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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To tell neighbour the lights look crap so take them off my hedge please?

111 replies

honeypie10 · 27/11/2014 19:49

Basically I've lived here for 15 years and share a hedge with my neighbour which she has always gone overboard decorating at Christmas time.

There was an issue 2 years ago with the back wall separating our gardens, it was found out that side of the house was our responsibility, fair enough we had the wall knocked down and replaced, they didn't offer anything. They then a few months later were asking us to go halves to have the hedge in the front taken out and replaced with a wall - this led to lots of laughing at how bleeding cheeky they were between me and dp (especially as they hadn't offered anything towards the cost of having the back wall done!) but we pointed out to them that it was our side of the house and our hedge so not their choice to make, they were ok with this.

So every year she decorates her house with anything available that's tacky (Some are ok but its the sheer volume I struggle with, I'm sure you could see her garden from space. I'm not just talking about nice little lights, she has them up the garden path, draped on anything that sits still in her garden for long enough

She says its for the "kids" - her youngest is 21 Hmm. So last year she gets out the stupid hedge lights, they didn't work. I saw her struggling with them so we got chatting, I said oh maybe just leave them this year, be nice to maybe do something for ourselves in our side of garden anyway, as we had a ds who was getting into the lights and Christmas thing, so in the end we had our side decorated in our lights and she had none, I knew she was absolutely Fuming that she realised the hedge wasnt hers to decorate as she didnt talk to us for around 2 months - yes she is very, very petty, shes the type to put her wheely bin in her space if she goes out for 5 mins to stop anyone else parking there!

You can set your clock by her usually, 1st December she will be out putting up her works of art, but not this year, nooooo, she must of been seething all year round waiting for the day to claim back "her" hedge. Tonight i've come home to a multitude of colours of twinkling fairy lights draped haphazardly, glow in the dark sunflower heads and a light up reindeer on the top. The reindeer has since gone not sure where but why it didnt take the rest i dont know. The rest of the garden has been done too but i know she'll have more, its not even half of what she does usually, almost as if she wanted to get the hedge done first Smile

So what do I do, leave them, say nothing but put mine up next year in the summer to beat her.

Take them off my side and tell her they look a mess and i've hated this type of crap for the past 15 years, now I know its our hedge i dont want your crap on it.

Or just stick my stuff on top, I wouldnt mind if she just did her own side but the fact she seems to think i need glow in the dark sunflowers in my life gets me wound up.

I realise this is not a first wrld problem but the first year were having lots of new people over at christmas for dinner, I dont want there impressions of us to be a light up meerkat wearing a tie and holding a pipe Grin

OP posts:
TheWitTank · 27/11/2014 20:18

I remember this from last year! The 'Christmassy' sunflowers stuck in my mind. Please take a pic. Can you trim your bush oo er and accidentally hack through the electrical cables?

thewomaninwhite · 27/11/2014 20:28

I am still stuck at Christmas sunflowers. WTF?

ClawHandsIfYouBelieveInFreaks · 27/11/2014 20:34

I know! It's like "Easter Reindeer" or summat.

HedgehogAtHome · 27/11/2014 20:36

I remember your thread last year.

You need to take over her tat with tasteful.

HedgehogAtHome · 27/11/2014 20:37

This

To tell neighbour the lights look crap so take them off my hedge please?
outtahell · 27/11/2014 20:42

Do you live next door to my (estranged) mother? She has an obsession with tacky Xmas lights and a neighbour she hates for some stupid reason involving trees/boundaries. Grin

YANBU, she knows what she's doing, she's just bargaining on you not having the ovaries to call her out on her shit. So call her out!

thewomaninwhite · 27/11/2014 20:43

Easter Reindeer you say, just thinking about what I could cultivate for my hedge around March/April time. I will get thinking ....

StillSquirrelling · 27/11/2014 20:49

I think you're being a bit hypocritical to be honest. You're angry with her because she didn't offer to pay anything towards the back wall replacement - but she doesn't have to. It's YOUR responsibility, just as the wall/hedge/whatever on the other side of her back garden will be HER responsibility.

She was offering to go halves to replace the front hedge because she wanted something there that wasn't a hedge and it's not her choice to make. She's within her rights to build a wall in front of the hedge though.

You are now getting all shirty with her because she's continuing to decorate the hedge she's been decorating for 15 years. You've now decided that you no longer want to let her do this (I suspect that's because you're cross about her not paying for the back wall).

What happens in spring and autumn? Do you trim both sides of the hedge, or just your side? If you're not taking responsibility for the ENTIRE hedge then I think your neighbour should be free to decorate her side as she wishes. I don't think it would be unreasonable of you to ask her to leave the top alone though - as that might be a bit distracting from your own windows. I do think YABU to not let her carry on decorating the hedge on her own side though.

TooMuchCantBreathe · 27/11/2014 20:53

I'd be overwhelming tempted to cut the whole hedge down, in one full piece. So its just laying on its side still covered in the still light decorations. When asked wtf??!! I'd innocently exclaim "but I thought you wanted a wall".

Ok in my dreams perhaps but the thought of doing it would probably keep me smiling long enough to get through another year of lights - and then go with the summer plan!

A friend of mine does this more decorations than sense thing, I hate it, it's looks terrible but the day her lights go on is the first day of Christmas for us, the first time we see it on everyone exclaims, it gets pointed out every time we pass. .. intellectually I know its awful but somehow it's so awful it's brilliant and part of the tradition for us now!

riskit4abiskit · 27/11/2014 20:57

You sound a bit bah humbug to me and im not even the lights outside type. Love your posting style though very entertaining.

Think of all the neighbourhood kids and dog walkers they will be loving it and its surely only for a few weeks? I also want to see light up meercats

TheSpottedZebra · 27/11/2014 21:01

Could you pretend that here has been a really localised earthquake? Just in the garden, along the hedge and unfortunately the decorations are all gonnas. Maybe you could add some smashed pots in your garden, for added authenticity?

Perhaps you could tweet about the earthquake you just felt, and maybe add in a few pretend accounts also... If you put the effort in, it will, seem real. Probably.

honeypie10 · 27/11/2014 21:01

I think your neighbour should be free to decorate her side as she wishes I have no problem how she wishes to decorate her side or her garden, not my taste but she can do what she likes.

I do have a problem when she waits till i'm out, comes into my garden, tramples all over the flowers in the border to get to the hedge to infest my side and my garden with her crap. I don't even care that she didn't pay for the wall. In fact at the time i told dp I would rather us pay for it so we could have it built to the height we wanted (was sick of her son and his mates climbing up and smoking their weed on the wall and throwing the butts in our garden). we never asked them for a penny and they avoided us for weeks until it was all built incase we asked them. we had no intention whatsoever of asking them so the fact they felt they could come round wanting us to get rid of our hedge so she can build a wall to match the rest of her garden???? baffles me what goes on in her head to be honest!

Shes out doing stuff in her garden now, I can see her with her snoman hat on Hmm. soon as she's in ill take a pic and try and not make it look like my garden incase she's on here!

OP posts:
waithorse · 27/11/2014 21:26

I would love a meerkat wearing a tie and holding a cigar.

waithorse · 27/11/2014 21:27

pipe

HolgerDanske · 27/11/2014 21:31

Hmmm maybe just shift it all over to her side of the hedge?

lemisscared · 27/11/2014 21:32

And you say SHE is petty! !! Grin

We must have pics and updates

lljkk · 27/11/2014 21:33

Come on Grinch-OP, give us pics.

CakeAndWineAreAFoodGroup · 27/11/2014 21:39

Am sort of wishing she is a Mumsnetter too and about to post here about this... Grin

KatieKaye · 27/11/2014 21:42

Joins the clamour for photos!

ILoveSimonCowell · 27/11/2014 21:42

Not sure about the rules with hedges. Assume same as fences? With fences if it's not your fence (i.e. your neighbours put it up and it's their responsibility), then you're not allowed to DO ANYTHING TO IT on your side! i.e. stick nails in it, screw trellis to it, pin things to it, paint it etc without asking first. Surely the same applies to living fences? Unless it's over their boundary...

StillSquirrelling · 27/11/2014 21:48

If she's decorating your side too then I would definitely have words with her. I'd also be telling her to NOT go into your garden...alternatively you could replace the trampled flowers and present her with the bill - after having taken a photo of the decorations she's put up on her side so that you can prove she was there damaging your property.

corkybolleaux · 27/11/2014 21:50

I think she sounds batshit and bloody rude but I also want to see a light-up meerkat with tie and pipe

EhricLovesTheBhrothers · 27/11/2014 21:56

She's walked into your garden and decorated your side? Fuck. That. Tell her to remove the crap pdq or you will do it.

IgnoreMeEveryOtherReindeerDoes · 27/11/2014 22:02

I'm another one who wants pictures. pllllllllease!

fluffyraggies · 27/11/2014 22:17

Perfectly reasonable to say to her that sorry, you'd rather she didn't come in to your garden and walk on the flower beds to put decorations on your side of the hedge. You want to decorate your side yourself, thanks.

If she gets shirty you can pull out the big guns - trespassing; plus the fact that you own the hedge.

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