To ask neighbour to stop kids using communal areas as personal playground...

Personally, I'd leave it,why risk a fall out?. Her youngest are 8 and 10? Couple more yrs and it will be all Xbox and no more footballs

to those that are saying its fine....i think it depends on the communal area and what its designed for. there are lots that are used for recreation and thats fine and have lovely grassy areas designed for play. But if its like ours, its laid out as a shrub border and kids playing in it would just trash the whole thing permanently

bumsex come on be reasonable, there were no less than four footballs out there at the same time as the bikes. It's practically shouting out for the riffraff to come down the cul de sac.

we live in similar situation and there's no way i would have let my kids do that. they didn't play in communal areas at all. If its like our set up (and it sounds similar) its not designed for kids playing, and kicking footballs.

Rather than asking them not to play, i would ask them to be mindful and not damage the grass/shrubs etc. What do the other neighbours say? if you could put a joint front on this then it would be better - not sure if all together or at least one after the other? Could also talk about potential damage to your car (this might focus their minds if they think they have to cough up, and potential damage to kids from cars)

They really should do this in their back garden, this is what its for.

we have a neighbour who dumps his garden waste in a quiet area of our close and this drives me nuts. all the management has caused a few niggles over the years. i wouldn't do shared ownership again unless i had to

No it's not solely there's but it does sound like there is some effort made by the neighbours to tidy up the shrubs etc but the children have the right to play! It seems the neighbours without kids are moaning because you can only see it from your own perspective. I would personally love a communal area out front where I could watch my children and they wouldn't have to play near a road as they do now. You seem annoyed by their presence. How does having to look at bikes lying around affect you for eg? My opposite neighbour parks their car on the street - maybe I should complain about having to look at that?

Sitting on the fence.

You bought a property with communal areas. These are always attractive to families with children - and children play and make a noise. Unless there is a restrictive covenant in the title deeds or they are playing there after 10pm or before 6am YABU to complain about it. Your rights to peace and quiet do not outweigh their rights to play and make a noise. If you cannot put up with that you need to move to another property - an over 55s set up perhaps.

If the children have damaged YOUR vehicles then YANBU to raise this with the parents. If they have damaged other people's vehicles that is nothing to do with you. If they are concerned they can raise it with the parents themselves.

You say "words were had" when the mother tried to tidy the shrubs. Does that mean that you spoke to her? Does your lease give you greater rights to tidy the shrubs than others? Sounds to me as if she wants to play her part in the community and that her efforts have been rebuffed. Maybe try to befriend her and get her involved in the maintenance of the area?

You need to tread VERY carefully in this kind of dispute otherwise it will escalate.

Maybe you could get together with all the neighbours and agree a new layered planting scheme for the area. Grass is so high maintenance.

Uh oh. My neighbours are always fighting.
It started over something like this. I do a lot of curtain twitching, it's quite entertaining really.

If you live in the sort of set-up you describe then it's inevitable that children will play out on it. Can you ask the children directly to clear their stuff away, and to be more careful of shrubs etc?

if they're treating the space like crap then it's worth having a natter with your neighbour but not to stop them using it completely, they just need to take more care of it and probably cover more of the tidying responsibilities you share

ll. It doesn't sound like vandalism. Just kids playing and occasionally kicking their ball into shrubs. In sure you would prefer it if the kids stayed in nice and quiet so you could look at some perfect grass but it doesn't solely belong to you. By all means stop them playing on your drive as that's your property. Not sure why you are so annoyed by one of the parents tidying up the shrubs either. You complain they're a mess then complain when it's sorted. Sounds like they are trying to find a happy balance so that everyone can enjoy the area which is how it should be.

FV

Ugh I hate having neighbours - which is why we moved so that we don't have any [helpful]

If you are going to have a word, take the neighbour with you who is equally fed up - you don't want to identified as the only complainant

I think making a noise in a communal area at night is unreasonable to be honest and if I had my own back garden and the communal area was obviously meant to be "nice" with flowers etc. I wouldn't let my DC play football on it, especially if the balls are likely to go flying into people's cars.

pebbles is that your fence or the one in the communal area?

Well this wouldn't bother me at a

This is why no property lawyer I know would never buy a house with common areas like that

I'm sitting on the fence here. I agree it is not on for them to be wrecking stuff, but I cannot see anything wrong in them playing out or making a noise. If you want utter silence you need to move somewhere more remote.

The question for you is now to manage the situation without things escalating. There are few things more stressful than a high pitched battle with neighbours.

Either enforce the covenants on the use of the private areas, or you screwed up buying a private cul-de-sac without the covenants in place on the use of the private areas.

Playing in a communal area is perfectly reasonable. If there's damage to your cars, then you can address that, but the general tone of your complaint is about other stuff which is unreasonable, so it suggests that even if they fully addressed that you'd still complain.

Tricky one. Yes of course you can say something. But, wherever possible, try to avoid falling out with the neighbours. People have different standards. My children were never allowed to play on the street when they were younger (and wouldn't want to now). But I know many who were allowed out daily. Your neighbours' children's parents either do no realize what their kids are doing or... they do realise but are not bothered! Good luck and if you do say something, tell us how it goes

if its being damaged then send them the bill-u cant stop kids playing out though they just need to know how to respect everyones property

On one side this would really annoy me too, on the other side i can also see how this can easily escalate to the point you wish to god you had never mentioned it and have to move.

Do you know them? Do you have a good relationship with them? Do you know how they will react? Are you confident they will ensure the kids tidy up after themselves and stop playing there? Or is there a risk they'll tell you to sod off, it's communal, and they'll leave their stuff where ever the heck they please?

Maybe speak to other neighbours and get their views if you think there is a risk.

It's not so easy to go and confront people. I know a couple who used to feel 'having a quick word' was the right thing to do - they ended up with a campaign of harassment, dirt thrown at the car, a window broken, rubbish thrown in their garden, graffiti on their pavement, and being shouted at whenever they went out and fearing the 'neighbours' would get physically violent.

So you kind of have to judge it well. If you get the vibe they're fairly normal people who perhaps are completely clueless about the damage their kids cause (though if they've done it to their own garden, unlikely), you could have a quick chat. If you think they're like to tell you to mind your own fucking business, you fucking slag, watch your fucking back because we know where you live, get the fuck off my drive, well... yeah, confronting probably not the greatest idea.

One option could be to see if all the neighbours will knock on at the same time. They can't gob off/threaten 20 people!

Posted too soon.

I don't have a problem with having to crawl down a residentail private cul de sac due to children playing there. Should it be causing damage (balls on cars etc) then it's different. Decide what you're annoyed about.