New neighbours. Should I erect a fence?

[MazDazzle]

We live in an older house with a walled garden and trees/bushes. It feels completely private. The only area where there’s less privacy is my driveway; it’s surrounded by a waist height wall and overlooks my neighbour’s back door and patio. However, my current neighbours are elderly and never use this area. We’ve lived here 10 years and have never had any issues with any of our neighbours.

Our new neighbours haven’t moved in yet, but I’ve heard they’re moving because they’ve fallen out with their neighbours. I know them (vaguely) and they seem nice enough. They have three kids (so do we) and the youngest is a bit of a handful. He apparently uprooted his neighbour’s plants and climbed onto the roof of her car - more than once! I know they also have a hot tub. If they install one here, the most obvious place would be the patio.

Should I put up a fence surrounding my driveway?

If I did, because of the angle of the houses, I would never see them. Would it seem rude? I’m quite shy and not keen on small talk with strangers at the best of times. Or should I wait and see how it goes?

I would

@Ideasplease322 that’s my situation exactly. Everyone else in my street, and even the surrounding ones, is elderly. Many of them live alone. Other than passing cars, lawn mowers and birds, I hear absolutely nothing when I’m in the garden. We moved here from a new build estate. It was like living in a (very busy) goldfish bowl!

I used to feel bad that I’d denied my kids the chance of growing up on a street surrounded by other kids, but I just couldn’t handle it.

Another vote for do it!

As I type I am sorting inside my house and have opened a few windows. He children next door are screaming at each other and other other side a bloke is hammering on the other side of my fence for some reason. He is standing in his new raised deck which has made my six foot high fence waist height for him.

Again, it’s just people living their lives but I feel I can’t go into my back garden without being stared at.

Here were days during The last lockdown When it was like an episode of Benidorm - the neighbours had a hot tub and a karaoke machine. Awful. Not reading in the garden while listing to birdsong form me.

During lockdown I really appreciated how lucky we were. So many people on here were complaining of noisy neighbours lighting bonfires, blaring music.

That said, being surrounded by OAPs, we are definitely the noisy neighbours of our street! If the kids start squabbling though, I tell them to come inside and we only entertain in the garden a couple of times a year.

After all your ‘Get it done now!’ comments you’ve encourage me to dig out my tape measure and I’ve contacted a local joiner. The low wall is 26 meters in total. That’s a huge stretch of hot tub/karaoke/trampoline potential.

You won’t regret it and they might appreciate a bit of privacy themselves . I hope they are considerate neighbours

@Ideasplease322

As I type I am sorting inside my house and have opened a few windows. He children next door are screaming at each other and other other side a bloke is hammering on the other side of my fence for some reason. He is standing in his new raised deck which has made my six foot high fence waist height for him.

Again, it’s just people living their lives but I feel I can’t go into my back garden without being stared at.

Here were days during The last lockdown When it was like an episode of Benidorm - the neighbours had a hot tub and a karaoke machine. Awful. Not reading in the garden while listing to birdsong form me.

I’d be in despair. I hate some of these garden designs like raised decking without any thought for neighbours, or balcony windows overlooking gardens. Surely you can put trellis up to add height and screening?

The deck must be about Three or four feet high, my fence is Already the maximum. It’s hard to describe buy additional trellis there would look odd, it’s a very long fence.

They really need planning permDion for a deck that high, but I don’t want a neighbour dispute.

The joke is she gave me a right telling off for trimming some overhanging branches because she Was worried it would impact her privacy. Told me I need to consult all neighbours before I do anything. That might impact on privacy😊.

Think she is a bit thick🤣

They won't know that you've been warned they're the neighbours from hell - they'll think they're perfect (like we all do) so won't take it personally. You might have known everyone where you live for years but you don't know them. Get building that fence!