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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to film my garden so I can catch my neighbours

38 replies

starshaker · 26/09/2015 16:15

chucking cigarette ends and rubbish into my front garden. I am sick of it. Its been happening for 3 years now and because i have no proof the council will do nothing. My dogs have tried eating them and my kids have picked them up. Thankfully they weren't lit.

I have a dash cam in my car and I have set it to motion detection. AIBU?

OP posts:
WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 26/09/2015 16:17

Nope. Not at all.
Hope it works in limited light for you.

Original poster
starshaker · 26/09/2015 16:23

luckily the camera has a decent night vision sensor. If I can just catch them once I can show the council proof. This morning I had to clear about 20 butts and 2 empty packets

OP posts:
Original poster
starshaker · 26/09/2015 16:23

Oh they also get thrown right onto my step

OP posts:
GloGirl · 26/09/2015 16:26

YANBU! Good luck Brew

Lunastarfish · 26/09/2015 16:27

Yanbu but if this was happening to me I'd chuck my rubbish in their garden every time I left the house

MrsTerryPratchett · 26/09/2015 16:28

What wankers. Is it legal? It probably is in your own garden?!?

Greengardenpixie · 26/09/2015 16:30

It may not be legal if you dont have a sign saying there are cameras? Watch you dont get yourself into hot water!

Original poster
starshaker · 26/09/2015 16:34

Ive already made a little sign for my car to say it has a motion detection camera.

OP posts:
Spartans · 26/09/2015 16:34

Just check the legality of it.

We had the police round because the neighbours said that dh was filming them. He was actually filming dd and at no point even pointed it to them. It was all sorted out. But when the police told us you have to be careful when filming even on your own property.

Luckily we were in the process of moving out.

MrsTerryPratchett · 26/09/2015 16:34

www.problemneighbours.co.uk/cctv-privacy-and-the-law.html Seems very vague. I think you can record our garden but not theirs. Which might make it difficult if they are chucking stuff over.

BertieBotts · 26/09/2015 16:35

I think you do have to put up a sign.

BitterAndOnlySlightlyTwisted · 26/09/2015 16:35

Yes, they are utter wankers. But please think very carefully about all possible outcomes. Idiots like this rarely start behaving themselves once reported to the council. Many just step up their abuse until their neighbour's lives are a complete bloody misery, and the only alternative is to move. If you own your house you would have to declare this as a dispute, and it could make selling twice as hard.

UncertainSmile · 26/09/2015 16:36

Fucking riff-raff. You've got every right to film it.

Original poster
starshaker · 26/09/2015 16:43

They have made every neighbour move so far. I do not plan on going anywhere. They are very very sneaky and do things that piss you off but not enough that you can involve the police or that the council will do anything about.

OP posts:
LisbethSalandersLaptop · 26/09/2015 16:46

horrible people.
You have to find some sneaky way to piss them off even more.

LisbethSalandersLaptop · 26/09/2015 16:47

I tell you what, get a cockerel, then when the noise abatement people from the council come round, hide it in your downstairs loo with an elastic band round its beak, and say v sympathetically that you fear they are having delusions.

limitedperiodonly · 26/09/2015 16:49

Setting it up and telling them about it might stop them.

I set up a camera when a neighbour kept coming into my garden and damaging things for fun. I knew it was her but I couldn't prove it.

AFAIK there's nothing to stop you filming people without their knowledge in a place where they can't expect privacy (like your garden) but you may not be able to use it as evidence.

Ask the council what they want you to do.

I did tell my neighbour because the police told me that was the only way they'd act on her criminal damage. They believed me, which was something at least.

That stopped it, so job done. She wrote me a stinky letter saying she'd never set foot in my common little garden and had never been so insulted in her life. I find that hard to believe Wink

I would have liked her to be charged with criminal damage and petty theft but realistically the police weren't going to prosecute her.

limitedperiodonly · 26/09/2015 16:59

I photographed my neighbour and her husband because they were doing something that was encroaching on my property. I'd have photographed it anyway to show the transgression because they'd started a boundary dispute where all was peace and harmony before they moved in. It was a bonus that they were caught in the act and he was halfway over my wall.

They went mad at me and started threatening me with harassment and the police. I took more pictures because it was getting quite funny.

Do you know what? The police had better things to do. I got another stinky letter, this time from their solicitor. They would have paid at least £50 for that and for nothing.

DontMindMe1 · 26/09/2015 17:59

so long as your camera isn't pointed at their front door/garden you can do it.

MrsTedCrilly · 26/09/2015 18:54

What is wrong with people like this... so anti-social! Hope you get the evidence you need!

LongHardStare · 26/09/2015 19:00

Make sure they know you're filming then there won't be any legality issue and more importantly, they are likely to stop doing it.

Doublebubblebubble · 26/09/2015 19:02

Yanbu - although I would put up a sign just to say that there are cameras - just in case they get funny if they still continue after that has gone up...straight to the council with the evidence you should go...

Btw your neighbours sound gross!!

VinylScratch · 26/09/2015 19:04

Post the fag ends through their letterbox. Manky bastards.

Original poster
starshaker · 26/09/2015 19:29

My sign is very obvious and it says "please be aware that this property is covered by motion detection cameras" I did think about putting "smile for the camera you skanky bitch" but thought that may not be the best idea :)

OP posts:
ShutTheFuckUpBarbara · 26/09/2015 19:36

vinyl I did just that a few years ago. The house next to us was a student house share and we used to end up with all sorts in our garden. I knocked on their door several times to no avail. I put a note through the letter box warning them that any rubbish thrown into my garden would be posted back to their front door ; they took no notice of that. So I made good on the threat, and it did the trick.