to not do anything.....

[George2014]

Currently our family home is empty (furnished) and on the market while we rent a tiny place 3 hours away due to work, illness etc etc....life took a weird path last year!

Anyway, our back garden is a corner plot and we have about 4 houses back on to us in small sections. The garden is big and in one corner we have a shed and a small alcove where ds5 has his trampoline. The rest of the garden is mature and full of trees / bushes.

The neighbours that back on to that section of house have gone into the estate agents today ranting and being really aggressive saying that they don't like the trampoline being there, it's an eye sore and they want our new address to contact us directly about removing it. The estate agent refused and said she will pass a letter on if necessary. They got more aggressive and said they will make it a grievance and we will never sell our house etc.

There is a usual height fence and they can see maybe 30cm above it although I'm pretty sure their shed is in that region as well. They already contacted the estate agent once to say the trampoline was touching their fence and ds drove the 6 hour round trip thinking it was bad weather and movement.....it was over a foot away from the fence waste of a trip.

There's no where in the garden to move it to without it sitting very awkwardly and obstructing bushes, we've nowhere else to put it and it can't come here as we don't have a garden and I'm inclined to think, it's my garden, we can put a trampoline wherever we like. Just because we aren't living there doesn't mean they have control over what we do surely. It's not illegal to put things in your own garden even if neighbours may dislike is it?

It's not on purpose but our alternative is disposing of it but ds is desperate for us to get our forever house and have it back.

I'm a bit with these neighbours as when a fence panel fell down and we were waiting for it to be fixed, I looked out of the window while feeding ds and the wife came through and was wandering around our garden looking at plants and when I asked her to leave she came to our back door and tried to talk to me about why she was allowed to come on to our property.

Are we unreasonable to leave it where it is?

Ps estate agents are fine with it there, doesn't affect selling as it's a big family garden and looks neat and tidy tucked in the corner etc.

Leave it. Neighbours should be able to work out that if you sell, the chances are that the offending trampoline will go.

It's your garden, leave the trampoline exactly where it is.

As for the cheeky bugger walking into your garden, I hope you have her what for.

Can you write "fuck you" in foot high letters on it?

I agree, leave it where it is. It's your garden, if it bothers the neighbours that much then they can always move. Sounds like they're being awkward for the sake of being awkward.

Ha ha jelliebabe - tempting!!!

Definitely yanbu.
The threat of a grievance is just silly, why would they want you not to be able to sell the house?
They must realise this by now.

Why should a trampoline be a problem if you aren't even there so it isn't as if you're child is being noisy or intrusive with it?

They just don't like that they can see it....all of a foot or so.

It's like saying 'sure shed offends me, take it down'

Ridiculous. They sound like a laugh a minute.

Leave it where it is and put it on 6' stilts.

I'm with Jelliebabe. What a pair of knobbers.

Leave it.

I'd be tempted to write back and tell them I don't like their face, it's an eyesore and you're not sure you'll be able to sell/rent out your property with their face next door...could they remove it?

Reply to them "feel free to raise grievance as we will then move back instead of selling, and trampoline will be staying permanently - and in regular use"

I hope the estate agent pointed out to them that if they make it difficult for you to sell the house the trampoline will be there a whole lot longer?

I wouldn't move it! YANBU.

I'd get more trampolines and fill the garden with them

TBH, although I agree you shouldn't have to do anything, I'd take the 'cage' part of the trampoline down.

The neighbours sound like a nightmare and if they did raise a grievance you really will struggle to sell the place.

It's not like you're living there and using the trampoline anyway.

Some people are idiots - guess which camp your neighbours are in.
You are perfectly reasonable to ignore them or write to them and suggest that if they want to dictate what is in your garden would they like to buy the house as this is the only scenario in which they can do this.

It's not a grievance if you don't respond because it's not a reasonable objection.

I'd ignore it entirely. They're cray cray.

What is the point of people like this?

Would you like to borrow our double decker bus that's in the garden as a playhouse for the kids, really give them something to fucking moan about

I certainly wouldn't consider taking the cage part down. The neighbours are being ridiculous. Why indulge it?

I wouldn't take the sides down as they're a safety feature, unless they're very easy to attach back on should DS or any other child want a bounce sometime.
I think they've got a huge cheek going into your estate agents about it - madness!

The estate agents should point out that, as pp said, that a grievance will ensure the trampoline will be there longer and you may even move back and start using it and any grievance will also make their house hard to sell too so a bit of an own goal for them!

Would a trampolining flash mob help?

I certainly wouldn't consider taking the cage part down. The neighbours are being ridiculous. Why indulge it?

Because the OP doesn't even live there and is trying to sell the place.

I agree the neighbours are being completely unreasonable but given they can make trouble for the OP, eg noisy music during viewings, and they sound bonkers enough to do so, I'd pick my battles more carefully.