Neighbour scolded me about washing out in the front

[OrangeSplot]

Hello.

I'm feeling a bit stung and embarrassed.

We rent in a close. A few retired homeowners take care of the communal area (off their own back - do the gardens etc but I think our LL pays for lawn to be cut etc).

My neighbor just told me that I should dry my washing at the back as its "not nice for the neighbours".

Incidentally, my DH hung washing out front yesterday as the stand was there from kids playing and was sunny.

I was a bit taken aback - although I know/suspect they look down on us for having toys in our front lawn etc and more weedy than theirs. I can imagine it's not ideal but you just accept that you have a neighbour with lower aesthetic standards than you, surely?

If it's relevant I was told off last year because my friend had left her car in the communal grounds (not obstructing etc, just parked) for about 2/3 days because she ended up getting a taxi home. Another neighbor had a real go at me about it disrespecting the neighbours etc. It's just a car in my eyes, it was removed on day 3 or 4 I think.

I said little because I didn't want to say 'yes of course'. And I didn't want to argue so I just said 'I'll think about what you said' and I think I may have uttered 'I think it's an unreasonable request'. She said 'Well, , if you don't hang your washing out the back, I think you should know that it will be taken further'.

I just feel upset. It's not nice to have upset from neighbours. I'm polite and friendly and my kids play with their grandkids happily.

Is she being unreasonable or am I?

[Somewhereundertheduvet]

There's an article on the BBC website about this sort of thing.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36389585

Residents on a new development in Beverley, East Yorkshire, are subject to a restrictive covenant banning them from hanging out the washing or airing clean clothes outdoors.
Covenants prohibiting hanging washing in the front garden are fairly common, but the one at Westwood Park covers windows, balconies, roof terraces, communal gardens and potentially even the back gardens of individual houses on the site.
The idea behind the rule at the luxury location is to prevent peoples' smalls fluttering in the breeze, which could detract from the look of the estate.
The developers, though, did fit every home with a washer-dryer to help the enforcement of the covenant.

[igglepiggleisanarsehole]

Take it further to where?

[ppeatfruit]

Well their electricity bills must be ENORMOUS too . that doesn't seem to stop them, they obviously don't care about much at all.

They would if they had to hand wash everything though!

[Gwenhwyfar]

ppeatfruit - as much as it would make responsible families suffer I think water meters are the only answer for these people

[ppeatfruit]

Yes Gwenhwyfar I know what you mean but maybe they go away and think about it and change their ways but are too ashamed to post it Let's hope!

[Gwenhwyfar]

"To all those who think people shouldn't hang washing outside the front, or even in the back, is your sensibilities really worth more than the environment?"

There's no point asking that question on MN? I ask it on every thread where people say they wash bedsheets and towels more often than once a week and every item of clothing after one wear, but the over-washers never come back with a reply. I presume they just don't care.

[PigletJohn]

I used to live in an old house where the yard leading off the scullery was enclosed by trellis. I suppose that washing could have been hung there by the staff without offending the eyes of the Master and Mistress.

[northernshepherdess]

I once hung nannies knickers on the line... she went bloody mental.
I don't hang mine on the line unless totally hidden on the rotary.
But if I got
"They received a note (on posh paper) through the door requesting them to remove washing from the line in the back garden by 2pm each day, so that it wasn't visible when they entertained guests for afternoon tea."
I'd be down the charity shop and then pinning all the old lady knickers on the line that I could find.

[liz70]

Well said, Bad.

You know, we usually take self-catering holidays, twice a year, in Spring and Summer. We've stayed all over Scotland, England and Wales. The only place that we've ever been discouraged from hanging washing out to dry was in an appartment in a marina complex in Eastbourne. Everywhere else we've stayed has provided washing line or rotary dryer and pegs wherever there's been an outside drying area. So it is very much encouraged, I'm glad to say.

[crazywriter]

They received a note (on posh paper) through the door requesting them to remove washing from the line in the back garden by 2pm each day, so that it wasn't visible when they entertained guests for afternoon tea.

Haha! My neighbours would hate me if they were like that. The other day I completely forgot the washing was out on the line until 2am...and I wasn't going outside at that time. It was another blonde moment (or maybe baby brain moment) for me. My neighbours are really friendly though.

There's keeping the house and garden tidy and there's keeping it clean. We rent and we make sure the house and garden are in the same state as when we moved in. That's the legal requirement. Our front garden is just stones, so very easy. The back garden is easy as it's one section of grass. It does remind me to get out and clean the bloody windows. The weather hasn't been the nicest up here until this week, but this week has been full of appointments for one person or another in the house. Will do it tomorrow if the weather doesn't close in.

I'm still not sure why neighbours believe they have a right to say how other people's gardens look. We had a neighbour at a previous house about four years ago complain because our front garden wasn't cut to his standards. He was an avid gardener and we just kept the front lawn mowed. I'm useless with plants and DH just didn't have the time or inclination for a house that we were going to be moving out of within the year. We've since been by the house and the new renters have it in an even worse state, not mowed at all, so I bet he wishes we were back there now.

[liz70]

I have also been known to put a standing airer - and even a travel size rotary dryer - in our front garden in early spring, when the front of the house catches more sun than the back. But it's our own house, so we can please ourselves, and besides, our house dips slightly behind the front hedge, so the front garden and anything in it isn't particularly visible from the road.

Anyway, our ndns are just as common as us, with two kids, a barking dog, and a trampoline and a swing set in the back garden, so they're hardly likely to complain.

I too have bluebell envy! No such lush displays here!

[BarbaraofSeville]

I agree BadDoGooder. That's what I want to know. What reason is there other than 'some people don't think it looks very nice' to try and control what people do in terms of hanging their washing, sitting in their garden or 101 other harmless activities?

I don't think those eyebrows that look like they have been drawn on with marker pen look very nice, but I accept that people have every right to make themselves look like a tit if they want to.

People have said that their tenancy agreement prevents them from hanging washing in their gardens and on their balconies and they blindly accept it and go along with it .

Where is the right to quiet enjoyment of the property and using the most appropriate way to dry washing instead of wasteful tumble driers or airers that take up space that you might not have and cause damp?

[BadDoGooder]

To all those who think people shouldn't hang washing outside the front, or even in the back, is your sensibilities really worth more than the environment?
Not being goady, just genuinely curious as to what you think people should do with their washing?
Tumble driers are incredibly bad for the environment, and drying washing indoors is bad for the residents health, and the health of the building.

I think it's pathetic that in 2016 people still care more about supposed "appearances" than the environment around them.

A lot of the weeds that sprout round here are attractive to insects, I leave them where they are, I'd quite like to keep bees around for as long as possible, and I will hang my washing wherever I damn well please.

[liz70]

"just a bit further along the coastline, the villagers hang their washing on the public green"

Our washing hanging out by the sea, in front of our holiday cottage in Caithness one spring.

[Newmanwannabe]

YANBU, Especially if there is not much space out the back or the sun not as strong. I don't think I'd do it though, well not my underwear maybe jeans and tshirts or towels.

But I think you should feel lucky that they are eagle eyed busybodies and looking out for the area.. It does give you a bit more security

[AndTakeYourPenguinWithYou]

Communal door suggests flat rather than house so doesn't really apply.

[Gwenhwyfar]

"A tenant is not supposed to maintain their house Pottering (unless you mean cleaning the inside)

Nonsense. If you have a front garden, you weed it and cut the grass. You clean the windows, you keep the place neat and tidy. "


I meant house, not garden. Yes, I clean my windows as far as I can reach - there's a strip at the top of the outside windows that I just can't reach from inside. I keep the place tidy, but that is cleaning, not maintenance. I don't clean the outside of the communal door or fix my doorbell because that is the landlord's responsibility.

[NewLife4Me]

I love bluebells, we have pots of them in our garden and i'm going to plant in the soil when we have enough, maybe next year.

OP, there's nothing wrong with your washing being there at all and I believe your ll probably doesn't have the grass outside as to make it low maintenance for tenants.

I'm a LL and if I had a call about something so petty, I'd laugh tbh, you are doing nothing wrong.

[IceRoadDucker]

On check out I would note any differences in condition and allocate costs according to the AST.

Only if it's like that on the check-out day. Landlords can do sod all about you not sweeping your garden during a tenancy.

[OrangeSplot]

I'm pleased bluebells are making people smile. They're all fizzling out now.

Can I just for the record say we don't have old sofas and milk cartons and I don't smoke or thrown cans out! I do mow the lawn! I don't see why I should be lumped in with that category when it's not that bad!

To be fair I haven't washed the windows.

Picture attached so you can see the crazy patch of green. Several other houses have all soil and neatly planted flowers. Next door is same as mine.

[NewLife4Me]

OP, saw you post way back where you mentioned Bluebells.

If you come back to this, why not put them in a little pot, they are so pretty.
Please don't just pull them up.

[AndTakeYourPenguinWithYou]

Sanctions? How about a bit of common decency and behaving like a grown up?

[OurBlanche]

So what sanction is to be applied to the tenant who does not sweep their garden, in your opinion? On check out I would note any differences in condition and allocate costs according to the AST.

It's what I do for a living!

[clam]

As children, my friend's house used to back on to a massive Victorian villa-type house. They received a note (on posh paper) through the door requesting them to remove washing from the line in the back garden by 2pm each day, so that it wasn't visible when they entertained guests for afternoon tea.

[BombadierFritz]

You'd get your tenancy terminated round here (posh houses only - the rest dont care). Or a gardening charge deducted from the deposit (no idea if this is legal)