Can't cope with next door neighbour

[blueeyes92]

Hello,

I don't know what to do or who to turn to. My next door neighbour is unbearably loud and annoying. We share a garden with her (no boundaries) and we also share a walkway between both of our houses which goes to our front door and her front door. Our living room window also opens onto the walkway we share.

We also share a garden with her and she has positioned her table and chairs very close to our kitchen window. She does not work and is in the garden all day long. She is constantly going in and out of her house and into the garden. She will go into her house but then will come back out into the garden after a few minutes in her house. She is in and out constantly.

My boyfriend works from home for 5 days week, but his office window is overlooking the garden (where she sits). She sits out in the garden and is very very noisy. She is constantly talking, shouting, screaming, laughing, making funny noises, you name it. She shouts across the garden to anybody that walks into the garden or that is sitting there and I mean delivery people, postmen, workmen etc. She will shout things at everybody and try to carry on a conversation with them for as long as she can. Also, she will sit on her phone and videochat with the phone on speaker for an hour or two every morning. Every morning when I come down into the kitchen, the first thing I will hear is her on her speakerphone call. She talks very loudly all of the time.

I hear her first thing in the morning and last thing at night (either in our shared walkway or in the garden).

She has metal chairs placed in front of her front door and has to move them every-time she goes in or out of the door. You can hear the metal chairs screeching as they are dragged across the floor every-time she goes out or comes back. It is an unpleasant noise.

She also drops bags down from her first floor window, so you will hear thuds throughout the day. They are bags of rubbish, bags of clothes I believe.

I don't know what to do, my boyfriend is becoming increasingly frustrated and we are both at our witts end with her.

It feels like she is living inside the house with us. There is no sense of privacy, peace or calm at all. I'm starting to develop headaches from the constant noise and my boyfriend is completely desperate to move.

Right now, she's sitting in the garden and has been talking/shouting/screeching with another couple for the last two hours. There will be no sense of peace or quiet all night, as she will try to find somebody else to talk to/talk to herself/go on the phone when the other couple have left. I'm sitting at the furthest end of the house now from the garden and I can still hear her talking/shouting its like she is in the house with me.

I got so frustrated by her last night as she was talking/laughing outside our kitchen window for hours that I shouted "shuttup" through our kitchen window to her. I'm not proud of myself as I am mild-mannered and tolerant person. I had gotten a headache as she had been in the garden all day and making noise. She heard me and she shouted back to me "No you shuttup". I hadn't even said anything before that. After that, she didn't actually get any quieter or anything.

She doesn't go on holiday, doesn't work and is in the garden all day long. We can hear her from every window in the house.

Oh God. You're just going to have to kill her OP.

1 Do you rent?
2 Is there anything in the deeds about garden usage
3 it will rain or get cold soon enough (if you are in the UK)
4 Put a stereo on the window nearest her and play it loudly

*window sill

I'll come and help you. I'll just load the car with gaffa tape and zip ties.

Play loud music with your windows open?

This is how Harlan Coben dramas start

Yes, we are renting.

I will check the tenancy agreement to see if there is anything mentioned about the garden.

We have tried the stereo thing, my boyfriend plays loud music to block her out quite often or if she is playing music (which she does if she's not in garden) to block her music out. It get's annoying having to have loud music on to block her out. It doesn't really solve the problem.

Yes, we already have tried this. My boyfriend even left loud music playing when he went out one time.

It's very sad, but I've gotten so frustrated I've even started thinking about playing an loud alarm/beeping sound from our kitchen window when she's on the phone and using her phone on speaker even.

She is in her own home actually making reasonable noise. It's not late at night etc. She can put her table and chairs whenever she wants in her own garden. (Yes it's as much hers as it is yours )

Could you ask her if she would mind sitting a little further away as your OH works from home and can't always hear calls when she's talking so near. Take her a bottle of wine round and have a conversation

You need to move,can you do this soon.She has a problem and it will continue.When the weather turns it will be better so during that time look for another rental more suitable for your needs and never share a garden.

It's difficult to find a place to move to. Everywhere is so expensive and nowhere near as nice as the house we are currently in. It's such a shame. The house is completely lovely, but the neighbour is ruining it for me and my boyfriend.

As you rent, I’d honestly just move, sod that

Thank god you are renting.
Find a new place as soon as you can give notice.
Nothing you do will change her behaviour.

Me and my boyfriend aren't actually on speaking terms with her. We've been living here for nearly two years now. We asked her to move her table when we moved in because it was so close to our kitchen window (and my boyfriends office above), she refused to do it and wouldn't listen to us. We even then went to ask her husband when he was on his own if he would mind and he said that he would have to speak to her. They never moved it, even though we politely asked.

My boyfriend works from home full-time and 5 days a week and he needs to concentrate. His office window is directly overlooking the garden and the table where she sits at. He actually works with his office curtains CLOSED for the whole day because he doesn't want to have to have her right in his view. I'm just so sad and defeated.

Then do as a PP suggested, knock on her door and have a chat. Can you agree an invisible divide down the garden so she's no intruding on your home? Fluff it a bit and say your boyfriend's employers have made comment about the noise if needed.

Sorry just seen your update. Speak to your letting agent/landlord and get them to speak to her agent/landlord and resolve it that way if you're not on speaking terms.

Saying that though, it's a shared space right? Why aren't you going out and moving the furniture? Replace it with yours/pot plants.

I agree with @Maddy70
Sadly for you, it doesn't really sound as though she's doing anything that anti-social that the authorities would be interested in.
And unfortunately, your boyfriend working from home doesn't mean she can't make noise in her own garden.

Pray that autumn comes quickly and hits hard!

All you can really do is move.

We've realised that, its just the way she is. She can't help herself. Some workman visiting the garden last week told me that he thought she was crazy.

Objectively this doesn't sound like a "nice house" if you have to put up with a neighbour whose behaviour you clearly do not like. Annoying as she is, she is probably not actually doing anything wrong or in breach of the tenancy agreement.

As others have said - could you move some of her stuff and put your own items outside the window? Perhaps do it over winter when she is back indoors mostly, so it's less confrontational?

I'm not sure if she's living in a rental or got a mortgage. She's living in the house by herself now. The "husband?' only occasionally visits.

Her need to use her garden is greater than your boyfriends need to work from home. You need to completely remove that from your complaint because if people want to work without household noise around, they need to go to the office. Not try and dictate to their neighbours.

The rest of it does sound annoying, but it’s the risk you took when you moved in somewhere where everything outside is shared with someone else.

If she’s older she might need to talk loudly due to hearing loss. It really doesn’t sound like she’s doing anything wrong.

Her table and chairs aren't exactly outside our kitchen window, but they are closest to our houses windows than any of the other houses (her own included). I'll upload a picture when she's moved.