OMG the dreaded trampoline! No doubt that is imminent. I really can't blame them for living their lives, it just doesn't match with my peaceful enjoyment of outside space! Bungalow hunting I shall go....
I do sympathise, I've just got rid of 14 people over occupying in the flat above us... imagine...a 2 bed flat, 4 and a half years before anything was done. Not even a proper flat but an old house split in 2 so floorboards and noise. Now there is 1 person living there that we chose! It's another world of difference! Now I've trained the neighbours by shouting goodnight to them at 10pm on week days, they know now if they wake me, the landlord will hear about it!
I think it's the only way. If you live in a family house then it follows that you will be surrounded by families. Unfortunately screaming children seems to be very much a thing nowadays. We are right opposite a school so very well used to the sound of children playing but this is something else altogether. I would move out before you get a trampoline right by your fence😁😁😁
Foxes like trampolines. They are good for practicing their pouncing.
I AM in the bungalow doesn't make a hapeth of difference the elderly die or go into nursing homes,BUT our last inconsiderate neighbours were 30s and 50s older now but still a********!!
I feel your pain too. I live in a small terrace and everyone is closely packed and gardens over looked. I find it no kind of haven. You can hear quiet conversations three gardens over. I have shrieky neighbours and kids and I am bookended by two DJs that have parties and recording sessions in their gardens.... People just doing their lives. I also live near an overground station, a park concert venue and a "county lines" border for drug gangs so police helicopters are often overhead. So even though it looks like it would be quiet 'on paper', for me it really isn't.
I have kind of reconciled to the fact that the way I use the garden is for wildlife, cut flowers and socialising. I rarely sit out it in myself. I changed my view to think of the plots as essesentially 'communal gardens'. They are communal in being overlooked and in the soundscape. It helps me to think of them like that.
My main fantasy for moving is to have a garden nowhere near other neighbours, helicopters, festivals, motorbikes or trainlines. Right now I'd happily live in a shed if I could have that quiet space.
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I echo what has been said above about not making formal complaints, as they will lodge against the properties and might make them harder to sell.
A neighbour moved into my street last year and found she had a drug den next door - smell of drugs seeping through the walls and floorboards, screaming matches, vandalism, punch ups, abusive behaviour, police banging on the door at all hours of the night. She immediately lodged a complaint with the council about their tenants and with the police about the continuous drug use. Now all the formal complaints appear for anyone doing background searches on the properties and it will make it a nightmare to sell. She - very belatedly - checked the house sale history and found that a string of owners stayed no more than two years before moving. This, and the state of the property next door (old sofas and fridges in the garden), should have rung loud bells, but they were desperate to move and didn't do proper checks.
It's a sad and sobering story. The neighbour has decided to "stay and fight", but, really, she's on a hiding to nothing. The council never evict people around here, no matter what their behaviour; the police do nothing and for the forseeable she will be saddled with NDNs who loathe her. Short of popping their clogs, council tenants will never move as they basically have a large, expensive house and big garden for free in perpetuity.
Fire I share your fantasy! I'm in a 3 bed house which I don't need all for myself but chose it for the outside space. I would happily (almost) live in a caravan if I could have my own bit of peaceful, unoverlooked space outside (it doesn't even need to be that big). It really does seem in this country (especially with all the new build estates) that outside space isn't valued anymore.
Nanny Beach oh nooo! Maybe not the Bungalow after all then. I'm praying that I come across some hidden gem on its own somewhere but I know the chances of that...
Doghouse Riley I'd be more than happy with a trampoline only for the foxes!! What a joy!
Fire, I share your fantasy! I'm in a 3 bed house which I don't need all
for myself but chose it for the outside space. I would happily (almost)
live in a caravan if I could have my own bit of peaceful, unoverlooked
space outside (it doesn't even need to be that big).... I'm praying that I come across some
hidden gem on its own somewhere but I know the chances of that...
Amen. Maybe we should buy plots next to each other - distanced but respectful.
I probably bought my current place for the house, not the garden, but now I would probably do it the other way around.
Hi, I’m another one who shares your pain. My neighbour, in her mid 70s, singlehandedly destroyed my enjoyment of my lovely (once private) garden through a series of thoughtless actions. I guess she didn’t mean to do that but on the other hand it never seemed to occur to her to think about how the changes she made to her house and garden would impact on neighbours.
However I recently had a quote done for small garden project and the bloke mentioned something about how we all have to make compromises which ring a bell for me to get on with what I can do to enjoy the garden again. One thing that’s working is making a few smaller “rooms” within the garden that I can retreat to at different times of the day in the nicer weather. You could even have a large hedge surround a private sitting area and listen to music or birdsong or water flowing “music.”
I agree that no matter where you move, it’s down to luck what kind of neighbours you have. Best wishes with it all. 🥀🍃
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Nanny Beach oh nooo! Maybe not the Bungalow after all then. I'm praying that I come across some hidden gem on its own somewhere but I know the chances of that...
Doghouse Riley I'd be more than happy with a trampoline only for the foxes!! What a joy!
Thanks everyone for your advice and for sharing your stories anyway, it has made me feel a bit better not being the only one in this boat!