To think I live in a fucking parallel universe?

[hungryhippo90]

I moved to a new build estate. I’ve never seen ANYTHING like it.

There’s a neighbourhood watch who put letters out on people’s cars if they’re parked in the estate. In fact a few cars got covered in tomato ketchup for being left here... not even specifically outside peoples houses. Some of the neighbours go out and moan at people parked anywhere near their house.

You get letters through the door if your bins aren’t in the back garden by 3pm the day they’re emptied (I don’t know what happens when you both work till 5pm!) there are a lot of moaning posts if it’s windy and bin day. One of the residents goes out and picks up litter, which is normal I guess but I’ve never seen it before.

There’s lots of moaning that there will be council accommodation on the estate and shock horror, the house prices!!

They currently have 3 different lawsuits ongoing with the housebuilder, the maintenance company who deals with the estates grass etc and I don’t even know who else.

One of the home owners asked the other day if the estate had security because they saw someone in a security outfit (there’s still buildingwork ongoing- there is security on that site nothing to do with the residents and FWIW it’s clear. This is answered by loads of ....maybe answers, and I start to think I don’t even live in this world. It’s clear we don’t have security! Who on earth would be paying for it? .....and one person pipes up with, ask to see their ID and their credentials (he wasn’t joking!)

Oh and there are pictures on the Facebook group - which you have to send your address to join by the way!) of every person they’ve ever seen walking through the estate.

Today someone posts a picture, someone posts a picture of two people, and one of them is out patrolling the estate for those not belonging here.

Please, please tell me I just live in a weird place and everywhere is not like this.

I find it beyond odc, a few of the other residents think it is beyond hilarious, and I used to laugh but it’s starting to bewilder me how grown ups who own houses, honestly believe our bog standard estate have security provided in the evenings.

OP have you been "invited" to join the local Home owners Assoc. yet?

these people live in their own worlds!! im sorry you are surrounded by such fools... whats a doorbell for if not to ring it?

Exactly. It's a doorbell, not an air raid siren, no fucker else can hear it from their houses!

just like my neighbour, thinking that there was security on the estate for us overnight.... like who pays for that? youd think they would know seeing as theyd have lived in their house 1-2 years +!!!

I'd be tempted to ask him for his share of the security money. It's a bit awkward, but he has missed a few payments now... tell him it needs to be with chief watchman by month end or the security will be scrapped for the whole estate and then god only knows who might come walking around...

Why would anyone chose to live in a tip is beyond me.

Some people don't have a choice though do they? They live where they can afford to buy or rent. No shocker but the cheaper properties are in ' tip like' roads

Whoops my bin has been out since monday afternoon. I have to move my sons car to put it back and currently I can't be bothered. Its cold and I'm on mumsnet!

Anatidae- something about your post has made me smile, maybe that it sounds like you live in a vair well to do place, and you still show respect for people who empty your bins....at complete odds with the attitude displayed by many of my neighbours.

glad you did good...hope you enjoy your (by the sounds of it) huge, lovely home.

Anatidae
to clarify the way people do things in my part of the UK: the bins are hidden 6 days a week, and taken out on bin day for the binmen to empty and left either at the end of the drive - street side - for them or on the grass verge if there is space. (weekly or every 2 weeks when you have a collection).
Householders are not playing hide and seek with the binmen.

In my part of the UK, the exterior of your house and your neighbour's house does impact on the price and the speed of sale, even in the best catchment areas.

We've had neighbours like this in the past. All of them have, without exception, been either retired or childless with non-demanding 9-5 or oarttime jobs and lacking in sufficient education/coolness to have something better to do. When you think about it, of they are the kind of 'house proud' people who spend loads of time at home and/or thinking about home and doing things like gardening/diy on the weekends instead of going out or spending time with family it's really not surprising.

Steamtrains- yes! I told them im a renter. im just a step above the "criminals" they photograph. [grin[

OP
Crest Nicholson - big houses, big gardens, real fires - rare on new builds.
Having lived in period homes from 17th century cottages to 1930’s detached - this is the best for the light, upkeep and low running costs. Neighbours are superb.
Curious how you got nut jobs to find each other so quickly 😂

What on earth makes people think that they have the right to dictate how people live?

In fairness, nearly everyone thinks this, it's just the standards they want to enforce that vary.

For example, the idea that you should be quiet between 11pm and 7am (written into flat leases) is dictating how other people live.

The planning system exists to protect us from how other people might want to live, if there were no controls.

If you think that you personally don't try to dictate how other people live, it probably just means (putting it as politely as I can) that you are less fussy with the standards you want enforced. I doubt you have no standards whatsoever.

Anatidae we don't hide our bins from the bin men (sanitary inspectors!) just from the sensitive eyes of the neighbours. They are supposed to miraculously disappear except on collection day.

I never know whether to feel a bit sad for the people who can get themselves in a genuine tizzy about where other people keep their bins, or jealous that they have so little to actually worry about.

Tapandgo... thank you! I know it was a weird question!

I think it starts with one person, then another, then there are 20 people who think its a good idea before you know it! i think that it just gets out of hand from there.

'It's not about dictating how other people live, it's about keeping the area the way you found it. If you chose to move into a shaded area for example, expect your neighbour to prevent you from cutting communal trees.

If you chose to move to a pristine new built development, you can expect most people to want to keep it that way. If it's a very quiet residential area, don't expect neighbours to be tolerant of noisy parties.

It's unreasonable to expect to change the place, closing down the pub down the road, stopping the church bells or muting the neighbours cows. Sadly, some people still try.

It's because new build estates are predominantly Lower Middle and the Lower Middles are obsessed with appearance and What Other People Think.

Move to a decaying Upper Middle area - far more relaxed!

That's awful! They shouldn't be taking photos of people and posting them!

Sounds dreadful! I live on a new build estate and run a Facebook group. It's largely just parking and dogshit moans. Quite boring really!

Ha ha, I think they would be the type of person who call is a 'housing development'. Its a fucking housing estate love. My sister is one of these and pulls a face whenever I refer to where she lives as such :-D

Saska- i do get it. i get the point of wanting to keep an area nice and tidy, but the idea that it was ever pristine is laughable.

I have actually been to some amazing new build estates that were beautiful, and their residents havent acted this way. no one leaves their bins out excessively, but letters go out if the bins are out after 3pm the same day which i find excessive.

pirate--- YES! thats what i need. hmm, thinks how much it would cost to move!

Royston Vasey is the fictional town that The League of Gentlemen series is set in. Very weird but often funny, much like your housing estate.

thingiebob- i dont think we have ever had a dog poo post! thats one problem we dont have!

I wouldn't want to live anywhere that had visible bins for more than a very few hours on bin collection day.

Get a fucking life.......

Teebee- ESTATE.....its an estate. stop trying to dress the gaff up!! sorry, my own little tangent, i get it, people really dont enjoy the word estate.

letters go out if the bins are out after 3pm the same day which i find excessive.

I do agree, but as I am rarely home at that time anyway, I would thank whoever is writing for putting the bins back on my drive until I return.