to NOT back down to my elderly neighbour.

[AbstractApple]

She is winding me up more and more and I can feel my heels digging in. My friends have told me they think I am in the right (they would wouldn't they?)

A bit of background- we've had two break ins and two attempted break ins in three years. We were advised to take extra precautions, including security lighting to the back of our garden which backs onto a fairly busy road.

Over the last couple of months we?ve had the wrath of an elderly neighbour- it started off with a letter saying could we turn off our light as it shines (when activated by motion sensor) into her bedroom.

I dropped a note back mentioning the burglaries and the advice from the police etc and said that I would chop back the tree (which sometimes moves in the breeze setting it off) I also bought her a blackout blind when I was shopping but didn?t give it to her because the following day she came whilst we were having breakfast and started screaming at us! So the blind is being stored in our garage gathering dust!

She regularly walks over to my house and if I haven't left in the morning she gives me a rant and a sermon for a good ten minutes and it's starting to drive me mad.

I'm not going to turn the light off, we've had no problems, no break ins no vandalism for over a year and I think the light has helped. Does anyone have any ideas? She is threatening to take me to court because it violates her human rights and I have sarcastically suggested she closes her curtains- which of course she didn't like- but I am fed up and would rather my energy was spent elsewhere :-).

I would understand if a neighbour did this- in fact all three of my neighbours have done the same and it is a pain when the light shines through a window and the council putting a streetlight to the other side of my house is a pain but I understand it is necessary to improve the security in the area, oh blah, blah blah I am even boring myself now.
Thank you if you got to the end.

Belgo, yes I take absolute delight in seeing her most mornings.

I have so little to do with my life that I relish every opportunity to score points.

I will turn off the lights and send the blind and letter as suggested. No doubt something else will crop up.

Thanks for the posts, it is helpful.

After a spate of shed break-ins locally, the police told us that these lights are pretty useless in terms of crime prevention. If anything, they go off so many times that folk just ignore them and it actually gives the crooks a little assistance in seeing what they're doing!

So maybe switch it off and see if she stops complaining. If it's going to be a deterrent, then surely the sight of it will be sufficient, whether it has a bulb in or not?

no point in giving her the blind if your going to switch it off

Whilst I haven't had this particular problem, I have had disputes with neighbours and it is awful when they just can't see it from your point of view and you just can't see it from theirs. Which is an easy place to get to (well it was for me).

Easy to say... but have you considered a mediation service for neighbours? It depends on your area, but some areas have them (free) and I have heard they can work quite well.

However, with this you may not 'win' - you may get a compromise.

sounds like she is a serial complainer - they do exist and your neighbours have backed this up.

sounds like you have been reasonable and thoughtful.

sounds like you have a few points to take forward and are looking for a resolution to this problem.

i think one would have to be a proper muppet not to understand that a light shining into someones room could be disturbing and therefore unreasonable, however it sounds like you have taken all possible action to prevent this.

therefore you are being completely reasonable - she is being an old bat.

i would tell her you have had it disconnected. let her think shes won and move onto mtrs smith at number 47 not mowing her lawn at 4pm as thats when she watches countdown ( or something)

I think you have been entirely reasonable. Any outside light is going to affect a neighbour, but so long as it is pointed at your wall and not at her window, then she will just have to put up with it.

My neighbours security light is pointed at their drive but if activated in the night I am aware of it. It wouldn't occur to me to complain as it is on their property and not purposely directed at me.

I would not tolerate the ranting and rudeness from her. You sound much more reasonable than me as I would have reached the point of telling her to fuck off long ago

I sleep badly, and a light shining into my bedroom like that would definitely wake me up (I wake up if one of the children puts the bathroom light on or even their bedside light). As she is elderly, she may already sleep badly, and may be being even further deprived of sleep by your security light - hence being rather cross!

And saying that your other neighbours aren't bothered by the light means absolutely nothing - everyone is different, and some people sleep more soundly or are disturbed by different things - dh can sleep if I have my bedside light on to read, but I can't. He'd sleep through a marching band coming through the bedroom, and I wouldn't.

We have a security light on the back of our house, and if it was disturbing a neighbour like this, I would do something about it.

YABVU!

YABVVU - you are polluting her house, her bedroom with an invasive bright light. Seriously how would YOU like it!!!!!! Are you saying it would make you feel safe so that's OK?

I have similar problem with property at back of our house. They have huge bright light shining into their garden (it's an OFFICE) 24/7 - except it also shines into my bedroom. On my request they did adjust it so it no longer shines directly into my room but it is still very very annoying and it still moves so needs to be adjusted. It is an issue even with curtains closed. Why should I use a blackout blind - I need to sleep with my window wide open in the summer & the breeze coming in.

How extremely generous of you to buy her a blackout blind - sorry but FUCK OFF!! So you are saying to her you should do X Y & Z to accommodate my unreasonable & selfish behaviour? maybe she likes waking up to natural light with the window open? but she should stop this, close her window, get a blackout blind & curtains etc so you feel better? So you get your way!

Adjust your light so it shines DOWN into your garden - not into her window, and get a hood. You may need to replace the light. You can certainly get LOW LEVEL lighting so it actually lights up your garden & not the night sky, if it is that important to you.

It's selfish & inconsideration things like this that neighbours do that really wind people up - you are invading her life with this light of yours.

I don't think she's got a leg to stand on to be honest and am a bit surprised at some of the responses. A sensor light only comes on when triggered by movement, so it's not as if it's on all the time. My neighbour's got a sensor light and I welcome it - if someone or something is moving around in the back gardens at night, I want to know about it. Her property is just as susceptible to break in as yours is.

The light isn't beaming into her window either. It's pointed away from the window and only comes on occasionally. You've taken advice from the police about protecting your property, it's worked in terms of a deterrent and the neighbours either side are not remotely bothered by it.

If you are in any doubt at all about where you stand, contact your local council and speak to the environmental health officer. They will tell you soon enough if you are doing anything wrong. You are doing everything you can to minimise the effects on her (the blind was a nice idea as well) but at the end of the day you have been the victim of several burglaries are are trying to protect your property in the way the police advised you to.

This light apparently comes on when the wind blows a tree branch, Fontella. And as I said earlier, what difference does it make that it doesn't disturb the other neighbours? Maybe they are like my dh and can sleep through that kind of stuff.

I sleep badly, and would hate anything that robbed me of even more sleep. I struggled when my mum came to stay, because she stays awake until the early hours reading, and as both her room and ours have those little windows above the door, the (dim) light from her bedside lamp shone into my room - and that was enough to keep me awake.

If this woman is being woken up several times a night, this will be having a very real impact on her quality of life - and it is unreasonable for someone to deliberately do this to a neighbour.

Good for you in turning the light off.

It maybe a small consolation prize, but nosey neighbours/curtain twitchers are great deterants to daytime burglars.

The problem is that sensor lights can be really annoying, especially if they are triggered frequently - by wildlife for example. We have a couple in our back and front gardens that were there when we bought the house. We have now turned them all off, as I found the lights coming on disturbed my sleep - even with blinds and lined curtains. We are in the country though so the light change was obvious and frequent (foxes) - I used to live in London and slept fine there even though there was more light, probably because it was constant.

I think we have too much light pollution too. Your neighbour could contact environmental health if she's finding it too intrusive.

I sleep badly too, but I still can't see how having a security light next door is 'deliberately depriving me of sleep'. It's someone protecting their property.

I thought they had sorted out the problem with the tree by cutting it back? Seems to me they've done everything they can to minimise any inconvenience to their neighbour.

Bedrooms are situated in all kinds of places, with street lights shining outside, or lights from businesses or traffic going up and down streets - as in my case - Tesco superstore at the end of the road and lorries going up and down all night - built after I moved here I hasten to add. Do I sue Tesco or the council for the street lamps? No, I close my curtains and do everything I can to minimise the problems.

The woman 'chooses' to keep her curtains open, because she 'likes' to wake up to daylight. That's her choice, in the same way it's her neighbour's choice to install a sensor light to protect her property and provided she does everything she can to ensure that it is situated correctly, that windblown trees don't trigger it off every five minutes .. then I can't see what else she is supposed to do.

The woman threatens to take her to court over it - I personally don't think she'd have a leg to stand on, particularly when other neighbours don't appear to have any problem whatsoever - which most certainly is relevant. The first thing environmental health would do is write to all of them to get their views, if it got that far.

I think offering the blind is suggesting she has the problem not you. If it aggravates your neighbour so much, you need to think of other security devices.

Certainly not worth being a bad neighbour over.....be the adult.

YABU

Get a cap or a lid on the light so it shines down and not into her room.

Blackout blinds don't work you still get the light especially bright light like that

If you had bought me a black out blind I would have shoved it down your throat.

Fontella, the neighbour has a good case.

According to this site light pollution can include anything that adversely affects the enjoyment of your property.

That would probably include getting a decent night's sleep. In fact, they cite it as one of their examples "This is the intrusion of over bright or poorly directed lights onto neighbouring property, which affect the neighbours' right to enjoy their own property. A typical example would be an inconsiderately directed security light shining into a bedroom window."

YABU !

It's called light pollution for a reason.

Maybe she likes the dark, lots of people do.. I do.

The cap or lid on the light is a good idea if you haven't already got one. Again it shows you are taking every possible precaution to reduce any inconvenience to your neighbour.

I don't know if some of the people reading this have missed the fact that this woman complained when the light was switched off for three nights (still claiming it had disturbed her) as well as another occasion when the OP had recorded a video showing that even though it was switched on it hadn't been triggered at all during the course of the night? Nor the fact that the neighbour has a security light herself and when this fact was pointed out to her by the OP she became aggressive.

This woman is claiming light pollution is disturbing her sleep on nights when it can be shown there wasn't any. I'm sorry unless she can prove that the light is 'bright or poorly directed' which is the criteria by which these cases are judged, she doesn't have a leg to stand on in my view, and I'll leave it there.

Fontella - if you know that something you are doing/something you have set up on your property is waking your neighbour up, then you are deliberately depriving them of sleep, are you not?

However, the point about the woman complaining about the nights when the light was off does cast doubts upon her case, I do agree.

what Custardo said.
She is nutter serial complainer. Tell her you have checked with the police, all fine re the light. But they were interested to know that she has been round even when the video camera proved that light had not been activated, and asked you whether you wanted to file a harassment complaint against her. Of course you said no, but...

high-fives self

Yes I agree, and I would never deliberately do anything to upset an old lady, or disturb her sleep.

However everything about what the OP has written points to the fact that isn't the case here.

She's cut trees, adjusted the direction of the light more than once, switched it off, set up a video to see what triggers it and how many times it's triggered in the course of the night, bought a blind (ok not everyone agrees that was a good move, but at least it shows she was thinking of the old lady), asked other neighbours if it's a problem. She states clearly the light is pointing down and away from the woman's bedroom not glaring right into it, and so on.

The woman complains, rants, gets aggressive and threatens, not remotely interested in finding ways to reach a solution other than the light has to go, full stop. Meanwhile other neighbours are grateful that while the OP is getting the woman's attention they are being left alone because she appears to have made their lives a misery in the past.

I agree totally that selfish people shining bright light into your bedroom window and not being willing to do anything to adjust, minimise, reduce any problem or negotiate with you in any way to find a mutually agreeable solution is not on, and they should be brought to book which is what the legislation is for. But that clearly isn't the case here. It's the neighbour who won't give an inch, not the OP. That's why I think, in this particular case the woman doesn't have a leg to stand on, not in every case of course.

ooh forgot they've changed the bolding thing! I actually just wanted asterisks you know.

Just tell the mad old bag to Fuck off

having a light you have no control over constantly going on and off during the eveningt or at night is a really difficult thing to cope with, mind you!

Um, hang on - a light shining into her bedroom...

Light pollution?

Maybe she likes the dark?

Um...

This is the old lady who 'likes to wake up to the dawn' (paraphrase)

So, the old lady likes the light streaming in on her terms because she won't draw her own curtains, but if light strikes at different o'clock, she goes nuts?

OP - YANBU. Don't disconnect, police advised it, check your household insurance,your policy may be affected if you disconnect a security light.