We have really nice neighbours, that’s the main reason we have stayed in this house for so long. I can honestly say that we have not had a bad neighbour in the 35 years that we have been here. It must be awful to have antisocial people close by.
What’s your experience with neighbours?
I’ve had some pretty bad ones and some absolutely terrible ones over the past 30 odd years, one set were violent and threatening.
I only have one neighbour these days and apart from the odd pleasantry we both keep ourselves to ourselves and are quiet, apart from his lawn mowing which takes a weekend as he has a lot of land, I never moan about this even though it’s constant at a weekend during spring and summer.
Anyway, the fir trees they planted a few years ago have now reached about 20 odd feet tall and have obliterated our view to the Malvern Hills from our bedroom, the views are what I mainly moved for and these trees were newly planted when we moved in six years ago so we didn’t know they were there.
Last week we decided to get a quote off the gardening company we use for extra cutting back on all of our garden borders and out of courtesy I popped around to the neighbour just to give them the heads up and to say we’d tidy up any mess that dropped on their side should they want us to.
I also asked if they’d mind if we took five or six feet of the fir trees at our expense as I thought this would do them a favour as well as improving our view.
The snotty wife intervened and informed me I had “no right to a view of her garden” and I could “go away and check the law” on this…….all said whilst smiling a sickly smile at me and talking in a really condescending fashion.
I explained I had no interest in her garden ( I still wouldn’t be able to see it anyway! ) I merely wanted to restore my view of the Malvern Hills in the far distance.
I kept a lid on it even as the dwarf of a downtrodden husband informed me I didn’t need to worry as they wouldn’t let them grow to 70ft…….”thanks for that” I replied trying not to roll my eyes!
As I walked away this woman says to me ( still smiling and talking in that soft, simpering, annoying voice…..”I do hope I haven’t spoiled your day Mick” whilst clearly being delighted at her power play and small life victory.
I assured her she hadn’t.
I think it’s just symptomatic of a lot of people today, this type of passive aggressiveness and the inability obvious pleasure she derived from saying no.
I’m glad I’m not like that as a person, the same request from them would’ve been met with a positive answer on my part.
It’s not a nice world we live in these days in my opinion.
We have really nice neighbours, that’s the main reason we have stayed in this house for so long. I can honestly say that we have not had a bad neighbour in the 35 years that we have been here. It must be awful to have antisocial people close by.
We have fantastic neighbours where we live all all professionals. You’re like my wife Mick - too honest! I would have just got the trees chopped back quickly when they were out and played innocence that I was doing them a favour. Couldn’t have done much when chopped and couldn’t prove it was you who tampered with the height.
Sadly in this world - the more honest you are the more your s hit on!
I try to be a good neighbour mate but stuff like this tests me.
They go to bed early at night so I’ll just do stuff like bang exterior doors closed late at night and play music louder to irritate the hell out of them.
I’ve always accepted parcels for them and kept an eye on their house when they’re away, not because they’ve asked me to but just because that’s the way I am.
From now on they’re dead to me, I won’t extend any common courtesy’s from them from now on.
I’ve always pre warned them about any work we might be having done in the past even though they’ve never once pre warned us……no more though.
Don’t blame you Mick. Only been in our new house 6 months and taken two lots of post to ex owners to their bar which they own in the town. Not so much as a free drink and the lazy t wats still have not redirected their post. So all letters for them now including credit cards - company documents etc go straight in the bin. Can’t even be bothered to stick back in the post box.
F uck them!
I always wanted to live on a boat, never have a problem with neighbours then, just up anchor and piss off 🤣
Thought for a moment this thread was about some Aussie soap 😂
Have been fortunate enough to have had some really lovely neighbours over the years-as well as one complete t wat. Having a nice house in a nice area is worth nothing if you have to endure bad neighbours as they really can make life a misery. Might seem by some as being rather unsociable to wish for a detached property away from everyone else but the benefit of avoiding the risk of having bad neighbours is understandable if you have suffered from this.
We are most fortunately perhaps in that our nearest neighbour is a farm and at least half a mile away.
When we came to the property, I had no idea what I had let myself in for. There were two large fields that came with it and they were difficult to upkeep. I was struggling to mow one of them on a ride on when I noticed the farmer watching me from the cab of his tractor. He was laughing.
I stopped and went over to him and asked if he wanted to use the fields. He replied dryly, “Could do. How much.”
We came to an agreement insomuch that he was responsible for the upkeep of the fields and in return, he keeps all the hedges and hedgerows to our property tidy, at the appropriate times of the year.
The arrangement works. We still only wave if we occasionally pass but I think there is a mutual respect.
And every Christmas we receive something poultry wise as a gift.
I don’t do neighbours. That’s why I live on a farm miles from anywhere. My last neighbours were drug dealers and after kicking in the front door to tell them all to shut up (2:30 in the morning) realised that if they hadn’t been drugged up to the eyeballs I could have been shot. So. I don’t do neighbours and it’s took 12 years of living in a field to stop me going insane.