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Original poster

Neighbour drove across my garden!!!

248 replies

Pez82 · 22/02/2017 13:03

Last night I came home to find a car parked just outside my house below my neighbour's windows - now, not only this isn't not a parking space but the neighbour has driven through 3 different front gardens to get there!!!! WTF??!! (There are deep tyre marks on the lawn as a result 😖)

I'm attaching an homemade diagram to show how ludicrous the situation is. The yellow square is the current car's position and the yellow line the path taken!!! The green lines show my property as well as the invisible boundary on my front lawn. The driveways on the picture are slanted and once all cars are parked in their respective driveways (like they were this morning), there is no way out!!!

I've left an angry note on the windscreen but as the car has been covered in tarpaulin it looks like it could be there for a while!

So what do I do??? Build a wall/fence so it can never get out?? 😬

OP posts:
Thread gallery
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kwick · 24/02/2017 11:18

pez we will need regular updates throughout the day!!!

So nice to see so many MN friends on here 💕

MovingOnUpMovingOnOut · 24/02/2017 11:32

A trench could be nice. Just next to your rockery.

Or a skip can be handy for a spring clean? can't drive over one of those buggers

HappyFlappy · 24/02/2017 11:34

loveka

I would quite honestly and truly start a war over something like this - I would spray HIS garden with herbicide and destroy everything, stuff bags of dog poo up his exhaust and smear it over his door handles (even if I had to by a dog to do it!), push slugs through his letterbox and ring him up (withholding my number) at all hours of the night!

BTW - if this has happened in the past to any Mumsnetter, it wasn't me, right? And if it was, you started it!

Procrastinator1 · 24/02/2017 11:40

Take care OP. One of the last parking threads seems to have resulted in assault to that OP and her partner.

loveka · 24/02/2017 11:52

Yes Happy, I did go through a phase of thinking "how bad can prison be?"!!!!!!!!

We are now having to move. I can't live next door to someone with such a blatant lack of respect for us. I am also on anti depressants because of it.

He knows we are trying to move so now has us over a barrel. He took our fence down and replaced it the other day, while we were on holiday. He knows that if we start objecting it will jeopardise our sale. I actually think is is some sort of psychopath.

He truly is the most despicable person I have ever met.

HappyFlappy · 24/02/2017 12:01

loveka

My heart aches for you - a dear friend had similar with her NDN - building a wall to annex part of their driveway, kids clambering about and playing in her garden while they were at work and damaging plants and a water feature, creeping around their property in the dark, allegedly looking for something that came over the fence (!) shouting abuse and a lot of threatening behaviour - the police were useless! They went for mediation so many times and every time the neighbour was as nice as pie and made it looks though my friend and her DP were the troublemakers.

In the end, she and her partner moved and put the house on the market - they couldn't sell at first and had to rent it out (for about five years, I think) but have now got rid of it. They were fortunate in that they are professionals and could afford to rent another property while theirs was up for sale. I know not everyone can do this.

Please make sure you give him a "leaving present" when you go - nothing you can get arrested for, obviously, but something to p*ss him off.

The problem with neighbour disputes is that the law appears to be useless, and the most aggressive and unreasonable person will always win, because normal people just can't be arsed to cause constant trouble for someone else.

I hope that when you move you get a much nicer set of neighbours. Flowers

loveka · 24/02/2017 12:08

Thank you so much, that means a lot to hear that. I'm shedding a little tear.

The law just doesn't protect people in these circumstances. The bullies win sadly.

Original poster
Pez82 · 24/02/2017 12:11

I echo what happy said loveka, sounds absolutely dreadful!

The faulty neighbours are renting while everyone else are homeowners so if they're proving difficult we'll all team up to get them kicked out!

OP posts:
MrsChopper · 24/02/2017 12:24

I really like your spirit OP. Disrespectful neighbours are the worst. I am supporting the crane option. Happy gardening tomorrow Smile

rainbowstardrops · 24/02/2017 18:00

We need gardening updates and pictures tomorrow!
They were out of order. They drove over your garden! You left a note. They didn't come to explain or apologise and didn't answer the door to explain or apologise. Game on!!!!!

Original poster
Pez82 · 24/02/2017 18:05

Ok so slightly anti climatic but I finally spoke to the neighbour (after knocking on the door for 5min!)

She apologised and I insisted this was MY land and that driving her car through it was like me going to HER kitchen to get a glass of water. She denied the facts so I had to show her the marks and also said we had everything on cctv, that seemed to have shut her up a bit.
I said I was planting flowers and didn't want them to get destroyed when she wanted to move her car and she said she won't drive over my plants (she looked sincere) and would find another way out. She was so relaxed about it which made me even angrier Angry

She can't drive the car here she says so she must have lost her driver's licence I think.

I honestly don't want trouble with neighbours so I said the day she wanted to move it to please talk to me first

So I think the issue is now sorted and now I have a lot of gardening ahead to create a massive flower bed!!!

OP posts:
TheLittlePaperbagPrincess · 24/02/2017 18:07

Shoot him.

It's the only thing he'll understand.

Original poster
Pez82 · 24/02/2017 18:07

Ah and she said this is just grass it will grow again! That really irritated me as this is simply not true, I have to fill in the holes and then seed some more grass!! AngryAngry

OP posts:
TheLittlePaperbagPrincess · 24/02/2017 18:07

Her! Sorry. Shoot her.

Original poster
Pez82 · 24/02/2017 18:08

I'll post pictures once done but it might not be finished by tomorrow

OP posts:
MalletsMallets · 24/02/2017 18:27

She lost her license....... really?!!
Does that mean technically her car wasn't insured when it hit the neighbours?

It will grow again but like you say it will take some sorting out, and its kind of not the point. It will take a while to grow again especially this time of year.
So its a cost to you
a pain in the arse to you
and unsightly

she should be hugely apologetic

Original poster
Pez82 · 24/02/2017 18:33

She was smiling the whole time! I even wondered if she wasn't stoned!

Anyway, a bit of gardening will do me good and hopefully will encourage people to care a bit more

OP posts:
JohnnyDeppsfuturewife · 24/02/2017 19:39

OMG! I am so annoyed for you. I can't believe she can't see how selfish she's been and grovelled an apology.

Has the neighbour with the damaged car reported it? Isn't it illegal to just crash a car and leave? And if she's uninsured that makes it even more of an offence.

ChardonnayKnickertonSmythe · 24/02/2017 19:48

It's a clear etiquette breach on her side.

Garnethair · 24/02/2017 20:01

Razor wire is what you need now

Pogolphin · 24/02/2017 20:43

Large rocks can be very decorative (and hard to drive over).

mineofuselessinformation · 24/02/2017 20:52

I'd say she was doing a 'nervous smile' because you had caught her 'bang to rights'.
Just carry on with your plans.

kwick · 25/02/2017 12:30

Maybe she was stoned whilst druving the car without licence? Hmm

MrsWembley · 25/02/2017 14:11

What did she say about the damage to NDN's car? And never mind the fact that she can't drive, did you query the fact that you were told it was the daughter who drove it there and so it was her who should be getting it removed? And did she tell you how she was getting it removed if you are about to plant stuff?

Original poster
Pez82 · 25/02/2017 14:39

So basically she was in complete denial about the whole thing.

When I said the other neighbour wasn't happy his car got damaged she said oh really, show me where it's damaged. To be honest she mostly scratched the wheel and I think the body is fine (but it's hard to tell as it's still partly under a cover). There is lot of mud on the cover from when she got stuck. So then I showed her the marks and said it was a real mess (as they must have used paving stones to get her out) and that's when she said 'it's only grass it will grow back'. That got me into a fury, I said it might only be grass but it's MY grass and it won't grow back like that.

When I said she would have to find another way out as i wouldn't let her trespass my land again, she just said she would find another way - not sure how!! I guess she could agree with her other next door neighbour to remove part of his fence so she could go through. In any case, whichever way she goes she will need to talk to neighbours...

When I insisted there was no way I would authorise her to cross my garden again she just said 'so what, are you going to build a wall all around it?'. I responded this was none of her business what I was doing as this was my property and I could whatever pleased me. She was trying to end the conversation, she clearly didn't care!!!

I don't know if it's her car or her daughter's but she was clearly hiding something. When I asked 'why do you want to keep your car here anyway' she mumbled something like she couldn't drive it here (I don't know if she meant in this country or if she doesn't have a licence...)

I thought a little bit more about it over night and I'm also going to put a fence on the narrow boundary of my garden to the street. That will stop people taking their wheelie bins this way and force them to use the path.

If anything is damaged at some point, I'll have cctv recordings to take legal action.

Not a good day for gardening so I'm just going to buy more edging rolls and look for a barrier today. Tomorrow should be better weather wise.

OP posts:
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