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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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:

ToadsforJustice · 26/09/2015 19:50

Go ahead and film them. If they say anything, tell them that you have collected enough fag ends so that the Police Scenes of Crime team can collect DNA and that they can expect a visit soon for a sample to be taken for comparison.

unlucky83 · 26/09/2015 19:58

Apparently you can film your own property but not theirs. So you can film the fag butts appearing in your garden but not sure you can film them actually chucking them if they are in their own garden/property ...as that invades their privacy.
And you can't use it as evidence in a court situation but it does make your story more believable.

(Same apparently is true about voice recording...apparently because you could have set the situation up.... - so my neighbour from hell getting drunk and standing outside our house at 2am and waking us up by shouting that we were fucking cunts/pricks etc wasn't allowable -as we may have provoked him )
On the video recording- I got mixed advice from the police -I do think the law is unclear and it is a fine line. Some said I could end up in more trouble than my neighbour... iirc you don't need a sign if you are only taping your property and even with one you can't tape theirs...
In the end out of desperation I did try to secretly film him damaging my property...I had bought the camera but was struggling to set it up to give a good view of the area in question, avoid taping his property and for it still to be hidden (and it had an LED on the front which flashed when it was recording - FGS!) ... without him being around to see me drilling and screwing it into place... (Then he died suddenly so the problem was solved ..)
I think if I were you I would go for it ...with caution.

LindyHemming · 26/09/2015 20:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ThighsofThunder · 26/09/2015 20:22

Sorry, not helpful at all, and this must be really awful for you.

But upon first skim read it looked to me like your dog had tried eating the neighbours... I had to stop chuckling to myself before I could reread properly!

limitedperiodonly · 26/09/2015 20:26

I have a real bee in my bonnet about the myths and terrors around privacy. It's bollocks. Just like people tell horror stories about postmen suing for millions because they slipped on someone's icy path.

We have no outright right to privacy in this country - thank God. It is legal to take pictures in public areas even if someone else's precious children happen to be in them.

But because of our adoption of European human rights legislation we have the loose right to expect privacy in places where we would normally expect it.

So someone can't set up a webcam in your bedroom or photograph you in your living room through your window. Though that's questionable because if you were committing an offence, such as deliberately exposing yourself in your front window, then it might be legitimate for someone to take a picture to prove it.

But filming someone from your property in their adjoining garden is probably all right because most back gardens aren't private unless you have your own island.

I believe someone here had one

Whether you can convince the council to act on it is another matter. They probably won't.

ahbollocks · 26/09/2015 20:34

Are they renting? If they are if just got straight for the landlord

Original poster

starshaker · 26/09/2015 20:39

Its housing association, the same as me. They told me I need proof.

Thighs I wish they would. Would make my life better

OP posts:

limitedperiodonly · 26/09/2015 20:45

If they're paying the rent, a landlord won't care.

Ludoole · 26/09/2015 20:50

A relative of mine saw a neighbour masturbating in his front garden. She didnt film him for proof as she thought it was illegal to do so.
She phoned the police who told her she could have filmed it and as she hadnt it was the neighbours word against hers.

unlucky83 · 26/09/2015 21:02

limited what if you sat at a second storey window obviously watching someone in the garden all the time...
It would be creepy....but would that be illegal?
What if you hid in the same place, watching? Spying really...

Videoing someone is the same really ...
What if you positioned a video camera on the top of a 6 ft fence into their garden?

There are rules about where you can site windows on extensions etc because of privacy.
He was actually a nightmare for a long time before and not just for us but what actually escalated my problem with my NFH was he built raised decking right on the boundary for the length of his garden so it overlooked the whole of my garden and right into my house ...(there is a fantastic view across my garden). It completely invaded my privacy ...and I had the nerve to complain. (Or rather ask the council if I could build a higher than 6ft fence because of it - our 6ft fence was knee high from his decking.)

I later found out he wanted to build a conservatory but would have had to have frosted glass facing our garden/house - so obscuring his view of the view - but at the time he didn't need permission for the decking...
(I did try and find a compromise...(so he still had some view and I had some privacy) he wouldn't, I tried to grow a tree for partial screening - he hacked it down...)

limitedperiodonly · 26/09/2015 21:02

ludoole's story makes me angry.

That woman made a complaint to the police about a sexual offence in a public place. It doesn't matter that's it was in his garden; it was clearly visible and intended to shock and intimidate. It's not like she was peering in his bedroom window with some binoculars.

They should have taken a statement and gone round there. But instead, they brushed her off and told her to do their job for them.

Lazy bastards.

limitedperiodonly · 26/09/2015 21:09

It depends what someone is doing unlucky83 and ludoole has given a good example of something where someone required serious investigation but the police couldn't be bothered.

If someone is causing an offence of alarm, harass or distress or a breach of the peace while you're going about your normal business on your property, then the police can act. They rarely do though. It's what happened to me with my neighbour and she was shown to be causing criminal damage and theft.

LooksGoodtome · 06/11/2019 22:36

I have same problems esp cigarette butts everyday and garbage everyday by my mailbox and front garden. Also 4 flat tires every day even after getting 4 new tires etc, for 7-8 years. I was of the mind if you ignore it it will stop. It got worse. I called police department, they did stop the flat tires. Leaving curtains open 24/7 worked although an inconvenience to me at first but I planted a hedge in front of windows. Now I run out when they stand there or walk by smoking and yell bloody murder. I make a big issue with my phone snapping photos.....calling people. So far so good.

I am an olde woman warrior !!!! Watch out !!! I earned my right to LIVE here in my house on this street.

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