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AIBU?

Taking over a verge as part of own garden, does this happen a lot?

34 replies

HolidayCriminal · 17/03/2014 20:17

I know 2 local households that have done this. And they get very shirty if anyone walks over their bit of adopted landscape. They don't actually fence the patch of earth off. It's right on the road/edged of pavement on routes we frequently travel and definitely not their own private property. One bit of adopted verge is across the road from the adopter's house, they just wanted a nicer view across the road from the end of their parking spot/garden.

Sometimes I forget to watch out & DC run over the bit of verge causing the adopters to instantly run out of home to tirade over DC's behaviour... but technically I think the self-appointed landscapers are committing a form of vandalism and really don't have a right to tirade (or do they?) I suppose it's a form of criminal damage if DC trample their plants, but feels so annoying when they have no rights to put the plants there in first place (do they? Does everyone? Could I plant Leylandii?)

OP posts:
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Catnuzzle · 17/03/2014 20:21

You have to apply to the council to maintain common land.

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Liara · 17/03/2014 20:23

Oh fgs, just keep your dc under control. It is nice that people make the common areas nicer, it is not such a big ask that people not wreck their work!

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HillyHolbrook · 17/03/2014 20:23

We got a note left on our car for parking on one of these. The grass was dry so no danger of the tyres leaving big dents or whatever, and there was nowhere else to park.

The woman wrote something like how she pays her council tax for the council to make these verges nice and doesn't need self entitled idiots spoiling it for her, then left her house number for us.

We thought she was mental. She clearly didn't, and sort of I see her point, but they are public areas. They don't belong to the people who are maintaining them and your DC are quite welcome to play on them just as we were to park on one. It's not as if they're taking a shovel to the verges and destroying them...is it? Wink

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TarkaTheOtter · 17/03/2014 20:40

We own most of the verge outside our path. It has a stone path along it linking the houses (terrace of three) with a step down just in front of our kitchen window. Everyone else on the road have fences just leaving a tiny bit of verge before the road. This means we sometimes have children playing on it.
I generally don't mind but I do come out and ask them to stop using the step as a scooter/bike jump because the noise of it is annoying and given that it's my step I don't feel like I have to put up with it .
My point is that I don't think it is obvious that we own that bit of land because it is landscaped like a path/pavement and there is no fencing between the properties, but we do and if I had planted something I'd be pissed off if someone trampled it.

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Scrounger · 17/03/2014 20:46

Part of our garden was adopted and then registered with the Land Registry by the previous owners, so it was their land although I don't understand the technicalities. It was outside the fence of the garden so kids used to play on it, some owners let there dogs shit on it and people dropped bottles on it. We have now fenced round it to increase the size of our garden. I was pretty annoyed with it being used as a toilet and dumping ground. I think that you should stop your children trampling the flowers unless and until you do understand the legal rights to it.

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tiaramasu · 17/03/2014 20:48

Find out for sure who owns it.
Ask them for proof of ownership if necessary.

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DeWe · 17/03/2014 20:56

Round here often there is a clause with the houses that they have to maintain the verge outside. Usually a tiny strip of grass with a tree in the middle that makes mowing it a complete hassle. Saves the council the hassle, and spreads it out I suppose.
I noticed one the other day that had planted mini daffodils round the tree and it looked really nice. Most people just mow it though.

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NoodleOodle · 17/03/2014 21:13

Find out who owns it or if anyone has to maintain it as part of their lease/tenancy. If not, they're mental and you should park your car on it just to spite them. Hmmn, I'm not usually malicious, must be in a bad mood!

Reasonable/unreasonable - it depends...

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deakymom · 17/03/2014 21:48

some people have too much free time! there is more to life than a grass verge if they pay for it fence it if not expect it to be walked on! my front garden is not fenced in i totally accept children are going to wander on it it doesn't bother me

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ConferencePear · 17/03/2014 22:36

I live on the edge of a village and we and most of our neighbours mow the grass outside the front hedge. There's not much of it, only about four sweeps back and forth. We all know it's not ours and hope the people who bring their dogs down in this direction to have a poo won't let them do it on the mown grass, or at least pick it up if they do.
We are often disappointed, but no-one complains even if there is occasionally a suspicion that it is done deliberately to provoke.

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5OBalesofHay · 17/03/2014 22:45

We have a big grass verge (which we own), fine with kids playing in it, but can't understand when people park on it. Why do they do that?

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SometimesLonely · 18/03/2014 11:29

If you attend to a verge outside your own premises and want to stop vehicles from parking there, what about positioning large rocks around it at intervals? and sprinkle itching powder to stop dogs from pooing there.

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neepsandtatties · 18/03/2014 11:35

If the verge is owned by the highways agency, then that is one of the very few instances where adverse possession does not work, i.e. no matter how long you have been 'adopting it' even fencing it in, the highways agency will always own it.

Our neighbour has sited his Klargester (septic tank) in the highways-owned verge outside his house. If, at any time from now til eternity we decided to report him to the council, he would be made to move it.

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Fontofnowt · 18/03/2014 11:38

In our local authority anyone placing boulders around verges are told to remove them or the council will and they will be billed.
Supposedly it's because people can trip and the mowers can't maintain the verge.

Churned up mud pits now.

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StanleyLambchop · 18/03/2014 11:45

In our council area you are not allowed to do this- they get shirty as when the grass mowers come it makes their job more difficult to mow round the plants/trees/stones. My friend lives in one of the houses and she gets annoyed when people park (perfectly legally) on the road by the verge as they might step on the grass when they get out of the car. At the same time, she was massively annoyed when the council installed bollards to stop people parking on the verge as she 'didn't want to have to look at bollards ' outside her house. Some people are massively over-invested in things like that!

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MajorGrinch · 18/03/2014 11:52

Does it hurt you to keep your kids off of a bit of maintained land? What about front gardens that aren't fenced?

Surely it can't be that much hassle to you....

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fluffyraggies · 18/03/2014 12:04

OTT to be coming out of the house to shout. Are they really coming out to shout because DCs are on the grass? Or are your DCs actually 'trampling plants'?

I used to maintain a big bit of grass which was out front, but not technically ours. No one else mowed it if we didn't. We had to cross it to get to our garage. I got pissed off with cars running two wheels along the edge and parking like that, half on the grass, on the school run. no need for it. made a muddy great bloody mess of the grass. we put a few white painted rocks along. problem stopped.

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fluffyraggies · 18/03/2014 12:07

Should add there was no foot path or 'public right of way' our side of the road, so no one walked that side, so no tripping risk.

maybe just to the bloody school run parkers

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Fontofnowt · 18/03/2014 12:10

Personally i prefer to see neat painted rocks over muddy tyre tracks and think it makes the street look loads better.
I don't see any difference in the trip hazard of wheel ruts compared to boulders either.
It's nice when people keep their areas tidy.

I'm the knobber who stops her car because the car infront threw out McDonald's bags on the grass with the best daffies in.
I'm getting auld see.

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PenelopePipPop · 18/03/2014 12:15

Are you sure the verge is publicly maintained? I live on an unadopted road and there is no way of knowing that if you just walk down it - there is a ROW. We maintain the bit we own (our house to the middle of the road) and so do all our neighbours.

Loads of roads are unadopted even in urban areas so the verge could be private property.

In any event YABU - children should not run in places where people have planted flowers. Doesn't really matter why the flowers were planted there, could be guerilla gardening, could be the owners front garden. Your DC should know better.

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HolidayCriminal · 18/03/2014 14:00

Hi again. I'm sure both patches are not owned by the people who tend them, nor are they part of a Town-in-Bloom project. I saw council workers removing shrubs off one of the patches a few yrs ago, the remaining 2 plants look lonely & neglected to me. There's a telephone pole on there too. The other adopters confirmed when I asked that it isn't their land, they just like to keep it looking pretty (what they think looks pretty).
Both patches of landscaped land are surrounded by rough bits, iyswim, so it's easy to forget that bit of land is being tended to and mustn't be trod on.

I just think it's weird!!

OP posts:
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ferrar · 18/03/2014 18:05

I am a bit with you op.
Round here, someone has extended his garden to take in a corner piece that does not belong to him, then put up a fence so that the land became his. But someone took him to court and got it back again.
Also someone blocked off a footpath. Actually dont want to out myself, but there is another story I know too.

It is not on.

I agree with respect if people are trying to make something look nice. But equally it belongs to your children as much as to them. And believe me, these types of people lose sight of that very quickly.

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MajorGrinch · 18/03/2014 22:20

But equally it belongs to your children as much as to them. And believe me, these types of people lose sight of that very quickly.

But that still doesn't mean the kids should trample flowers etc....

If someone takes a bit of pride in their area & makes an effort to look after it, I don't think that's a bad thing...

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Pilgit · 18/03/2014 22:28

My mum's old house property included the verge - the council thought it was theirs and maintained it! My dad bought a verge opposite to stop it being built on and positively encouraged playing (he always intended to put apple trees on it to let kids go scrumping but didn't get around to it before buggering off)

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withextradinosaurs · 18/03/2014 22:46

I hate to see cars parked on communal grass areas. They're grass, not parking spaces.

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