Neighbours using our garden!!!

[SimplyPut]

Arrived home 45min ago to find our next door neighbours, their dc and parents sat on our patio furniture drinking wine!!! Bold as flipping brass!!!

I went out to go to the bin, there they are. The wife looked slightly sheepish and said 'we thought you were away for the weekend, and the dc like your trampoline' . What the fuck???

In pathetic British fashion I found myself apologising and saying how I don't mind the kids playing with ours but we when we are home. I'm pathetic!

One night thieves came into our garden and stole parts fo the trampoline (presumably for scrap metal!). I had to order for £60 replacement parts (not worth doing on insurance). It was with some relief I threw it out in the end (as no one was using it) but the children still hold it against me - trampolines are very popular.

I would buy them a very nice little British card and push it through the door - saying you were glad they were having a nice time the other day, that you are afraid that for insurance and legal reasons you are advised they cannot use the garden or trampoline so hope that they understand this.

It is just important there is no licence granted to them to use it when you are away. Eg they might die using it and sue you (I'm a lawyer). When I was young two neighbours used to let us children use their very very long wonderful gardens when they were away for a week in the summer. I remember to this day picking raspberries in their kitchen garden - they told us we could so the crop was not wasted and we had express permission to go down there. One year we saw two burgalars - a young man and woman in the garden and we identified them to the poklice and felt we were like the Famous Five in Enid Blyton - they were caught actually so we certainly did our work there.... BUT we had permission to go into the gardens and keep an eye on the place.

To echo what another poster said upthread: none of my neighbour's have ever done anything remotely cheeky like using our garden or parking in our drive.

I've never even caught anyone nicking our rhubarb which grows right next to the boundary.

We did have a polite disagreement with the neighbour's on one side about who would pay for replacing the dividing fence - they wanted to pay the full cost as DH was providing the labour but we insisted on paying half.

Just wondering OP, if you had a word with them today...having had an opportunity to sleep on it, if you will.

Just reread your OP... were they drinking your wine?!

I don't even get the appeal tbh. Even if my garden was a complete shithole (which it isn't) and next doors was so much nicer, I still wouldn't want to go round and chill in theirs while they were out. Because it's not mine. I'll take my own space any day.

Hope you've spent the day fitting a huge fuck off lock, barbed wire round the top of your fence and am alarm on the gate that goes " get you cheeky fuckers, use your own garden"

Oooh, I love a CFN thread!

You should have snuck to Homebase, bought a padlock, locked the fuckers in, and gone to the pub for a long, leisurely meal.

fresh808 why would they sue? The trampoline is not a public one. It should not have been used.

r/ThatHappened

If people can get into someone's private area and hurt themselves they often do sue I am afraid. We have had cases in the press about children getting into abandoned buildings and people being hurt in swimming pools where the children sneaked through the fence and the park was fined for not having it fenced up for example and sadly even children suing when they were at a party and got hurt on the bouncy castle.

Yep, it's like a trespasser on your land can sue you if they hurt themselves on your land. Think it's the law of torts... I study some law at college and was shocked to hear that you have a due of care to anyone

I bet it's not the first time they've done it, bloody cheek!

Not too long ago, there was an article in the newspapers about a gentleman who had constructed a large pond (in his own garden). He was ordered to dismantle/get rid of this, as it posed a danger to burglars! 😕

You apologised?

Give me strength.

You know this has been done before....and the previous tread was amazing although it never came to an end....

Was that the pool thread? That was a good one.

Bet your neighbours just about shit themselves. I came back early once and caught my neighbor snooping around my garden. No idea what he was doing it but he legged it before I got the car parked.

Cheeky fuckers. I agree it's a shame you couldn't lock them in. Definitely toughen up and make it clear they're not welcome.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2995828-CFN-Thread-9-Better-call-Planning
9 full threads worth of same story

Some people are really that cheeky. Someone I used to know had a swimming pool and occasionally invited neighbours over to use it. She came home early from work one day as she was ill to find neighbour had invited people over to use the pool and she overheard neighbour saying "oh they have said we can use th pool whenever we like". Friend walked out to pool and neighbour nearly died when she saw her. She did look very embarrassed apparently!

We have had someone park on our drive but it's a long driveway and just looks like an access lane. Still cheeky. It was a man sitting in his car reading the paper and eating a sandwich. He jumped a bit when I knocked on his window to get him to move.