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AIBU?

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To think my neighbour's Halloween decorations epitomise how abusurd their setup is? (Pic attached)

140 replies

Carla786 · 07/11/2025 21:59

My 'next-door neighbours' have still not moved in, 3 years after they claimed to be arriving in their forever home. There's been a recurrent pattern with the house next to me where it gets redone by the latest buyer, elaborately & noisily & then gets sold on. No one has ever lived there for much longer than a year. (We suspect there is some kind of property-trading ring going on : our house was bought by my grandmother's parents in the 30s when prices were lower, but obvs have skyrocketed since. It seems criminal when there are so many people waiting for homes. Several other houses on the street are the same, it feels a bit ghost-town & def not neighbourly)
It was the same with this neighbour. They did heavy building works for a new basement & granny flat, among other big changes -noisy & very dusty, which was bad for several of our family who have asthma. Not to mention that I was doing my A levels then . And these are still nowhere near complete 3 years after they started. They haven't moved in : OK, it's not finished yet, but I suspect they'll follow the same pattern as previous owners.
But ofc they wanted to put these lovely decorations up, at the house they've never yet lived in & probably won't- and they're still up today.
My mother sent the pic (I'm at uni)- she's a bit of a conspiracy theorist & thinks the gravestone messages are a threat. I definitely don't go that far, though it feels bad taste. I love Halloween but have never liked gravestone decor, esp as the local cemetery is round the corner & we often visit my grandfather's grave.
MN verdict? Are the neighbours CFs, with this as the icing on the cake? Or are we overreacting?

TLDR : Neighbours who have taken 3 years to move in due to noisy dusty building work for a supposed forever home have decided to put up gravestones on the front lawn of a house they've never lived in and probably never will. Gravestones went up before Halloween & are still here today.

To think my neighbour's Halloween decorations epitomise how abusurd their setup is?  (Pic attached)
OP posts:
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Carla786 · 10/11/2025 23:05

Hi, these replies are great, lots of helpful advice & as always, a few jokers 🤣

Will reply tonight.

OP posts:
Flannelfeet · 09/11/2025 10:41

Frostinmyface · 09/11/2025 09:09

I’ve still got 2 rotting pumpkins on my front door step 😂

😆 🤣 😂 so did I till yesterday 🤢

feelingalittlehorse · 09/11/2025 10:10

How do I become part of a property trading ring? Nothing moving round here and mine’s just sat on the market 🤣🤣🤣

Happy to put up skeletons to join.

Frenchfrychic · 09/11/2025 09:39

I’m also wondering if your mother is ok and also honestly if you are, most kids don’t own their parents house but you’re acting like you do, maybe you do, or obsess over their parents neighbours.

FlyingUnicornWings · 09/11/2025 09:37

Carla786 · 07/11/2025 23:17

Ha, my mum watched that recently. I think she sees the gravestone messages to us as a threat like in the film where the couple are told to 'Get out!'

I think that's totally silly..though tbf she's a bit on edge I think as we did have a previous neighbour who was quite intimidating after we didn't want to sell up our house to make way for their planned huge extension.

I ask this in the nicest way, but is your mum ok? I’d be more worried about her thoughts on this than anything else. It’s quite paranoid.

I’m with you on two things though: we currently have building work going on in both our neighbours either side and argh! They’re drilling one side as we speak (on a Sunday)! I couldn’t imagine it going on for years like for you. Also I’m really sad that we don’t have community feels in our neighbourhoods like we did in the 80s/90s. I’d love to go back to that where the neighbours know each other and look out for each other so can appreciate you wanting that and not just a revolving door of development and building.

00PrettyHateMachine00 · 09/11/2025 09:17

How any of this is your business? It's their property, their garden, they can do with it whatever they want. Live in it, don't live in it, decorate it, don't decorate it, it has nothing to do with you whatsoever. Don't like it? Tough.

Frostinmyface · 09/11/2025 09:09

Flannelfeet · 07/11/2025 22:15

Its a Friday night, you're at uni, why are you not out getting pissed with your friends and enjoying yourself?. I was in a local shop today and the owner still had a velvet pumpkin in the window with silver sparkling spider webs, i told her it was gorgeous, she said I really need to take it away now but I love it too! Keep it there all year.

Maybe the new neighbours love that skeleton and gravestone? You never know. 👻

I’ve still got 2 rotting pumpkins on my front door step 😂

EmmaOvary · 09/11/2025 08:02

The LEAST odd thing about this thread is the Halloween decorations.

Frenchfrychic · 09/11/2025 07:51

I think maybe your mother doesn’t have much to do and is a little obsessed with what goes on with her neighbours and she’s passed that on to you, quite extensively as you’re even starting a thread about it and you’re now obsessed with her neighbours.

id be a little concerned if my uni aged kid spent a Friday night following the same obsession and wasn’t out with their mates or doing something better.

There is nothing wrong here op. The decorations are fine, if the house is sold so what.

Missohnoyoubetterdont · 09/11/2025 07:32

The only thing that I have got from this thread is that your mum sounds like she may have mental health problems, obsessing about neighbours and conspiracy theories.

opencecilgee · 09/11/2025 07:08

Where do you live? Is it a posh London house?

Jolenepleasetakeawaymyman · 09/11/2025 07:00

The house next door is obviously haunted. Each family moves out due to how bad it is! Start doing some research and I bet some weird stuff has happened there. This feels like the start of a horror show or movie. The twist is it is your family who are the ghosts, vampires or werewolves! You just don’t know that yet!!!

Be careful OP this sounds like a new Netflix series.

Linenpickle · 09/11/2025 06:36

Isn’t there a time limit attached to panning consents?

PurpleSky300 · 09/11/2025 04:58

How old are you OP, early 20s? You sound 30 years older, go and live instead of obsessing about your parents' neighbours.

ForFunnyOliveEagle · 09/11/2025 04:21

Is this a wind up.. You’re a 21 year old uni student worried about your mum’s neighbours halloween decorations. OP I suggest you go out, get some friends or even find a partner, then life will improve for you. Do you suffer with depression or need some help with your mental health?

SemiRetiredLoveGoddeess · 09/11/2025 03:34

I.think this constant house redevelopment could be part of some overseas scam linked to sham.companies to sink.their ill gotten gains into.

Check with the Land Registry about ownership

As for the gravestone skeleton shit rubbish offering .in the.garden.

Your neighbours stroke me as a real bunch of fuck wits. That is probably their latest showing on Facebook.

Also find it interesting that on.Mumsnet how quickly words and phrases catch on
Overinvested seems to be the latest one as a put down..Just waiting for an avalanche of Super Excited, Awesome. and Heads Up
.

Evergreen21 · 09/11/2025 01:25

Maybe they can afford to live elsewhere whilst the renovations go on. Perhaps they bought the house simply for the catchment area and this house is being renovated to sell or rent.

I can appreciate the renovations will likely have been annoying but yabu. Your health problems or exam period simply isn't their issue. Our neighbours were renovating whilst I was doing my GCSEs, I went to the library to revise.

Flannelfeet · 09/11/2025 00:06

IridiumSky · 07/11/2025 23:26

You’re all wrong.

That is not a Halloween decoration. It’s real.

That’s an owner who took too long to finish the renovations.

Please dont tell me they dug up Trevor jordache 😭😭😭

Mistyglade · 08/11/2025 23:53

I don’t understand what the problem is.

Ionlymakejokestodistractmyself · 08/11/2025 23:45

If it's an extremely desirable area could it be that money motivated people are offered big £ for their newly renovated house and it's too good to turn down hence the repeated moving?

Or maybe if the community vibe is as shit as you say it is, they decide they don't want to live there?!

Wealthy people often move around a lot IME, I know someone who has moved something like 5 times in 8 years and ended up back in the flat they kept as they didn't settle in any of the areas and had the money to keep moving.

user1473878824 · 08/11/2025 23:35

Carla786 · 08/11/2025 22:08

Hi thanks for the replies. Will reply later tonight.

@Carla786 pal you’re at university. This is the one time in your life you can spend your Saturday nights getting very drunk with your mates and having amazing memorable stupid nights. You’ll do the same later but have to pay for it in the morning. Don’t spend it on fucking Mumsnet.

ForegoneConfusion · 08/11/2025 22:45

I haven't RTFT, but 'buy to leave' investment is quite an issue, and that sounds like what could be happening on the OPs street, especially if there are houses on large plots in what is now a very expensive area.

I don't think that the gravestones are a warning though, probably just the person who owns the house wanting it to look lived in, to deter burglars or squatters.

If your mum is getting paranoid, I can see why, it must be quite unnerving to live in an under occupied street with constant building works going on.

PlumOrca · 08/11/2025 22:25

Carla786 · 07/11/2025 23:29

Yes! I think that's it, unluckily....or something weird.

We did have neighbours when I was very young who my mum suspected were into drugs. I'm not totally sure why & she is a bit over suspicious often but it does seem overall dodgy.

...OP... I promise you that I'm not trying to be rude but I really suspect that your mam could be part of the problem here and/or could potentially be paranoid schizophrenic. This is exactly the kind of thing my aunty would say regarding her neighbours (who is currently in a full blown psychosis).

PlumOrca · 08/11/2025 22:21

Carla786 · 07/11/2025 23:17

Ha, my mum watched that recently. I think she sees the gravestone messages to us as a threat like in the film where the couple are told to 'Get out!'

I think that's totally silly..though tbf she's a bit on edge I think as we did have a previous neighbour who was quite intimidating after we didn't want to sell up our house to make way for their planned huge extension.

So your mum has had issues with other neighbours too?

PlumOrca · 08/11/2025 22:18

Carla786 · 07/11/2025 22:12

Well that's my mother's opinion more..I don't personally think it's a ring. I do think it's weird & wrong that most people on the street essentially buy up houses, develop them noisily & extensively, then sell them on to people who repeat this cycle & never actually live in the houses, or at best very sporadically. We barely have any actual neighbours, just temporary developers.

I don't mean offense at all - but is it at all possible that your mother is the reason all these people keep selling up?

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