Previous owners of house keep coming round to "visit"

I’m Irish and lived in England for 25 years, and a tiny but disappointingly predictable minority everywhere we ever lived was vocally anti-Irish, or more commonly engaged in microaggressions about the IRA, ‘brogues’, potatoes, fecklessness etc everywhere from bus stops to professional workplaces. I was used to it, as was DH, but didn’t want our child to grow up with that, especially when it ramped up around the Brexit referendum, so we left the country.

So while I wish I could tell you you’re imagining it, and your neighbours are just hanging out with their friends, it’s perfectly possible you’re not. It became very clear in our last UK home, a village, that for a certain type of person, Irish people weren’t quite white enough.

It sounds like they don't want everyone going in and out their house to use the toilet etc. So by having it out the front everyone goes to their own house apart from the people that used to live in their house. But that's just part of hosting a barbeque.

Because of where I live I often have people congregating around the front of my house and if anyone pushes the boundaries, e.g. sitting on the fence, picking my flowers I always make a point of going outside and pottering near them in my garden. Mostly they get the hint and fuck off but I'll happily say something if they don't. In your case I'd give friendly conversation a go and if that didn't work the leaf blower would come out.

Really odd they choose to do that out the front when they have a back garden. Do you get more sun out the front than the back? That might be why.

This would annoy me to no end.

Time for a friend to do the muck spreading on your roses. Does a friend also need to work on their van? Time for some loud diy. Get them to back away from your place.

Play this...Loudly! at the Hen party...

Ignore them they're a bunch of Cunts. X

Just do some extra gardening... well sealed bags of chicken poo manure, which of course needs sprinkling out regularly at the border line of snobby neighbour through the summer months!

And you must know someone who needs to repair their car in front of your house, the car with the very dodgy, loud and smelly exhaust.

They are being arseholes to OP- Would you like it if a load of people pointedly sat outside your home, rather than have a party inside their own garden?

I didn't call these types ''Middle Class''...I called them ''Middle Englanders'' - a big difference.

But an awful lot of Daily mail types are.
Educated people far less so.

Just ignore them. If they're trying to wind you up, don't give them the satisfaction. What your neighbours do isn't any of your business really. I would be too busy getting on with my own stuff to care!

oakleaffy, your post makes needless sweeping assumptions. Not all white middle class people are racist.

Why do you care so much about what a bunch of complete strangers are doing. It seems like you are trying to create drama.

@sparklerain That sound like utter arseholes.

Being Irish shouldn't matter to them, why should it?

They sound like racist scrotes.

I'm sorry you have to live like that, amongst those dickheads.

Are they Tory types, by any chance? Daily Mail readers, Gammons, Middle Englanders?

Horrible.

Do they sit out the front because it's sunnier?
I imagine it's something they have been doing for years but it is rude and thoughtless not to invite a new neighbour.
Do all the neighbours attend?
Could you chat to a friendlier neighbour about it?
I would not make a fuss like driving in and out etc. It would just give them an excuse to talk about you. Just go about your business as normal and try to ignore.

I totally get how upsetting this is. Some of my neighbours have ignored me because I didn't join in the Thursday night clapping and saucepan bashing during Covid lockdown. They still gather out in the street sitting in garden chairs and drinking every Thursday and I am still outcast😆...I make a point of going out to water the garden or to the car and my cheery smile and wave every fucking Thursday gets right under their skin. Petty, I know, but it makes me feel better.

Every time you see the old owners, go over excitedly with an, “Oh I’m SO glad you’re here! You can come and help me work out what the smell is in the loft!” or “Thank goodness I’ve seen you! You must know how to deal with that drain issue!” And just keep coming up with more and more phantom issues with the house that you’re delighted they can advise you on.

I've never experienced any hate up north, I love it up there. It's since I moved to the south. The snobbery and judgemental people are rife down here. I really dislike living in the south because of it, but my husband won't move (he's southern). I get on really well with northerners, we go to the NW a lot and love it up there. I know there's a big Irish & Irish heritage population up there.

And sorry you have experienced that – batshit and awful.

I'd buy some of those old stink bombs we had years ago and set them off everytime they went out. They were a tiny vial thing and once broke the smell was horrible and you could never tell where it was coming from. Yep part of me very childish at my age 🤣

Just go out to do something in your garden, I don't know, just go and grab a weed, and then just stand up, look at them and say 'Oh hello, it's a lovely evening isn't it. Hope you are getting on well in your new home?' If you are ballsy enough, add 'We love it here, 90% of the neighbours have been fruendly and welcoming'. Then wish them a lovely evening and wave them goodbye.

I wouldn’t have been aware of this (although am in the NW where a lot of the population are either Irish or have Irish heritage, myself included)

OP! Was there some issue with the house sale that might have caused a grudge? Last minute negotiation, etc.?

If there’s nothing like that, they’re just arseholes. Ignore, and be super friendly when you walk past 👋