To be pissed off about my neighbour's decking?

[londonlass78]

Have named changed as I suspect my neighbour is a mumsnetter.

We have a shared 6 foot fence between ours and our neighbour's garden. My neighbours have recently installed decking which is right up against our fence. This means that when they are standing on it, they tower over the fence and are looking straight in to our garden, and kitchen diner window. I'm pissed off about this sudden lack of privacy and feel like we should have been at least consulted before they did this.

I'm also annoyed because there is a noticeable gap under the decking and because it is right up against our fence, we are going to get weeds and all sorts (had mice living under our decking in a previous house) poking through the gaps in our fence and in to our garden.

I don't want to make an issue out of it because they are decent neighbours on the whole but AIBU to be annoyed and is there anything we can do to regain some privacy? Thanks.

Put one of those trellis toppers on the top of the fence and grow something up it.

Keep on top of the weeding your side.

Extend your fence with trellis and plants?

this happened to someone i know. they got the local council involved and they made the neighbour take the decking down. it improved my friends privacy issues, but didnt do much for neighbourly relations

YABU to be so pissed off. Sure ir’s Annoying but it’s their property, they can do what they want. Just make it he fence taller with trellis toppers.

If the decking is more than 30cm above ground level, planning permission is required.
If this is the case, and it is really bothering you, then speak to the Enforcement team in the Council planning department.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I don't want to cause too much of a fuss. To be fair, they are good neighbours. They have 3 young kids and we never hear a peep, despite the fact our living rooms are through the wall from one another so I really should be grateful! Think I just wanted to vent. Looks like it will be a trip to the garden centre!

It's not worth causing bad neighbourly relations over. I'm sure they aren't interested in spying on you. I would let it go.

You never know, one day them being able to see in might help you out. If you had an accident or were burgled they might be able to get help.

It they're towering over a 6ft fence then it sounds like the decking is raised off the ground and they should have planning permission (or they are giants)

Put one of those trellis toppers on the top of the fence and grow something up it. Keep on top of the weeding your side

This.
You sound sensible op, I don’t blame you for needing to vent.

Sounds like a pain – but also made me chuckle because it reminded me of this [Big grin]

Sadly you can't raise the fence as they measure it from the height on the lowest side, and trellis counts too. Maybe you could speak to your neighbours and ask if they would be happy to add trellis to give you both some privacy?
If not there is nothing to stop you growing 3m bamboo in pots alongside your fence, or in hanging planters type things.

Plant some leylandii and let them grow, won't be too long before they are towering above the neighbours.

Perhaps a trellis topper and some planters you can attach to the fence with some fast growing plants could do the trick.

if the kitchen window bit is really bothering you you could get voiles or some kind of solution like those things you stick on the window (frosting? there are some modern looking ones that surprised me with how nice they looked) but it's really frustrating you'd have to do that and I'd only do that if it was really bothering me/feeling like a massive invasion of privacy/feeling weird in my own kitchen diner area. i once had a lounge where people used to walk past through an internal courtyard, it used to drive me daft because I'd be relaxing after athletics on the sofa or something and people would look in the window. ugh!

That Deck ad is brilliant

BAD Advice re : leylandii - don't plant them, they are large trees inappropriate for small urban gardens.

I'd go for trellis topper but suggest 50/50 on cost since they've created the issue. Also you can plant bamboo as it is a horticulturally a grass it by passes the High Hedges Act. However, go for a clump forming variety such as Phyllostachys Nigra or Aurea - either plant it in the ground with a membrane or maybe some large planters - the roots are tough - once potted it will never come out except with an axe!
Or grow a few well behaved Clematis up and over the trellis.

Don't involve the council, you will just sour relationships and your own karma.

Honestly, I understand why you're upset but it's not worth losing a good relationship with neighbours over something that can be sorted with trellis, planting or blinds! Treat it as an opportunity to do something a bit different with the top end of your garden.

Even if they've raised the deck by a foot, there's still a 5ft fence between you both. Is that such a big deal? If you're after total privacy, having neighbours at all might be the issue. I'd be quite insulted if our neighbours put a 6ft fence between us - as would they be if we did.

Depending on the height of the decking it may have required planning permission or could be permitted development.

If it's really bothering you, I'd check with the council website to see if they needed permission.

I’d add trellis but maybe talk to them first to keep things pleasant if they’re decent neighbours. Just say that you totally understand they want decking but you feel you’ve lost a little bit of privacy and are going to put some trellis up.

I had this when we pulled a greenhouse down and it meant we could see into our neighbours garden and vice versa. We didn’t talk about it despite getting on well though, we just both politely started to try and grow things to block the view!!

Decking more than 30cm above ground level required planning permission.

fence, and walls over 2m in height (6'6") require planning permission, and that includes trellises etc.

Hedges, shrubs etc can be any height unless covered by the High Hedges Act which generally relates to evergreens.

My neighbours have done this with a huge raised stone patio. They didn't talk to us about it either ad the work ruined my summer. I bought 20 leylandii. I aim to have their patio in complete darkness by 2020.

Our neighbours which we like and get on with, cut down all their bushes that was on their side but which made it difficult for them to overlook us.

We did put up a trellis and grew virginia creepers. She did ask and just said they looked pretty!

hopefully your neighbour will understand

I too think this is a planning permission issue. Our neighbours built a tree house (not quite the same, I know, bu the lack of privacy issue was very real!) and I asked the planners. They told me that a deck over 30cms - so a foot! - high need planning consent. please e careful about adding to the height of the 6 foot fence as there are also restrictions about fence height to take into account. You say they "tower" over the fence, which implies it might be higher than allowed by planning. Call your local planning office for advice. Alternatively, ours has an on-line comment section, so you can place queries in that way and it's completely a anonymous.

I would go for fence topper too. It's not brick wall, it can easily be removed. Who is going to complain? It sound like they did need planning permission (you can check), so why would they open that can of worms.

Ideally you want peace and quiet, and a good relationship. Some people don't think, it might not even had occur to them that they would end up overlooking you.