Noisy child in garden and light blocking

[DayMoth]

My DBro recently moved into a studio ground floor flat. His windows back onto a small garden belonging to house next door (courtyard type garden). His wall is effectively their garden wall! Their toddler plays in the garden a lot, screeching and shouting and kicking balls (as toddlers do). He complained to his landlord, who had a word. They own their house. They were apologetic but said child has a right to play. The noise hasn't diminished and he finds it hard to study and work. He's getting very stressed about it. Now they are saying they will put up a fence in their garden! This will block his view of their garden (I appreciate they want privacy) but will also block most of the light into his flat. Is this legal?

I can see both sides: they want privacy in their garden and for toddler to play, he wants light and quiet to work.

Honest opinions please?

He's moved there recently and has managed to piss off the neighbours enough that they're building a fence ouch. Not much to do but use headphones and grin and bear it

Why not ask if they will put a lowish fence in so that the toddler isn't kicking the ball against the wall, but it won't block out the light...

The child shouldn't be kicking the ball off the wall, but the neighbour's are trying to be fair building a fence, which means they have to spend THEIR money. They will also be sacrificing part of their garden, so I think your brother should think himself lucky, that they're trying to help.

Why has he got his sister posting for him on Mumsnet?

So he wants the child to be quiet, and to have a view of their garden.

Don't be so fucking ridiculous.

Haven't RTFT but he cannot object to the fence but his LL can so he should find out if the LL objects. It could put off future tenants so he may be concerned.

Lots of ways to block toddler noise but losing light and looking out onto a fence is off putting.

I honestly doubt the kid is out there that often. I have had noisy neighbours and really while kids do screech etc it is so so much worse to have students or people drinking and playing loud music.

I have young children and even on a sunny day they are only out there in short bursts.

Life in a terraced house means accepting neighbour noise and kid noise is just part of normal life. A bit of music would drown it out. And in the winter the kid won't be there at all.

Also it's ridiculous to complain about mums coming round for play dates and being noisy - people are allowed to use their gardens to have people over and be sociable !

The great thing for your bro is he is renting so he can pick up sticks and move. I doubt the toddler is running around screeching much after early evening so tough on that one.

Light blocking may be a different issue and could have planning implications. It might be worth getting his landlord to speak to the council about that if they can't resolve it amicably with the neighbours. One option would be to have a fence with a lattice work upper portion to provide privacy and let light through.

OP - I sympathise with your brother on his choice of flat. Getting somewhere affordable with light from a window and a view of greenery is great. And for other PPs, there are very few places esp in cities where a garden is entirely private

Could he not go round to the neighbours and apologize for being difficult, but invite them over for a coffee or glass of wine so they can appreciate why he likes the view and the light so doesn't need the fence... and try to discuss ways of living with the toddler noise. I'm not sure a toddler can kick a ball hard enough against a wall for very long to be a nuisance, but he could use his smart phone to record the worst of it through a day and see if he can negotiate a solution? If he's not practising an instrument/editing a film with major screens etc I can't see why he doesn't find a wifi cafe.