Dost thou love thy neighbour?

L’enfer ces les autres …!

I live in an old house, listed Grade 2, divided into 5 flats. I've been here 17 years and all the neighbours have been lovely. About 3 months ago a couple in their 60s bought the basement flat, no.5, which is partly attached to Flat no. 2 which had just been bought by a lady from London who intended to use it as a holiday flat, and she was having several changes to made to the interior. The new owners of Flat 5 also own the curtilage which is the land surrounding the building. A few weeks ago I looked out of my window to see the owner of Flat 5 totally demolishing the row of rhododendrons which were about 15 ft high and full of bud. She said she was cutting them down before the birds started
to nest in them. Where they were growing is on a fairly steep bank leading up to the garden of the house beyond. She said she was going to make a car park for 4 cars. There was enough space along along that part of the drive for 3 cars anyway. I managed to get her to stop any further cutting and saved about 4 rhododendrons which are currently flowering. A few days later a man arrived with a circular saw and chopped down a huge bay tree and 2 more smaller trees. The rhododendrons and tree choppings are now piled up and rotting and no attempt has been made to clear them away.
Then I noticed that no lorries and vans etc were arriving to work on Flat 2. I saw the owner of Flat 5 and asked if she knew why not. She told me that the owner of Flat 2 was making changes to the interior and had caused a crack in the her wall. So she asked the Council to come out and they had stopped work being done while they thought about it.
I want to move as I hate seeing the devastation outside my window, but who will buy my place with all that mess outside? And who will want a car park opposite?

We have lovely neighbours on the one side but the other side are a bit of a nightmare, with the son constantly banging a football against the fence. Also, constant swearing, even the 10 year old. Totally ignored all Covid restrictions despite the fact that the woman works as a carer.

Bird song. That is the phrase that made me read on. Whoever complained about it better have a council meeting with all the birds and make a timetable. I have beech hedges and morning and evening the air is filled with birdsong. Humbug I say. Have no regard for the nature of our world which is fast disappearing. It's bad enough complaining about birds, but cutting a precious tree like that won't make any difference and if I were the owner I would sue them.

I had awful neighbours on both sides up till December.I live alone and I was scared of the one connected to my house as he threatened me. He was a heavy drug user and often not in control of himself. Now I am a long way away from them.

New neighbours are ok. Elderly man next door does think he is charge of our cul de sac but I have learned to limit our conversations and feel happier now. He used to want to know where I was going, who I was seeing, commenting on how long I was gone.............you get the picture.

The other side are nice folk. The only issue is their 30+ year old son who lives upstairs and plays the saxophone badly at night. The mother is deaf so it probably doesn't bother her. He also flooded my lawn by emptying his hot tub out . Both of his parents apologised. He didn't. She calls him "baby". You get the picture here too perhaps..........

Still,I feel safer and that's wonderful.

Lucky with our neighbours only been here 3 years but all the neighbours are lovely.But in our old house our last set of neighbours were a nightmare.The youngest daughter 13 would not go to school effing and heffing, doors banging, screaming and carrying on every school day Then they bought a 12 ft trampaline in a tiny garden we had that that for 18months till it broke bearing in mind this is 14,15 year olds using it again at all hours, screaming and swearing when l spoke to the father he said it got on his nerves too!Then we had the car phase bangers and doing them up racing up and down the street.Then drug dealing the final straw was when l came home from work to find 2 Polish workman clambering over my roof to access his to fit soffits and fascias no scaffolding climbing over telling me they had permission from the owner, after one almighty row with my delightful neighbour we had been debating about taking early and moving,which is exactly what we did, thank heavens! l cant say l miss the arguing between them, the swearing,shouting and their delightful sons.

Love my neighbours - they live over a quarter mile away!!

The next door neighbour we had in america used to fire his hunting rifle in the garden to amuse the kids and to celebrate national holidays! Since it was usual to hunt in Hi Viz then because of hunters shooting each other (honestly, we saw it for sale in the local stores) we were slightly worried by this!

For most of my life I've had good neighbours wherever I've lived. For a time we were next door to a rather odd brother and sister who didn't look after their garden or interact with any of us. Eventually, it became clear that the poor woman had mental health issues for which she had treatment.

Now I'm in a block of seven flats where everyone is friendly. We are a mix of ages with young couples, retirees, professional folk and a single mum. Everyone is considerate and I was shown great kindness during the lockdowns, including for my 70th birthday last year for which we shared fizz and cake outside at a suitable distance. I am very blessed.

In our last house we had a nutty neighbour who rang the police because our cat sat on the fence to tease their dog!

We have a grave yard on one side; no problems at all with those neighbours!
The other side is more difficult, she’s had up to 9 cats, upset me over a very old right of way and blatantly broke Covid rules. We remain civil however.

I have lovely neighbours but next door is for sale so makes me slightly nervous in case the next residents are less amenable.

I've had bad neighbours at a previous house. We got on well, looked after each other's cats when we went on holiday and shared the school run. Then the children fell out and bullying started. The falling out was between my son and some of the neighbours boys. They then started bullying my daughter who had nothing to do with the squabble. One day one of the boys threw stones at her and her friend as they walked home from school then threatened to set fire to her hair with a cigarette lighter. By the time I knew what had happened school was closed so I called the police! It was handled by the school liason officer who knew all the boys involved as his own sons were at the school too. His comment "The only thing that surprises me is that it was this brother not that one!" I worried about not being believed so it was a relief. We thought about moving, then my husband was made redundant and we ended up relocating 50 miles away for his new job. We hadn't spoken to the neighbours that side for ages and they didn't even speak on moving day!

Thankfully we still had good neighbours the other side and accross the road, including one who offered refuge to my daughter should anything else happen when I wasn't home.

We initially moved to a rented house in the new area so left before completing on the house we were leaving. The following weekend we returned and held a noisy farewell party in the empty house - guests brought garden chairs if they wanted to sit down - and only the good neighbours were invited! I still chuckle to myself when I think how shocked they must have been when we turned up! We then cleaned through, arranged with the good neighbours to dispose of any rubbish and went off to start a new life.

I could write pages about all the things those boys did to our son, our property etc but it is thankfully ancient history. One of their boys' friends was not allowed to even enter our cul-de-sac after the police involvement!

My best friend used to live next door but moved away a few years ago. I still see her but I loved having her next door. House is now rented out. Very noisy children which can be annoying at times but we live and let live. Other side have just sold as couple have split up after 30 years. They were ok. I hope the new neighbours are nice.

I can see more problems now planning laws are easing. Neighbours during lockdown hsve built brick units with electricity n water supplies at bottom of gardens then call them offices! So large could live in them. One poor neighbour has had his garden flooded with light when the buildings are surrounded by outdoor lights. I can sympathise with people in Amersham who made it clear not happy with the Tory candidate because of excessive buildings going up along with HS2 l. We’ve suffered more up here in the North West though with high rise flats going up all the time.

No. He uses his mobile phone in the garden and projects very loudly. Only speaks when it suits him

Only three of us here, and yes Love them, one very young french couple, both studying law, and a lovely lady on her own
Very peaceful and here for each other if there’s a problem
Years and years ago we had a totally potty neighbour, who made life hell for everyone, she was quite dangerous too
So ever since moving here we appreciate nice and very normal ones

I'm lucky to have mostly lovely neighbours that I get on well with.

So petty and misuse of resources!

I only have close neighbours on one side and she is a lovely lady we knew for years before we even bought our house. There is a council easement on our other side and a huge drain and council land at the back so we are good

I've got mixed neighbours - the couple who live nearest me (we're very rural) have been wonderful friends and have looked after me incredibly since I lost my beloved husband last year. Another great couple have been very kind and lent me one of their horses to keep my mare company since I had to have her last compaanion put to sleep earlier this month. On the other hand, I've got 2 sets of neighbours who will steal anything not locked up, and 1 of the two families is violent enough that whenever the police arrive, they come with 3 cars as they've been attacked before! A little further away, I've got more kind & friendly neighburs, and one I could see far enough, but only because his political views and mine could hardly be further apart - may be shallow of me, but I hate "his" party so much it kinda colours my view of him!

Sorry, the first paragraph was quoting the post from eazybee

My immediate next door neighbour is an obsessive gardener whose first act on moving in was to destroy a pretty, well-established garden by removing every single plant, tree and lawn and replace them with succulents and gravel, very noisy. Her choice, but she also removed the borders and her surrounding neighbours' privacy.
My next-door neighbour, a retired army officer, did exactly the same. It is heart-breaking. A whole beautiful garden of roses, peonies, poppies, daisies, established trees and shrubs and a 150-year-old climbing jasmine razed to the ground. Luckily the Council refused permission for him to fell an established oak and an ancient beech, but he put in a bright orange resin surface (rather than gravel): it looks like an
army parade-ground. All the neighbours are frantically growing shrubs for privacy, as he sits there ‘surveying’ what everyone’s doing.

Not quite the same, but I had a problem with my neighbour with a tree. It cut out all of my light at the back of the house, and that of others around it. It even blocks light into the 4 storey block of flats next door.

Took me 13 years of toil to get the neighbours to cut it back enough to make a difference. A lot of the bottom branches were cut off by a tree surgeon.

I now have light in my garden and the sun shines in it once again. Hooray!

No fault of the neighbours really. The housing association built the houses AROUND it back in 2005, and then told the tenant it was their problem to deal with it!

"A good neighbour is one you don't know you've got till you need something." I agree.

We moved to Devon 3 yrs ago and have had great neighbours for a while. However, when we started doing up our bungalow, including the gardens (I am an avid gardener), they became really cool towards us. And when we put up security cameras to catch the dog walkers who were letting their dogs defecate all over our front gardens, most stopped talking to us.
Since we moved here we have kept an eye on the lady next door and we both have been doing her garden for her every week. Her son was supposed to replace a few panels of fence that were falling down so I just happened to ask when this was likely to be as I was gong to paint them - I should add that I am 70 and 5ft nothing. He went ballistic - stood right in my face and I cannot repeat the language he used. My husband pulled me away and told him to pick on someone his own size - at which point he told us both to keep well away from his mother and her house. When I had a chat with her a little later to explain what had happened she effectively told me it was our fault and that her son is never in the wrong - he is 52 by the way.
I always thought this was a nice friendly area, but am seriously considering moving as I have never had such unfriendly, weird neighbours in my life.