Weird thing happened in our garden

[TheFireflies]

We live in a Victorian terrace with a roof terrace above a kitchen extension, accessed by steps from the garden. Three of the steps bolt on and off, we remove them to get to our external tap if we need to water the garden, as this is on the wall underneath the steps. Our roof terrace borders that of our neighbours, an elderly couple who we are friendly with. The terrace doesn’t directly connect to our other neighbours (converted flats) - there’s a few feet gap between our terrace and the external staircase to the upper flat. I should probably attempt a diagram.

Lived here 6 years, no neighbour issues at all. Generally quiet.

Yesterday we heard water running. Husband went out to investigate and found the external tap was turned on. When he went to unbolt the steps to get through to it, he found that someone had pushed a screw into the step which he had to remove before he could get through to turn the tap off.

Our garden is generally secure with tall fences and our back gate was bolted.

I am 🤔 about who has done this, how, and why.

We have put up a cheap camera on the terrace now (can’t currently afford a proper security system) and luckily we aren’t on metered water, but I think what really bothers me is why someone would go to this sort of trouble, and what other unpleasant surprises we might come across.

Help settle my mind!

My gut said definitely window cleaner doing any of the nearby properties, or a trades person.

I saw the bit about the locked solid gate but some people, especially those in active jobs, are very agile at climbing, and also at ease with borrowing/using others' things.

If you google can taps turn themselves on, the answer is yes, under the right circumstances.

Yes but steps can't screw themselves down ...

I also think a neighbour's window cleaner may have done this. They have no problem nipping over garden fences with their ladders.

I'd say a trades person needed the outside tap for something, broke the step fixed it used your hose
Forgot about step un clipped his hose and forgot yours was a springy one
And just buggered off

I am bad at diagrams. I don’t think this helps 😂

Yes that appears to be exactly what has happened. I remain puzzled.

We haven’t been doing any major work, nothing disruptive, no parties or annoying DIY. No barking dogs, no arguments, no noisy children. I’ve been racking my brains to figure out if we’ve somehow upset one of them, but I can’t for the life of me think how. It’s most odd. Lived here six years and not had a cross word with anyone!

Thanks, I’m going to do this.

If you are standing in the garden looking back towards your house, there is a fence you have labelled as 3ft on the left hand side, on the other side of which there is a one foot gap, then your neighbour's staircase to what looks like an elevated back door with a landing outside it. How far is the drop under the one foot gap, presumably about 9 feet in total?

Also, you said that you weren't my sure if the screw had been screwed or pushed in by hand. You can't push a screw in by hand, is it actually a nail?

Can you do a close up pic of the screw?

The screw in position I mean.

As someone else suggested, get a tap lock so no one can access it to turn it on.

It’s got to be either neighbour (using a ladder on the left side). I reckon a tradesman or window cleaner hopped over to your terrace and down the steps looking for a tap. They accidentally left it on it and couldn’t put steps back properly so screwed it in place.

Yes it’s about a nine foot drop, so they’d have to swing over that drop to get on to our terrace. I can’t see them getting over the fence into the lower part of the garden due to all of the brambles in their garden.

My husband said it was a screw, so it’s entirely possible it was a nail 😂 I’ll ask him to show me when he finishes work.

this might make sense, it’s the most likely explanation I think aside from intentional prank.

Tell neighbours about it and ask if they've seen anyone in your garden. Have any of them got security cameras that may have picked up something?

I agree with pp, the 20 something son of neighbor. And also agree with a poster who mentioned parking issue. Have you or dh unintentionally ticked off the neighbor’s son by taking ‘his’ parking spot when he comes, even though it may be your designated spot but he has always thought of it as his?

That’s the most likely explanation.

Would a tradesman or window cleaner working on a neighbor’s house really go to the trouble and ethical brambles of just ‘hey I’ll jump over into this other person’s garden and look for a tap then I’ll SCREW the step back so they can’t access it. YES!’

I don’t think so. But I do think it’s exactly what a sullen and belligerent 20 something guy would do to tick off a neighbor for some perceived slight or just for ‘fun’, even doing it with a buddy, then laugh watching from a window or even from very near you 😱 to see you and dh try to figure it out.

A thirsty squirrel?

Re: tradesman borrowing tap, fixing the step and forgetting to turn it off: But would someone really have stood and screwed a screw into the steps while the tap was running?

What i mean is: if you were going to climb into someone's garden to ''borrow'' water from their tap (presumably climbing back over the fence with said water??) how would you forget to turn the water off if you had to stand there screwing a screw in with water running all over the place before you left?

Seriously tho, I hope no damage Op and that it doesn't happen again.

It’s a neighbour who clearly knows your set up. So either done it to pass you off or given someone permission to use your tap and they’ve worried they’ve broken the step.

But to make your lives easier just get a plumber in to extend the pipe along the wall to give you access beyond the step. Easy. Is have to use the tsp every day in the summer!

I would also say a window cleaner who was called out but could not access water in a neighbours so they used their ladder to get over, put the nail or screw in the step to keep it open and used your water but forgot to turn it off.

I think prank by the neighbour in his 20s. I can't see a tradesmen going to that level of hassle to access a tap that he wouldn't even know existed then forgetting the water was on and screwing the step in place for some unknown reason. I'm more inclined to think the 20 year old thinks this is hilarious and filmed it for TikTok.

Tradesperson is the least worrying option. But if so, how were they to know OP wasn't on a water meter? Pretty unreasonable behavior given the couldn't know that. Also how would they have known about how to work the steps?

it could be that they turned it off but not quite properly so it slowly truend itself back on - so water was not running when they 'fixed' the step but then the pressure slowly turned the tap back on

On a purely practical level, I’d agree with the above - re-site the tap beyond the stairs where it can be accessed without any bother, and get a sturdy tap-lock at the same time.

As for how this can have happened and who did it - I’m baffled too, OP. But that’s an excellent diagram (though I did understand from your photo exactly how the set-up works because I once lived in a flat with much the external set-up with stairs etc).