to think our neighbour is spying on me through a wall?

[gnocci]

We live in a semi but a semi that backs onto another house, so our entire back wall is another house's entire back wall IYSWIM. So upstairs we share a wall on our bedroom, the landing and our bathroom.

The only noise I ever hear from their house is that noise of a pull switch light cord. And the only time I ever hear it is just after I go to the bathroom at night before I go to bed. Whatever the time. I never hear it before or after. Without fail it is just after I leave the bathroom. I go to bed at very random times (DH works away...). it could be 8pm, it could be 1am. Whatever time it is, I always hear that cord go within 20 seconds of me leaving the bathroom...

Uuummmmmm AIBU to think I might be being spied on..??!!! How do I find out for sure?!!

If they were spying on you, you would see a hole somewhere surely?

OP, you sound paranoid!

so, whatever time you go to the bathroom before bed, which varies from night to night, your neighbour/s are just lying in wait and drop whatever they are doing/watching to spy on you?? would they not just leave their switch on all the time in order not to make any sound - they must be aware, as you are, that sounds come through the dividing wall

are you sure its not white noise from something humming/clicking on/off - the only time I hear our fridge or freezer is last thing at night when all is quiet

If I were you I'd speak to the neighbour. My obviously about the potential spying, but about if they've noticed anything happening on their side when you switch the light on.

If they are spying, it'll stop. If they aren't, it can be looked into what is causing the noise :)

I wouldnt bank on it stopping because a victim spoke to whoever was doing it...people who spy like that are unbalanced. As for seeing a hole...people make them so they are hard to see.

I just cannot believe you havent been in your loft yet??

We used to live in a split house. It was actually the centre line of an old T shaped house split front and back with the wings lost.
We used to get so many noises coming through. The joists went through in some
places and we had beams in the ceiling the length of the two houses. The fact that it was built as one house originally made it so that sound did travel but also so that we could trigger things off in each others houses.

My mum realised that next doors family had been going in her loft. One day she went up and it was covered in crisp packets and beer cans that they'd left. She went round but they did the whole 'no speak English' thing.

This sounds just like what happened to my friend. He suspected the neighbour upstairs had a spyhole.

He was then hospitalised, with paranoid delusions.
Seriously.

Good grief!

I think there are lots of possibilities and a spying neighbour is least likely.

Don't be daft, I doubt your neighbour is gonna hang round his bathroom all night just to get a glimpse of you having a wee, although I'm feeling quite spooked now and its 9 am and I'm still in bed :)

Next time, go into the bathroom and announce loudly "Red Squirrel flies at midnight" pause and then add " 3rd bench by the north west entrance" and leave a note in a box under the bench saying "fuck off you perv"

Most of the time it's something of nothing. Last Christmas eve I kept hearing a click and was convinced it was something electrical and I had to find it. It was in the hall, then kitchen, then hall. I was really freaked out. I went into the kitchen and saw a spark!

I sat in the kitchen staring at the place the click came from for ages and then click, flash. My brand new air freshener went off. One in the kitchen, one in the hall.

Another night I heard a scream from upstairs, ran up and my son was fast asleep. Confused I went down and heard it again. I looked outside, no one there... Went back up. Son was asleep. Sat upstairs and along came another scream...it was a toy in the toy box stuck on something so it kept going off.

There's usually logical explanations for these things

LOL DozyDuck that's it! The OP has one of those motionactivated air fresheners in her bathroom!

OP, it's probably nothing. Or something like the electrics being linked - I thought maybe your light switch turns their on as well and the light is waking them up, so they go to turn it off and that's what you're hearing? Which would also explain why you only hear it once!

If they were watching you they would leave their light off. They're probably terrified thinking they have a ghost or something!

If it's only been happening since March maybe some new people moved in who it bothers, whereas the old occupants just left it on/slept through it?

...

The OP had better not click this but for those of you who enjoy being freaked:

current.com/community/88990720_japanese-woman-caught-living-in-mans-closet.htm

I think, as the OP doesn't hear the light pull until after she's had her wee, that she's simply disturbing the neighbours and the trundle in, turn on their light, just as OP is finishing.
I expect they have many other toilet visits but, because OP isn't in the bathroom all night, she's not hearing their other "visits".

If the noise IS the light switch of the neighbour, and that's when it's being turned on, why not hang around, with your light off, and listen for them turning their light off again after 2-5 mins of it going on?

If it were a motion sensitive spy camera she wouldnt hear it click until she'd left the bathroom, and should hear it as soon as she walks in. That would be in the daytime too... So unlikely to be that.
OP, can you ask for complete silence next time you go for a wee?!!

Omg this is similar to what my family thought was happening years ago in our old house when i was a teen.
Me, my sister, my bro and my mum all felt we were being watched when in the bathroom sometimes.
Our neighbours were always drilling and the man next door used to ask my mum questions about what time we got home from school etc and he moaned about our dog barking which she did only occasionally when he was drilling.
That bloke really gave us all the creeps and i remember not having many baths as a teenager as i always felt someone was watching me, it still gives me the creeps to think about it now many years later.

If there is a spyhole you definitely need to squeeze toothpaste through it into the spy's eye, like Hattie Jacques did to Sid James in Carry on Camping.

I would have thoroughly inspected the walls, ceiling and electrical fittings if I truly thought I was being spied on. Assuming you've done this and discovered no unusual equipment or breach in the plaster, you can feel sure that you aren't being watched.

Your light switch/cistern/tap/water tank/boiler/floorboard is causing the sound you think is a pull cord.

Have you not got one of those air fresheners activated by smell that goes off when it senses....you know?

DP's mum has one of those sensor air fresheners on her stairs. I hadn't noticed it, and when I walked past, I completely shat myself and nearly fell down the stairs. It "hissed" and I honestly thought it was a snake

Honestly OP, sounds to me like it is something completely innocent. Stop watching scary movies :o

horses, people, not zebras.

Ok I've looked over the walls. The only hole I can see is next to the box on the ceiling where the shower pull cord is (sort of right against it IYKWIM).

I will do some more investigations tonight...

So I will behave as usual but turn light on then quickly off and go into bathroom and stay very still and silent in the dark and stare at the hole, look for any light/sounds. If nothing I will put light on and flush chain then turn light out and listen carefully while still in bathroom. If I hear light cord I will wait to see if I hear it again.

Bloody hell!

Get in the attic Gnocci! That hole could be accesable if the attic is shared!

Go on! We're all dying of curiosity here!

I think the dead fan explanation is most likely, but worth going up in the attic to have a look.