to be upset about next doors decking?

[NorthernLurker]

We have a small but lovely garden. All the fences are at a height so that you can't see right over in to next door. Being 5ft 3 I can't see over at all
Next door have hardly used their garden in the 5 years we've lived here. This was mostly because it was taken over by a huge and unused trampoline. Now next doors son has spent hours errecting decking at the back of the garden. I've just watched him walking around on it and he can see right over in to our garden. I feel a bit invaded.
Can you do anything about this? He's used a ton of wood and hours of time. It just never occurred to me when they started that it would be so high . Perhaps they'll never use it?

[rosieposey]

Hi Northern - we just laid our decking at the weekend as we have a really uneven garden and couldnt do much else with it. Its higher than id like and we can now see into next doors garden as well.

We are going to buy either some Willow or Reed screening which you can attach to your fence really easily ( probably will buy the 6ft stuff) which will help massively with privacy. You could spend more money on other things to attach to the top of your fence such as trellis and grow something up it but screening seems to be fairly cheap and effective.

[DoJo]

Put up a higher fence? Add some trellis and grow something which will give you a little more privacy? Hope that the shitty weather continues so nobody will be out in their gardens at all and it won't be an issue? Don't think there's much more you can do, just try and mitigate the impact on you of their increased view into your garden by changing things on your side as it were.

[rottentomatoes]

The problem with putting up a higher fence in a small garden is it blocks the sun more quickly on sunrise and sunset.
Decking is just awful IMO.

[NorthernLurker]

A higher fence would shade the garden more in the afternoon and as it is we have no sun by the evening. We have ivy growing all over the fence and I will let that go up a bit but not too much. I think I might see how much it gets used and if it's a lot ask them to do something on their side. Fecking decking - I think you should need planning permission to build a massive platform in your garden!

[ihearsounds]

The height is the least of your problems.. Wait until you hear how noisy the stuff is. 4 floors up. Windows closed. You can hear people walking on the decking.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Check your local planning. I looked into decking the patio and if the surface of the decking was 30cms (?) above original ground level then it required planning permission.

[decaffwithcream]

I thought you would need planning permission for decking above a certain maximum height? In our council (in Ireland) you do.

[LIZS]

There is a limit before you need pp , details here, so if it has raised the level by over a foot they could be in hot water if you anyone complained. Might be nice to see fi they would put up trellis or similar on your side . Is it same for other neighbour ?

[MephistophelesSister]

yanbu reasonable. Decking = rats, in my (albeit limited) experience.

[Wildwaterfalls]

I think trellis is the answer. The previous owners of our house installed decking before we bought it, and soon after we moved in the neighbours asked if we would mind them adding some trellis to the fence for privacy, we agreed and offered to contribute, they said all they needed was to be in our garden briefly to install it and now it's there with some pretty climbers

[Dededum]

Our neighbours did exactly that with a raised patio. We spent a fortune on shrubs and an oak tree, how pissed off were we, to block off their view. They never really use it after all that.

[NorthernLurker]

I can't round and measure it but looking at how many bricks high it is(it's next to a garage wall) I think it may be over 30cm. Bugger. I don't want to upset them but neither do I want to put up with this. It's even worse for the people taht it backs on to. They've no shielding ivy and the I would say less than 5 ft of fence . Next door can now see right in to their garden and house!

[parakeet]

I'm afraid this is one of those issues where, though it may feel to you they have infringed one of your rights, legally you don't have a leg to stand on. You have no right to stop people looking over their garden fence at you.

By all means try asking them to put up a higher fence on their side (although I don't see why this would cast less shade than a fence on your side) but they may well laugh in your face.

You'll just have to decide which you value more - privacy or extra hours of evening sunshine. Why not give it the summer to see if you can get used to it.

[trianglesaregood]

It must be annoying that they can see into your garden but how much is it likely to impact on you in reality? Presumably they won't be spending hours in the garden watching you and will be just enjoying their own garden. Agree with parakeet; try it for this summer and see how you feel then.

[fiftyval]

They need pp and probably building regs too
www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/decking/

[TSSDNCOP]

Can you trellis just the end where the decking is?

I'm thinking is the decking a seating area? If they've not got a gas BBQ up there for instance it's unlikely they'll spend much time actually standing IYSWIM?

[Floralnomad]

I have a raised deck outside my conservatory and if I stand on it I can see into my neighbours garden ( 6' fences) . I have better things to do with my time ,as no doubt will your neighbours ! TBH their children hanging out of bedroom windows or climbing on the bins to peer over the fence is more of an issue .

[TheOldestCat]

Clicked on this all worried as we've just put decking down in our postage-stamp sized yard garden! It's not us though - phew.

Sorry to hear this though, NL.

Before we went ahead, we talked to our neighbour about it and have put a trellis wood thing up on the wall (this was already there though - we've just raised it slightly to give her privacy). We can't see into her garden at all as the existing wall is quite high.

Our problem is that we're end of terrace and the neighbours walking down the road already stop to chat when we're in the garden. DH does not appreciate this! So we are going to grow honeysuckle up the trellis thing to give us more privacy.

Would any of that help you? Have you spoken to the neighbours that it backs onto? Maybe you could go round for a chat together to see if something can be worked out.

[valiumredhead]

Put trellis on top of the fence and buy an evergreen montana clematis - will be covered in less than 6 months and give you privacy.

[Choccywoccydodah]

We've had this too. We have a kitchen window that faces out into our side entrance, then the other side is the neighbours back garden (the back of their house faces the side of ours iykwim). So there is only our side entrance between their decking and our window. Anyway, they have done the same so they look directly into our window which is our main kitchen window. So annoying, but they did it while we were waiting for completion on our house (no one lived in it to do anything).
They also sprayed their side of the fence which was all up the side of our house, our 2 side kitchen windows, and up the front of our windows too. Again, as we hadn't completed, we couldn't do anything. Glad it wasn't our car sitting outside!

[MadeOfStarDust]

What are you doing in your garden that would be worth them looking at? Is it honestly an actual problem?

Our gardens are overlooked by the houses backing on to them, but I've never had cause to complain about people "looking".....

[digerd]

I had a separate trellis top fixed on top of my new fence, but strong gusts of wind blew it off complete with climbing plant up it

I dislike decking as is difficult to keep clean and when wet is dangerously slippery

Our 8 semi detached bungalows are unoverlooked - and have no upper storey bedroom windows-. At the back is a canal, high trees and a field behind.
We do have people in summer walking along the towpath occasionally but doesn't bother me.

[SilverOldie]

Unless you live in a detached house in the middle of nowhere, most people have others overlooking their garden. Unless you want to strip off I don't see why its a problem.

[MrsMelons]

It wouldn't really bother me, in terrace housing you can't expect loads of privacy TBH, if your neighbours were over 6ft then presumably they could see over anyway?

We don't even have fences and the neighbours kids just jump over between the gardens to play and the dads have a beer whilst leaning on the very low wall between us and next door - I find it all quite lovely but then our neighbours are really nice.

[NorthernLurker]

Thanks for all the replies.
I'm not really sure how high the fence is tbh - will have to measure it. It must be quite high because you couldn't see peoples heads and now you can see heads and shoulders when they're on the decking. It's not a terraced house, it's detached and whilst you can see in to each other's gardens a bit from upstairs windows the houses are very cleverly positioned to minimise that. I think I will have a word with the people backing on to it and see how they feel. Also will see how often they use it. I know this is a bit drip feedish but they do have form for being rather selfish. They were having some work done on their roof and the scaffolders came round and errected the scaffolding along the side of our house - without permission! I cam home to find it up. I went round to ask what had happened and she was very clear she didn't give two hoots. Had she asked I would of course have been happy for it to go up. It's the assumption that she doesn't need to refer to you that just bothers me a bit. Any climber that we want plant will block our light.