Neighbours constantly asking for things

I think the problem here is the shared gate.. Is there any way you can erect a fence and perhaps even have your own gate? I would find it totally unacceptable to have neighbours wandering into my garden.. My close neighbours have very occasionally invited me in for coffee, and we have exchanged information regarding tradesmen.. we give little christmas presents but we all maintain boundaries..

this is very different from when I was young with a child and we all virtually lived in each others houses.. a different place and time..

I had to check the date when I spotted EllanVannin’s name posting.
😢

nellgwynne

Thank you all so much for your replies! I really do appreciate it. I showed to my husband and it's helped to strengthen our resolve to just say no to the neighbours. I think we'd both wanted to have a nice cosy relationship with our neighbours, but if it means being taken advantage of, then no way! Thanks to you of you, I love your answers!

Excellent. Let us know how things go. It would be lovely if you do eventually have a nice cosy relationship with them, but that has to be two way and this isn't.

Astitchintime

Oooops, just noticed how old this thread is - that'll teach me to concentrate

Ooops, me too!

High fences build good neighbours

I did have a problem with my elderly neighbour when I first moved in. I had to point out that I was a pensioner too. Every day he'd ask my adult son to do jobs for him, some very heavy, some dame right dangerous, the dangerous one I stepped in and stopped. We had tons of jobs to do ourselves, having just moved in, building a big shed being one.

He even asked my son to give him my sleepers I'd just put down to complete my rockery garden at the top of our land. I dashed up there and said "No, you can't, you've watched me building this garden all week!" I then told him no more jobs. We didn't speak for a few weeks/months, but then made up and was friendly again.

Looks like an Ooops from me too.

Where I lived before here, I would feed both sides cats, not a problem, till I had just had my arm plastered after breaking my wrist very badly. Saw my neighbour outside and she said sorry you've broken your arm, can you feed my cat for the week? I pointed out I wouldn't be able to open the tins and she replied, no problem, I have pouches that are easy to open I feed the cat and was rewarded by it biting my good hand quite badly!

I had this when we moved into bungalow 8yeats ago.
The elderly couple seemed nice at first...in all fairness the old guy was lovely but he had a devil of a time with his wife.
She rang us several times in the night because he'd fallen out of bed.
She fell over quite a lot and we always seemed to be there to help but came to a head when she fell in the garden and I wasn't in . She was mightily offended that I should dare to have a private life.
The last straw was went she wanted me to physically unblock her toilet...

Neighbours can be really cheeky about skips.

When I bought this house a few years back I had the kitchen and bathroom replaced so had to hire a skip. I have a drive with lockable gates so thought this skip on my land would be safe from cheeky neighbours dumping stuff in it. One day I found half a dozen bin bags - some of which had landed in the skip and others on my gatden. One of my CF neighbours had simply thrown them over the fence, aiming at the skip. However one of the workmen had arrived early and was sitting in his van outside, waiting for me to open the gate. The neighbour didnt notice him but the workman knew exactly where the bags had come from. Later when he returned from work said neighbour was greeted by all 6 bags dumped back on his doorstep - some split and leaking out waste all over his step.

If he had come round in a suitably humble manner and asked I would probably have let him dump the stuff in the skip. Lets just say it never happened again.

How are things with your neighbours now, nellgwynne?

biglouis,
that's hilarious! 😆

You have all my sympathies!

My husband (stupidly) befriended a neighbour down the road.

She’s in her sixties, as is her husband, both very similar ages to us, my husband is the oldest.

Four years ago he started off by just assisting her with a little shopping, now, it’s every day, and all kinds of other chores and favours and the other day I discovered she owes him £150 and she asked him to “lend” her £300!!

I went nuts (her husband recent had serious stroke and has had to give up work) we didn’t “lend” her the money but she’s still on at him to do this that and the other and she rings him every day! (Goodness only knows why he gave her his number!) Their washing machine broke and I did four lots of washing and drying for them recently and she had the cheek to complain it wasn’t done quickly enough!

If he ignores her calls she turns up at our front door, with her dog, which sets off our dogs, and if he’s not in she gets very short shrugs from me!

She rings him when we are away l, even when he’s told her he’s away, and my husband thinks I’m the unreasonable one.

I’m so close to marching down to her house to give her a piece of my mind!

Do they have any family Cossy?

Don’t be so amicable be a little bit firmer and they’ll get the message.

My goodness cossy you have been very good about this. I’d of blown!