Neighbours walking into our garden…share your stories

[dimsiaradcymraeg]

Lighthearted (sort of!).

We live in a detached property, sat within a garden which is accessed via our private driveway. The garden can be accessed via a closed gate or door which either side of our home. Both are always closed due to the dogs.

We are having some work done to the garden which doesn’t impact any of our neighbours. The guys are very tidy, and polite. No issues there.

Yesterday we were sat in our kitchen working when our next door neighbour appeared in our garden and started to chat to one of the gardeners. No knock at our front door, no acknowledgment to us (our car was in the drive so he would have know we were home). We thought he might have an issue with the work/noise (even through there isn’t any). No, he wanted one of the gardeners to “just pop over with the digger in their quiet time (our time) to put a boarder in this garden.”

He barely looked at us when we went to speak to him. It was so odd. Who on earth thinks they can just walk into another persons garden?! And then tries to poach their workman.

It’s not the first time he’s displayed “dominant” behaviour since we moved in but never like this. Luckily he’s only ever wanted to speak to my DH so I always side step him but I think we might need to start using locks on the gate and door.

Has anyone else had similar?

No but I would make it clear to the worker that your not paying for their garden and you would prefer it if he priced up the job on his own time

Wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. He wanted to talk to the gardener, so he didn’t bother you. I suppose barely acknowledging you when you went out is rude though.

It wouldnt bother me if they leaned over the fence to ask about a job but to trespass without permission is definately abit off.

They should have asked you for the gardener’s number, not come into your home and approached him directly. Round here, contractors tend to put out a shingle at the gate of where they’re working which has their contact info on, and of course most of them have branded vans, so no need to trespass.

Total CF. What did the workmen say?

CF! Sounds like he's after him to work for free when he's having breaks - and I'd be really annoyed about the walking into my back garden too, especially with a dog, but who does that unless they're wanting to speak to the owner and have permission ... ggrr

We have a driveway that is owned by us, but our neighbour has right of access as their garage is on inaccessible land, strange set up! Anyway the previous owner was 90's in age and her children and grand children would park on our bloody driveway, often blocking us in! One time I parked behind them and blocked them in so they had to knock, I told them straight that just because you're old enough to be my grandparents, it doesn't give you the right to park on our driveway, they needed to park in the garage or find somewhere on the street. They however continued to park there - so I started blocking them in every time, and getting them to move every time. When I was blocking them I'd leave it 10-15 minutes before I would move the car (had babies at the time so couldn't always jump to their command anyway. The owners daughter lived close by and got really nasty, kept banging in our door and swearing at us, threatening to 'take over my mums garage and apparently then we'd be sorry' it got to the point that I had to calll the police and they said to log calls each time she was verbally abusive, and because I have the police her car reg they found her address a few roads away and told her to stop ... needless to say she didn't! The mother who lived there died in the end so that ended that 10 year drama!

I've got neighbours getting garden work done a few doors down. Saw the van and made a note. I've made a contact via email which has been acknowledged. I wouldn't dream of going down to the garden and having a chat.

We were having our roof redone a few years ago. I was at home and could hear the roofer chatting to someone. I didn't think anything of it at first but after it went on for a while I went outside to investigate hint that he should get on with the job. I looked up and found Mr Know It All from down the road on my bloody roof, sharing his wisdom with the roofer and having a general nosey at what was going on. I think some people lose their usual sense of boundaries when there are workmen around, it's like work being done equates to an open house situation. Bizarre.

He was very polite but you could tell he was blindsided by it. He thought he was a relative with the way he just walked in.

The gardeners number is on both of the vans which were parked on our drive. I think he was just being nosey but to be clear, he asked the gardeners to come over that day “as the digger is just sat there”!

Honestly some people! The nerve of it.

On your roof! What if he’d fallen off, or damaged it? What did you say to him?

Thankfully my roofworks company would not allow that. Contract signed. The roof repairs are making me nervous enough as it is.

Please tell me the gardener didn’t agree to it?

I’m a gardener and this happens more often than people think. When someone did this last week, we said we would come and see them to give them a quote when we’d finished for the day at our customers house.

I was pretty gobsmacked to be honest. I think I said "I didn't expect to see you up there" or words to that effect. He was a retired builder so he thought he knew everything and loved showing off with his building knowledge.

We have had the same - people popping in to poach the working person without saying hello to us first.

worse than that was a couple of chaps, one with an axe, wondering over the grass at back of our lawn. When challenged by me (DH and me having coffee in garden luckily) they said they were from the water company and were going to put a giant sewage pipe in. Map showed through large pond and greenhouse😱. Told him to take his axe away and that yes this is actually our garden (ex farmland obvs their records ancient).

Also again having coffee with friends in garden when a woman walking her dog wandered in. Very much objected to me challenging her because “There’s a five bar gate so it must be a footpath” 🙄not at all apolegetic or bothered when I told her we have free ranging hens. 😆

That's outrageous OP! I wonder if it's the area you live in as we have a similar problem - retired neighbours in the small cluster of 7 rural houses where we live, all seem to use the same contractors for everything and piggy back off each other for reduced rates on work. I caught one of them trying to poach our builder when he was on site working on our new extension a while back.

There’s a five bar gate so it must be a footpath???

Does the general concept of a gate not work with her? Gardens, farmyards, farmland, businesses, schools, lots of places use five bar gates. They’re pretty common. 😆