What would you do neighbour issue

Glad you have spoken again. With Christmas and New Year it may take a while.
I need to get some fence panels replaced, prompted by my neighbour, but am waiting till 2 January to contact anyone. The neighbour says nobody will want to do it whilst we are having so much wind and rain anyway.

Hi

Had another chat about 3 weeks ago. I said I was happy to get someone out to sort it but he wouldn’t hear of it, so I’m still waiting for him to come look at it. It’s really pouring out when it rains as the gutter is totally full.

I know from past experience that not getting on with your neighbour becomes a complete nightmare .
My old neighbour used to spy on me and tried to drag me into his house .
His anger was over yet another tree in my garden .

I was advised to take out a restraining order , but hesitated as his wife and daughters were so nice to me .

You really don't know what can happen in the future .

At times , my new neighbours have been a bit annoying ( really noisy ) , but on the whole they are very kind to me .
This week , knowing how I struggle with shopping they've taken me out twice .

Don't make your only connection with neighbours negative .
Buy them a Christmas gift and invite them over for wine and cheese .

It's the prelude to Christmas and New Year so let this matter wait until the New Year and then decide .
I'd probably go for the water garden option - so pretty !
But if you want it fixed then suggest a trusted trader .

Freshair, it is ridiculous, however the greater need is to keep friends with the neighbours .

This is ridiculous. Put a note through their door and politely give them a time limit to get it fixed. A month is enough Good luck

We had a bit of a similar problem a few years ago with guttering on a garage, maybe you could suggest what we did, we ended up putting a down pipe on it but half way down a joint was put on to extend the pipe further down and away from the garage to which the water moved with gravity to a better place, hope that makes sense to you

Easiest solution plant a small water garden . Yellow flag irises , two large stones, and frogs are nice to look at. Replace fence panel with ornamental trellis panel and pots of ferns hanging from the trellis.

I agree with FLUTTERby 123 . Leave it till January. It is a busy time

Don't think Id be so accommodating bothering with a water butt etc and why should you go to that expense and trouble. Aporoach them again and explain if the problem isn't sorted out soon there will be more damage to both properties and obviously they will be liable for your damage too. You coukd suggest to tgem looking on the local Trusted Traders site for someone to repair the problem if they aren't able to do it themselves. At this time of year it will be difficult to get someone willing to undertake a small job so you may have to be patient until the. New Year.

Could you put a laurel in a large pot under it. Might be that the neighbours will look at problem in the spring when the weather gets better?

Very frustrating. Things get tense in the run up to Christmas with the dark days and people are busy. Lots of good advice above but I would say leave whatever you decide to do till January.

I had a down pipe that was noisy and annoying to my neighbour. Most of the water came off his roof (the two houses are semi detached).

With my consent he worked from my front garden to attach a pipe at ground level from my down pipe to his own ground water drain. A small easy job. Years ago and no trouble since.

I know it can be hard approaching a neighbour especially if you are shy. I was lucky it was the neighbour who complained.

I really think that for an easy outdoors job like yours seems to be it would get the job done with less stress for you if you got your own handyman in to do it. Maybe just mention to your neighbour you are getting it done . If he is neighbourly he will share the cost. If not save yourself the hassle and forget about him.

However it seems to me he is simply lazy and will be glad if you take control.

My son had a new fence put up and next door brush it was pushing against it. It did look a mess well over grown My son knocked and asked her if she could trim it etc nothing happened he saw her daughter and he said it to her who said mum in hospital so my son removed the panels and completely trimmed the brush. She came out of hospital and doesn’t speak to him now but he doesn’t care she is quite old and my son and his wife aren’t. I moved into my bungalow few months ago and my drain is shared with neighbors so everytime they have a shower the water can sometimes not drain as fast and goes onto my lawn. Nothing I can do about it just got my handyman to put a plate around it to try stopping water from overflowing onto my lawn. Just have to live with it unfortunately if you have mentioned it you will have to be patient and wait for them to do their side.

If you want to get a tradesman in to do the job properly why don't you speak to the neighbours and explain that is what you would like to do and confirm that you would be paying for it. They may well be very grateful to have the matter sorted out for them if they are very busy and possibly short of cash.

If the guttering is overhanging your garden and causing you problems I would suggest to your neighbour that you get a builder in to cap it off or divert it.. much quicker and can be done to your satisfaction

No you can't get the work done without your neighbours' permission but do you think it may solve the problem if you asked your neighbours if it would help if you arranged to get the work done? Call me cynical but it could be what they're waiting for.

DH put a sloping piece of wood beside where our neighbour's gutter leaked into our garden . This deflects the water into his garden . It is where he would not see it normally.

Don't worry about the foundations, they'll cope with the amount of water you describe. I say this because when talking to your neighbours you need to stick to the basics.

I wonder if something in writing would help? You can think carefully and re-read, and put in that because of access, you need a 'trusted trades' (this is a reasonable request whether or not you have MH issues)

I would also leave it awhile - what seems like ages to you isn't to folk who have to think about finding time and money in the run-up to Xmas.

Good luck

Or perhaps you could remove that fence panel to preserve it until the overflow is fixed?
Replace it with some sort of boundary marker, maybe a plant trough filled with pebbles.
Just a thought.

I agree with Karmalady go ahead and do that

Good relations with neighbour is more important than fencing or mud, he sounds reasonable and will do it so don’t push it and cause a rift.

karmalady

Re the overflow hitting the fencing, you can get a bit of guttering and position it so that the rain falls into it and runs into a water butt. You would need a couple of screw eyes to screw in and a bit of wire to hold it in place at the top of the fence. The bottom can sit in the hole in the water butt lid. Very easy to do

Can you tell me more please I can’t envision what you mean Thankyou

Re the overflow hitting the fencing, you can get a bit of guttering and position it so that the rain falls into it and runs into a water butt. You would need a couple of screw eyes to screw in and a bit of wire to hold it in place at the top of the fence. The bottom can sit in the hole in the water butt lid. Very easy to do

It is frustrating, but do remember if they are younger and both work full time, time flies by and some things are simply not seen as urgent.

I’m sure from their reaction they will do something eventually, but out of sight out of mind springs to mind.

As I said frustrating! But good relationship with your neighbours are worth their weight in gold.

I like what bluebelle says and you could turn a negative into a positive by putting 4x 45cm slabs down, easy to do if you use a spirit level. Put a water butt on top of the slabs and collect the water. If the butt gets full, attach a bit of hose to the outlet and direct that hose gently underneath the fence, so that excess water runs under the fence to their side. Easily done and non-confrontational