the flat... except for the days he has his washing machine going.

It's not the machine itself. I can hear it on spin and feel the vibrations, but it isn't overly noisy and doesn't cause any nuisance. What I can't get my head around, is that on any day the machine is going, and only on the days his machine is going, usually just once a week, there are intermittent colossal thumps coming from his flat that sound like he is chucking a small car around and battering it off the walls. It causes the entire building to jump and even though I'm used to it it's seriously fucking annoying. 

I have no idea what he's doing, or why it's intrinsically linked to his washing machine being used, but it was so unnerving the first few times it happened I actually phoned the polis, they went in his flat, but reported back that they could see no obvious explanation for it. It's definitely him, not the flat below or to the side, and it only ever happens on days his washing machine is running. Baffling.

Washing machine is unbalanced, its attempting to spin over and over.

Probably simple to solve by adjusting the balancing legs on the machine............good luck explaining that to him !

[Scary Bear]

On 17/07/2024 at 08:02, Sergeant Wilson said:

Tell him you'll  do it for £200 a week.

This is what’s required. The market decides the price. Good luck to him!