Is neighbour being U?

[nowanexpertloounblocker]

I've just gone into the garden and noticed that the neighbour has fixed rows of spikes all along our adjoining fence! I assume it's to stop our cat getting into his garden, as another neighbour told us that he had been moaning that our cat jumps over the fence into his garden and annoys him by sitting on his outer windowsill. He's never mentioned our cat to us directly, though I'm not sure how I could prevent a cat from wandering around wherever it wants short of keeping her locked in the house all day and night forever.

Aside from him not even asking, even though I walked past him earlier today, it looks horrendous and my house is on the market!

Is he being unreasonable?

Prikka strips were recommended to us by the police after our second break in. You can get clear plastic ones that look better. They're designed to making climbing over fence very uncomfortable (for humans as well as pets) without causing permanent damage.

Fwiw they wouldn't put me off buying a house.

Why hasn't anyone thought of this one before -

Knock on the guy's door and tell him that you're just giving him a courtesy warning of the work that's going to be carried out in your garden next week. Tell him that you're going to have the fence taken down as you're concerned about the spikes on it and that you'd rather have no fence than one with "dangerous projections" along the top of it. Add that the work starts next Saturday.

The spikes will be down by Friday at the latest.

And would I have the chutzpah to do this myself? Hell yes, damn right I would!

[[http://www.boundary-problems.co.uk/boundary-problems/fences.html here] Print this out and pop in through the letter box with a note explaining it would be silly to fall out now that you are selling up, but hope he can understand you are not happy about him placing sharp objects on your fence

www.boundary-problems.co.uk/boundary-problems/fences.html

As several have said your solicitor should be able to provide you with a copy however if you haven't yet appointed one you can buy a deed plan fairly cheaply here

Land Registry

My neighbour's got them up, they're not really that noticeable and there's no way you could think they were dangerous when you look at them on top of an actual fence rather than in a photo...

They don't stop cats walking along the fence either.

Mine are quite effective. Don't stop the odd cat batting at them with their paws, but they no longer lay along the fence sizing up lunch.

Well, if it's your fence, then he should have asked your permission before adding anything to it. You clearly do not give this permission and therefore the prickles should be removed.

It's not an issue where we currently live but when we move I am putting those kind of plastic spikes up on every fence we own and will seek permission to put them on any adjoining fence that we don't. My dogs will kill cats. I will do anything I can to keep the bloody things out of my garden because I don't want that to happen.

In the OP's case, though, if it's your fence he is being very U and should have sought your permission first (and given up with good grace if you'd refused).

Legally, he is wrong to attach things to the top of your fence, and it is very cheeky to do it without asking.

But...he wants to keep your cats out of his garden, which is fair enough: they likely cr*p in his flower beds/veg patch every night, clearing up other peoples cats' mess every morning would irritate a saint, surely?
Even if it's just that they set off his security light every night and scare the local garden birds away, I can still see why he just wants to keep them out.

Could you not just speak to him and say that it is your fence, but that you understand not everyone likes cats... so you're going to remove them when you have a viewing. Suggest that he deters your cats in another way. Falling out with neighbours whilst trying to sell yr house is a terrible idea.

Just stumbled across this thread while looking for solutions. I find it amusing that the OP can't see why someone would need to put up prikka strips. Don't think they're the nicest things around but they were an absolute necessity for me.

At first I thought you were talking about metal spikes which would be out of order but surely prikka strips are just for making the fence uncomfortable for felines that want to hang around and cause a nuisance (which they do to everyone that isn't a cat owner)

Just to give you background, we had a really bad problem with cats pooing all over our garden. It basically meant I couldn't let my young kids in the garden by themselves without spending an hour cleaning up filthy, sometime maggot infested cat poo (and it was definitely cats before anyone suggests otherwise). The spikes don't 100% solve the problem but have made it a hell of lot less frequent
And being allergic to cats means I can't get my own cat (an unhelpful and not very responsible solution IMO).

The only issue is if it's your/joint fence in which case he should have asked permission which may have generated a helpful discussion about the problem (it did with my neighbours).

I think like others have said best to talk to neighbour.
I am curious - would you pay for a years supply of cat deterrent or offer to go around and clean the mess or buy one of those motion detection jet spray for your neighbour if his reasons for spikes are because your cat was being a nuisance?

Hope it doesn't sound like I trolling but my partner and myself were at our wits end trying to find a solution before we found prikka strips.

Also has anyone got any other solutions for neighbourhood cats using garden as litter tray?