Mad neighbours

Will he have applied for a dipped curb there then?
Presumably....

At their age, they may no longer want to have to keep a front garden looking tidy, and may also want a shorter distance to their car.

As they are spending their money not yours, I would not worry about it in your place.

Maybe it'll reduce their insurance to have off-street parking, and may make the property more attractive when it's sold by them or whoever inherits.

I hoped for much more interesting 'madness' from this thread.

Well it’s hardly your business if they want to spend £5000 on a car park in their front garden, or if they want to spend £5000 on a far flung holiday, or give it to the local cats home what’s it to do with anyone else ?

Just seems a shame to me - as I don't like front gardens vanishing to parking basically. But I'd consider myself lucky if that was all I'd noticed from neighbours here.

Loads and loads of trespassing to start with - cost to deal with £2,000 for security cameras and £1,000 for a barrier at the entrance to my garden to stop them driving in as well.

One neighbour out to steal a bit of my garden - and darn well managed it too (mixed finances = £3,000 on solicitor bill on the one hand but that house are the ones now responsible for replacing my retaining wall = £10,000-£20,000 and that bill is now theirs and not mine). The one blessing is that I figured it all out and Mr-I've figured out his previous financial history (bad!) was almost certainly after a rather bigger chunk of my garden (now that would have made logical sense = from his point of view) and didnt manage to steal that much.

They've done a lot of parking unsuitably for my visitors in vehicles to get into my garden. But one of them pushed it way too far one time and I deliberately had her blocked in for some time by a visitor-in-vehicle of mine and that stopped that and she hasnt tried it on since. She clearly learnt her lesson.

Thankfully things are improving bit by bit as things change round here. I've now got a neighbour, for instance, not that far from me who told me "I tella you you tella me if you need someone for anything - I find for you" and he employs a noticeable number of people himself and has connections with a different set of tradies to what my old neighbours had. He even marched in with a set of computer tools the other day when my computer died on me - sorted it out and wouldnt take any payment for it.

So things are getting better bit by bit...not perfect yet (as a tradie let me down about coming round for a quote yesterday for some minor work and I added it up as "Nope it's not the unreliability a lot of them have here towards me - he knew my previous neighbours and let me down deliberately".) But I've found another one that's possible - and who I've figured out doesn't know my previous neighbours and so probably won't let me down (due to old neighbours instructions to be unhelpful to me - yep...I worked it out that's what had happened).

Why are they odd and troublesome? Why are you watching them?

It isn’t any of your business what they spend their money on, is it?

As others have pointed out, off-road parking will increase the value of their home, help if they become disabled and make it attractive to future owners who are disabled. Someone will recoup that in time even if it’s only their heirs.

As for stopping people parking in front. That remains to seen.

We thankfully have lovely neighbours though some are a bit weird, which is fine because we probably are too.
A couple a few doors up play some kind of dragons and dungeons game that involves dressing up, they belong to a local group and one of our DDs got a shock when she came round one day and saw them having a cup of tea with us in full fancy dress.

NittWitt - hope that's mad enough for you! Add in humour - as the garden thieves then moved onto another house to "do up cheap and try and flip on for a profit" and as soon as they told me they were moving = I told them exactly which house they were just about to buy (and I was right). They'd learnt not to question how I sometimes know things I have no way of knowing logically.

It doesn't sound like fun round your way at all.

Oh Cariad sing another song

NittWitt

It doesn't sound like fun round your way at all.

It is getting better thankfully - though it took some time! Main troublesome house changed ownership very much to the month to when I thought it would (ie a big wreck of a house with only a little household in it and they were getting steadily older to be in a place like it - so they downsized pretty much to the month of when I thought they would). It's bad neighbours that replaced them - but they (aka the wife in that couple) arent in the same league as previous owners. Another house went on from original bad neighbour to being "sold under the counter unofficially" to a friend of hers - who has also been a bad neighbour (but not quite in the same league) and it's now in the process of moving on again and I'm waiting to see who it will be.

The area as a whole is doing exactly what I thought it would - ie "going Up" - as the houses are getting renovated one-by-one and it's visibly improved since I moved here. I'll know it's gone up another notch or two when the "dogs allowed to bark in gardens" noise has got visibly better again (ie it's not nearly as bad as when I moved here - but there's a way to go still - as it does still happen sometimes). It's actually en route to being quite a "premium" area now - and I'm guessing that may help explain some of the problems I had to start with....as I myself was busily having the house improved.

BlueBelle

Oh Cariad sing another song

I quite like "The Tales of Cariadagain" sometimes it's an update, sometimes a repeat and sometimes the omnibus, bit like The Archers.

OldFrill

BlueBelle

Oh Cariad sing another song

I quite like "The Tales of Cariadagain" sometimes it's an update, sometimes a repeat and sometimes the omnibus, bit like The Archers.

Is that the welsh spelling of “cardigan”? 🤣

AuntieE

At their age, they may no longer want to have to keep a front garden looking tidy, and may also want a shorter distance to their car.

As they are spending their money not yours, I would not worry about it in your place.

I agree.
There may not always be a free space outside their house and carrying shopping could be difficult.
I would have done the same as them tbh

NittWitt

Maybe it'll reduce their insurance to have off-street parking, and may make the property more attractive when it's sold by them or whoever inherits.

I hoped for much more interesting 'madness' from this thread.

I hoped for all out crazy too 😁

A neighbour of ours recently put about 15 plastic gnomes in her tiny front garden, does that count as madness? I expect they’ll soon vanish as anything not tied down or concreted in soon does around here.

Sounds sensible to me.
Especially if their mobility is getting more limited.

And if it is a bungalow, may even add value to their property[though not sure on that as things change as to what adds value and what doesnt].

I am with Bluebelle. Their money to do what they wish with. Nobody else's business.

Did they get planning permission?

cariad you certainly do attract them!
Maybe you could set up some sort of vetting committee before anyone moves in.

Oreo

NittWitt

Maybe it'll reduce their insurance to have off-street parking, and may make the property more attractive when it's sold by them or whoever inherits.

I hoped for much more interesting 'madness' from this thread.

I hoped for all out crazy too 😁

It sounds sensible, rather than mad or crazy.

I know concreting over lawns, flower beds etc. is not ideal but perhaps, as someone said, they can't manage the gardening now. They can keep an eye on their car instead of it being parked further away (and perhaps they have some difficulty walking now?) and parking on the street can be a real nuisance.

At least it's not that abonimation like that fake grass 😲

Planning permission is not always needed unless you are altering the width or access point. I am sure they would have looked into this before going ahead and the company doing the work would have a legal right to advise them. I agree with what others have said their money their choice, this does not make them odd or troublesome. At their age they have a right to make their home comfortable for their needs and future needs.

It's a bit unpleasant to think that a neighbour is spying on your moves and criticising them on social media.

Do you have any hobbies, watermeadow?

Judy54

Planning permission is not always needed unless you are altering the width or access point. I am sure they would have looked into this before going ahead and the company doing the work would have a legal right to advise them. I agree with what others have said their money their choice, this does not make them odd or troublesome. At their age they have a right to make their home comfortable for their needs and future needs.

We converted some of our front garden into a drive, asked if we needed planning permission, but no, we didn't