To ask neighbour to stop kids using communal areas as personal playground...

[MrsExpo]

We live in one of five detached properties in a small cul-de-sac/close. Houses are accessed down a drive way between two houses on the main road at the top of the close, and the drive is wide enough for two vehicles to pass, opening into a wider turning area in front of the houses to allow people to access their drives. The drive has a 3-4 meter wide strip of grass down each side and this has trees on our side and a row of neat shrubs down the fence on the other. All houses have access to their own parking areas and all the drive-ways are open plan - i.e. no fences between them. All the houses have good sized rear gardens.

The drive, grassed areas and central turning area are jointly owned by all five properties and we manage the grass cutting etc between us to keep it tidy. (Except for one property who do sweet FA, but that's another story!!).

Family in house opposite have 5 kids, the youngest two being boys aged 8 and 10. Like most young lads, I suspect (don't have sons myself) they enjoy kicking a football about, but - having reduced their own back lawn to a bog - are now using the drive/grassed areas as their personal football pitch and bike race-way. As such, the grass is getting cut up, ike tracks all over the place, there were no less than 4 footballs and two bikes left lying about this morning and the shrubs are getting kicked to shreds. In addition, footballs are bouncing off people's cars, tree branches are getting broken, peoples drives and front lawns are used as an extension of the playing area ... In short, the place looks a real mess. (To say nothing about the noise they seem to generate when they're out there!).

AIBU to think the neighbours need to stop their kids trashing the place, use teri own garden for the kids to play on, get them to tidy up their stuff and generally start to respect the property? (Sitting here dreading the onset of Christmas school holidays ...!!!)

YANBU.

When do you plan to go round and talk to your neighbours about this problem, OP?

no you're not but say something sooner rather than later. If you're really chicken to do it personally, is there a management company that controls ownership / maintenance of the communal parts? do it via them... If you do it direct to the parents, make it clear that it's a significant health and safety issue with cars as well as the fact they're trashing it (& when are they proposing to reseed the grass etc)

I'd suggest that playing in the communal areas is absolutely fine, and what it is there for. Trashing it however, is completely out of order. Leaving stuff on it is also out of order, and becomes a security risk not just for their own stuff, but for everyone else, due to it drawing people into the area for no good. Damaging the shrubs, cars etc needs to stop immediately.

(Speaking from bitter experience)

I think you can ask them to keep the area tidy and watch out for stray footballs etc, but not to stop their kids playing there. It's communal.

Unless playing out in the communal areas is specifically prohibited under the freehold/lease agreements I would say focus on the damage aspect rather than kids playing out. Be very wary of drawing up battle lines between parents/non-parents or parents of boys vs those without boys - complaints like that tend to spiral and grudges get held for a long time.

We had this problem. We complained. It escalated. We moved.

Ugh that would really annoy me., Hate it when people fuck up communal areas like that.

Pop round and tell them their balls are hitting the cars and they are playing on your drive, and this needs to stop.

These are totally reasonable requests and their response will allow you to gauge how responsive they will be to your other concerns.

How do you know what state of their back garden is in?

Why do you think MN is a better place to come than their parents?

Posted too soon.

I don't have a problem with having to crawl down a residentail private cul de sac due to children playing there. Should it be causing damage (balls on cars etc) then it's different. Decide what you're annoyed about.

It's not so easy to go and confront people. I know a couple who used to feel 'having a quick word' was the right thing to do - they ended up with a campaign of harassment, dirt thrown at the car, a window broken, rubbish thrown in their garden, graffiti on their pavement, and being shouted at whenever they went out and fearing the 'neighbours' would get physically violent.

So you kind of have to judge it well. If you get the vibe they're fairly normal people who perhaps are completely clueless about the damage their kids cause (though if they've done it to their own garden, unlikely), you could have a quick chat. If you think they're like to tell you to mind your own fucking business, you fucking slag, watch your fucking back because we know where you live, get the fuck off my drive, well... yeah, confronting probably not the greatest idea.

One option could be to see if all the neighbours will knock on at the same time. They can't gob off/threaten 20 people!

Thanks for the replies. As someone has said, it's not so much the playing as the trashing the area that bothers me and the general disrespect shown to people's property and boundaries!! Words were had with the mother earlier in the year, when the noise got to a fever pitch at silly times at night (these are kids of school age, remember!). Also, when she took it into her head to "tidy" the shrubs because "they look a right mess!" ... I did point out that they wouldn't look a mess if her kids hadn't trashed them by repeatedly kicking a football into them!!!

The state of their garden was relayed to me by their next door neighbour (we're opposite) who can see over the fence and who are equally fed up with the general levels of disrespect, mess and noise......

I think i'll have to put on my brave pants and have yet another word ... wish me luck!

On one side this would really annoy me too, on the other side i can also see how this can easily escalate to the point you wish to god you had never mentioned it and have to move.

Do you know them? Do you have a good relationship with them? Do you know how they will react? Are you confident they will ensure the kids tidy up after themselves and stop playing there? Or is there a risk they'll tell you to sod off, it's communal, and they'll leave their stuff where ever the heck they please?

Maybe speak to other neighbours and get their views if you think there is a risk.

if its being damaged then send them the bill-u cant stop kids playing out though they just need to know how to respect everyones property

Tricky one. Yes of course you can say something. But, wherever possible, try to avoid falling out with the neighbours. People have different standards. My children were never allowed to play on the street when they were younger (and wouldn't want to now). But I know many who were allowed out daily. Your neighbours' children's parents either do no realize what their kids are doing or... they do realise but are not bothered! Good luck and if you do say something, tell us how it goes

Either enforce the covenants on the use of the private areas, or you screwed up buying a private cul-de-sac without the covenants in place on the use of the private areas.

Playing in a communal area is perfectly reasonable. If there's damage to your cars, then you can address that, but the general tone of your complaint is about other stuff which is unreasonable, so it suggests that even if they fully addressed that you'd still complain.

This is why no property lawyer I know would never buy a house with common areas like that

I'm sitting on the fence here. I agree it is not on for them to be wrecking stuff, but I cannot see anything wrong in them playing out or making a noise. If you want utter silence you need to move somewhere more remote.

The question for you is now to manage the situation without things escalating. There are few things more stressful than a high pitched battle with neighbours.

Well this wouldn't bother me at a

pebbles is that your fence or the one in the communal area?

I think making a noise in a communal area at night is unreasonable to be honest and if I had my own back garden and the communal area was obviously meant to be "nice" with flowers etc. I wouldn't let my DC play football on it, especially if the balls are likely to go flying into people's cars.

Ugh I hate having neighbours - which is why we moved so that we don't have any [helpful]

If you are going to have a word, take the neighbour with you who is equally fed up - you don't want to identified as the only complainant

FV

ll. It doesn't sound like vandalism. Just kids playing and occasionally kicking their ball into shrubs. In sure you would prefer it if the kids stayed in nice and quiet so you could look at some perfect grass but it doesn't solely belong to you. By all means stop them playing on your drive as that's your property. Not sure why you are so annoyed by one of the parents tidying up the shrubs either. You complain they're a mess then complain when it's sorted. Sounds like they are trying to find a happy balance so that everyone can enjoy the area which is how it should be.