New house, neighbours don't want fence up....

[RaggleTaggleTick]

We have just bought our first house. The elderly man who lived there had allowed his neighbours to have full access and use of his garden for 30 years. The neighbours also had the same on the other side, so they have basically had 3 gardens.

They have built 2 large conservatories in their own garden and now have just a tiny paved area of space, they have said they don't know where they are going to put their washing line... They have asked that, even though we need to put some kind of fence up (young dc, they have small but deep pond), we only put a short trellis one up as otherwise they will have no light in their conservatories.

DH wants chest height fences, I would but am prepared to compromise, this is going to get awkward, are we BU?

Really high fences around relative small gardens (esp if they are narrow) can block out significant amounts of light. In my old house in the UK I was a bit sad when our neighbours put up 6ft fence panels all down one side of our garden because it did create a lot of shade and made us feel a bit penned in. When we replaced the other side I used 4ft plus 2ft trellis and I think it looked a lot nicer. In your circumstances I would go with 5ft plus trellis because of the pond (fancy panels which include trellis are nice, but expensive). Where we live now we have chainlink fencing down one side and I really dislike it because there is no privacy at all.

We put up 6 foot panels on a fence in a long, relatively narrow garden, and with the year had cut it back to 5 feet and put in trellis which looked more friendly, and attractive.

Any update on this?

How do you know what the neighbours-to-be want? Surely most people don't meet new neighbours until they complete and move in?

They sound like chancers! Building all over their own garden, using the one next door then somehow letting you know of their fence requirements before you've even moved in...

I'd put up 6 ft fencing if that's what I wanted to do. How the neighbours feel about it is nether here nor there, because it's not their garden.

I would make sure that they absolutely had no rights over the garden, before completing though.

Any update OP?