Neighbours

O

On The Bob

Well-known member
Not the Aussie soap. But my Next Door ones!

We moved in our house nearly 5 years ago. Our adjoining neighbours have basically never really bothered with us in the whole of that time.

I’m not really bothered, they’re in their 50’s with some older kids and lived in their house for years before us. I’m pretty chill in the main but always try to be approachable and say hello when we cross paths etc.

The only time they’ve ever properly spoken to us is when they’ve seen us doing work in the garden. Striking up a conversation and then asking to borrow something (typical!).

For the last couple of years, they’ve basically started to just completely blank us. Even daft times when we pull up on the drive at similar times, I’ve shouted over saying hello etc and they’ve just not acknowledged us at all.

A couple of weeks ago we were in our local. They sat on a nearby table, we looked across and smiled and they just looked through us and turned away.

I just don’t get it whatsoever. We’re pretty quiet, have no wild parties or late nights. Have helped them out occasionally with things.

Yesterday, we got a delivery so my missus answered the door and collected. The delivery driver was making a fuss of our 7 month old. Next door came across at the same time and just threw a box on our front door step. “That came for you yesterday” and then just walked off. Even the delivery driver made a point of saying she was out of order.

My missus was a bit taken aback at first but then started getting wound up the more she thought about it. Thankfully there was nothing fragile in the box, but she didn’t even have the decency to say hello or actually hand it to her.

I’m completely perplexed as to why there seems to be animosity towards us and they can’t even have the common courtesy to be civil.

I don’t know how to play it anymore. I’m not going to make a big thing of it and will probably just give them the same treatment. The devil on my shoulder does feel like stirring things up a little bit though, but there’d be zero value in it.

Thankfully the neighbours on the other side of us are absolutely class, so you can’t have it all I guess.

Anybody else dealt with neighbours who are complete cranks? 😆
 
Strange how people are nowadays. I spent 17 years in Norfolk in 2 different locations and hardly spoke to our neighbours and visa versa. Moved back to the Boro and we have a great Cul-de-Sac where we rely on each other for support, throw street parties. The wives have a FB page to chat or to lend and borrow items etc. Life's too short for malice and shoite.
 
We've had all kinds of trouble with neighbours in our old place, luckily have great ones either side now

I'd bite the bullet and go round and just ask if you've done anything. They might think you've done something, or if it'd a terrace or semi you'd be surprised how much sound can travel, so better to get to the bottom of it rather than it ending up a dispute at some point over something trivial.

They might have had a noise complaint letter for example and presumed you reported them - could be anything daft like that
 
Cheers folks.

To be honest, it’s a complete mystery. I think they might just be a bit odd. They never seem to have other friends visiting their place either so they might just be that way out.

I couldn’t be bothered with the chew of it all for the sake of saying hello to someone.

I’ve even started to think maybe it’s because me and the missus may have been a bit too noisy in the bedroom over the years. But I can’t help being a squealer! 👀

Joking aside. We’ll be replacing some of the fence in a few months before we get some more work done in the garden so I’ll give them a knock to tell them. Might just raise it then and see what they say.
 
Get it sorted, it's not worth the hassle.

I had trouble with people who previously lived out the back of our house over a fence that blew down in a storm. The annoying part was, I was very friendly with her brother and sat with her dad in the pub.

When the fence blew down there was a knock on the door and the neighbour asked my wife when I was going to fix the fence and that she wanted it doing sooner rather than later.

I was working way at the time and when I came home I went to their house and asked her partner if he wanted to go half on replacing the fence and he said it is your fence, get it put back up. I made the rest of the fence safe and whilst doing so, the other neighbour who also backs onto our garden came out and said he would replace his section later that week and was it ok to come into the garden. I offered to go halves with him and he asked why I was replacing the other neighbours fence and I explained. He went on to say that he had built the two houses and that the fences were there's and that were responsible for them.

Armed with this new information I knocked on the other neighbours door and again I asked him if he wanted to go halves on the fence. He told me it was my fence and to get it up ASAP. I explained my conversation with his neighbour and told him that it was his fence and that I expected him to have it erected by the time I got home the following weekend. He asked if I would go halves with him and I told him that he'd had his chance and blew it.

After that they planted large conifers and allowed them to grow out of hand. It blocked a lot of light out of our kitchen and was making the wife bad. Luckily they moved and the first thing the new neighbour did was cut the trees down.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
Get it sorted, it's not worth the hassle.

I had trouble with people who previously lived out the back of our house over a fence that blew down in a storm. The annoying part was, I was very friendly with her brother and sat with her dad in the pub.

When the fence blew down there was a knock on the door and the neighbour asked my wife when I was going to fix the fence and that she wanted it doing sooner rather than later.

I was working way at the time and when I came home I went to their house and asked her partner if he wanted to go half on replacing the fence and he said it is your fence, get it put back up. I made the rest of the fence safe and whilst doing so, the other neighbour who also backs onto our garden came out and said he would replace his section later that week and was it ok to come into the garden. I offered to go halves with him and he asked why I was replacing the other neighbours fence and I explained. He went on to say that he had built the two houses and that the fences were there's and that were responsible for them.

Armed with this new information I knocked on the other neighbours door and again I asked him if he wanted to go halves on the fence. He told me it was my fence and to get it up ASAP. I explained my conversation with his neighbour and told him that it was his fence and that I expected him to have it erected by the time I got home the following weekend. He asked if I would go halves with him and I told him that he'd had his chance and blew it.

After that they planted large conifers and allowed them to grow out of hand. It blocked a lot of light out of our kitchen and was making the wife bad. Luckily they moved and the first thing the new neighbour did was cut the trees down.
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Luckily there's laws now about large conifers and Leylandii, mad as people let them grow totally out control
 
Probably just old, miserable and jealous. Should have seen how the neighbours changed at our old place as soon a new car appeared on the drive or when we put in planning for an extension. We sold in the end.
 
Our old neighbour called crime stoppers or some other such anonymous phone line and reported us to the police because our 6 month old baby cried in the night. Police came to the house and said they had an anonymous tip that our baby was crying at 5:30 or whatever time it was. Our house was a semi detached, so it could only be one person, plus the lady who was on the other side and not adjoined was deaf as a post, so it did not require the investigative skills of Poirot or Colombo to work out out had reported us. Police were embarrassed to be there. Babies cry - its not nice for anyone, but it's quite hard to keep them completely silent. Its not like we were ignoring the baby either.

This was a few years ago. Spoke to the neighbour who of course denied it was her. Didn't escalate it, as we didn't want to have to report it if we sold the house.

There are some odd people around.
 
paul66 said:
ask your neighbours on the other side who are ok if they are aware of similar behaviour before you moved in with previous owners
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Our decent neighbours only moved in a few years ago. Now I think about it, one our other neighbours actually spoke to us when we popped round the house for a second viewing before buying.

We’re a corner plot, so we have 3 different gardens that end up backing onto ours. He said at the time they were a funny bunch. My house came with planning permission to extend to the side and back. Apparently they were the only neighbours to object to the council when the previous owner applied for it, despite them building 3 extensions over the years to their own house!

I think they’re just that type. Each to their own. It’s no major loss to me. They’ll no doubt come knocking when they want to borrow something again! 😆
 
On The Bob said:
I don’t know how to play it anymore. I’m not going to make a big thing of it and will probably just give them the same treatment. The devil on my shoulder does feel like stirring things up a little bit though, but there’d be zero value in it.
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Life's too short, just ignore their slights, carry on being pleasant when your paths cross and take satisfaction from the fact that that probably winds them up even more.

Also if you actively 'stir it up' if/when you sell you would have to disclose that you had had a dispute with the neighbour to prospective purchasers. Failure to disclose a dispute could allow a buyer to make a misrepresentation claim against you.
 
Steer said:
Our old neighbour called crime stoppers or some other such anonymous phone line and reported us to the police because our 6 month old baby cried in the night. Police came to the house and said they had an anonymous tip that our baby was crying at 5:30 or whatever time it was. Our house was a semi detached, so it could only be one person, plus the lady who was on the other side and not adjoined was deaf as a post, so it did not require the investigative skills of Poirot or Colombo to work out out had reported us. Police were embarrassed to be there. Babies cry - its not nice for anyone, but it's quite hard to keep them completely silent. Its not like we were ignoring the baby either.

This was a few years ago. Spoke to the neighbour who of course denied it was her. Didn't escalate it, as we didn't want to have to report it if we sold the house.

There are some odd people around.
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I've mentioned on here before that the people joint onto us are elderly and ares deaf as a post. As I type this, I am listening to their tele, the old lady is catching up on Coronation Street.

The beauty is when they get in sync with the young couple across the road who have a massive tele, I don't have to turn ours on and can save a fortune on the leccy. 🤣 🤣 🤣
 
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