Mad neighbours

Fallingstar

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.

I love this 🤣🤣

Well at the end of the day whether it’s a brilliant idea or a bad one it’s no one’s business but theirs
I bet the original poster watermeadow would be mortified if her neighbours were writing on here a public forum, for all the world to see “my neighbours have just paid a lot of money for new curtains and the colour clashes with everything around”

Why judge them as «mad» ?

They may be looking for lower maintenance, more secure parking for their car, and possibly lower insurance, along withtheir own convenience.
Not your choice or your decision.

Unloading the supermarket shopping this morning would have been difficult if the car had been parked 20 yards away.

watermeadow

The couple opposite me, mid-80s, are having their front garden made into a small parking area. Everyone else parks on the street or at a space reserved for residents about 20’ away.
He said it’s so nobody can park in front of his house. They only go out once a week so their car is almost always in front of their house.
This must be costing at least £5000 and I think it’s crazy.
Tell me about your odd or troublesome neighbours.

My husband is almost 80, birthday next month. He has limited mobility and walking is very painful. Being able to park on the drive means he has a guaranteed parking space just a few steps from front door. Might not seem worth the money to you but might be worth it to them.

Graphite

Surely this makes it easier to charge an electric vehicle overnight too. How do others manage that?

Good point!!

We don't have an electric vehicle (it's hybrid) but that makes sense.

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.

My partner now parks his car on his drive since a delivery driver wrote off his last car. I have to state on my insurance if my car is parked on a driveway at night. Maybe the neighbours have supermarket deliveries etc and want there to be space on the street for them to park?

Surely this makes it easier to charge an electric vehicle overnight too. How do others manage that?

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

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?

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.

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 😲

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

Did they get planning permission?

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

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].

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.

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 😁

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

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”? 🤣

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.

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.

Oh Cariad sing another song

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

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.