AIBU to want privacy in my garden

[Footywife]

We live in a terraced house....all houses have front gardens. We have nightmare neighbours both sides unfortunately and we're currently involved with the Police/Local Authority to try and get them to take some action due to ongoing antisocial behaviour (drugs/violence/noise/drug dealing). We own, they rent. The rest of the street is lovely, but these two cockroaches have ganged up together to make peoples lives hell.

Anyway....I digress.

The problem we have is that the fences around the gardens are only around 3ft high which means we get no privacy when they are shouting across to each other, encouraging their children to throw balls, etc. One of the children sits and stares at us if we sit in the garden.

We're in the process of putting in a hedge down at the side between neighbour 1 (the plants are being delivered tomorrow). We really want to have a wall built down the other side and to the front (which will be a little higher than the current fence and will be attached to our over door canopy at one side so it gives us more privacy as we step directly out of the door. This will mean psychotic neighbour number two can't keep reaching over the fence and hammering on our window. We just can't afford to get the wall done at the moment.

Can anyone suggest anything we might be able to fix to the existing fence to make it that little bit higher - and which won't look an eyesore with it being on the front? I did consider bamboo screening, but not sure whether it might be too flimsy.

[FlamingoAndJohn]

Barbed wire?

[Knittedfairies]

You could put up a trellis and plant fast-growing climbers, but it depends who owns the fence.

[Selfsettling3]

Trellis

[corlan]

For the kids to play on.

[Footywife]

Thanks. It's a jointly owned fence and we've paid our share towards it being replaced a year or so ago. We get the sun on the front most of the day so we sit directly outside our front door of an evening. We don't want psycho neighbour 2 to see us, as if she does then she comes out and makes noise which then ends up with her making constant snide comments towards us.

@FlamingoAndJohn I love the barbed wire idea....but not sure we'd get away with it haha

[Bluntness100]

I’d agree trellis is the quickest, cheapest and easiest solution.

[Bluntness100]

If it’s jointly owned op, sorry cross posted, you will need to seek their permission to put anything on it,

[Footywife]

@corlan Haha......love it! If we weren't trying so hard to get psycho evicted then we'd fight fire with fire. Unfortunately, we're having to keep ourselves whiter than white. She's already made up unfounded allegations against us in the past (thankfully she's well known by the police so they can see right through her)

[Footywife]

@Bluntness100 I don't think the landlord would have any objection tbf…..but I was thinking of something temporary until we can get the wall done (hopefully by September).

[Bluntness100]

Op, ask him in advance , even if you think he will be fine with it. It’s better that than his tenant complaining and him having no idea.

[leckford]

Pyracantha grows quite quickly and is very spikey

[Doubletrouble99]

I'm afraid trellis or anything flimsy will just get 'accidently' damaged. Your hedge will take a few years to grow and could well be damaged by other's children. I would look at putting up a couple of 6ft. panels either side of your house so they can't see you directly outside your house. I would put them in as securely as possible. As I could afford it I would add some panels and make my way down the garden. Mean time what does their Landlord say? Have you complained to them about the behaviour?

[Gran22]

Is the front your only garden? Sometimes there are rules about the height of fences at the front of property. You may already know what the rules are in your area. Good luck!

[OlaEliza]

What about a load of those planters with the trellis?

[Standrewsschool]

Bamboo or willow screen?

[ellzebellze]

What a nightmare. Sounds like my former neighbour now lives next to you.

[Becles]

Hawthorne

[EdwynCollins]

My neighbour was difficult. I had a 6ft fence put up totally on my side. Heaven

[Namechange2020onceagain]

Get a couple of these and plant some star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), it grows quick and smells nice and is evergreen.

[WindFlower92]

You can put proper fences up inside the fence. Technically not on the border and is just in your garden, so no legal issues!

[ProfYaffle]

We made our own version of the planter in the photo below. Ordered some heavy wooden planters then screwed these trellis panels to them. We stapled shade netting to the back so you can't see through them. Grew Virgina creeper in the planters

trellis

shade netting

[Wonkydonkey44]

I would get a proper fence, you can put the posts on your side of the existing fence and a hedge will take forever to grow .

[Haretodaygonetomorrow]

There definitely are rules about fence heights at the front of properties so just double check before you go to any expense.

[Footywife]

@Doubletrouble99 unfortunately the landlord's agent does very little. Everytime I've complained she's made up something against me. The agency is now run by the owners son and it seems he's desperate to show daddy how well he's doing and how much money he's bringing in (housing benefit tenants are easy money I suppose).
I've approached the father directly today.
.
She's got severe mental health issues....all well documented with the police....and she's currently up on criminal charges for glassing someone. She's spat at me....then lied and said it was me who spat at her! She's verbally abused me. Her son is feral and social services have been involved.

It's actually making me ill now. I'm not an anxious person, but I've not slept for days due to the worry of it all. Moving is not an option....we only have two years on our mortgage and if we move we'll have to take on another mortgage which we don't want to do at our age.

I'm rambling a bit now. She's currently lying on a sheet in her garden with another girl who's off her head on drugs and I know has recently had her children taken off her.

[BruceAndNosh]

Plant pyracantha.
It's a thorny bastard