To think my neighbours are either creepy or have no sense of personal space?

[Hidingtheworld]

I live in a ground floor flat of a converted house. I think there’s about 7 flats in total and we all share the freehold.

There’s a patio area outside my bedroom (owned by everyone) but I don’t use it. Two of my neighbours use it a lot in the nice weather.

Fine. Except they have a table and chairs right outside of my bedroom window to the point that he could turn his head slightly and just be staring straight at me, (I’m currently in bed getting over an infection)

It freaks me the hell out. I don’t want a stranger staring at me in my own flipping bedroom

YANBU - but if they are likely to get nasty I agree with other posters - a magic blind that lets you see out but will disappoint pervy neighbour and some strategic plants, preferably prickly, like roses, www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/10734/Mahonia-japonica/Details
www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/88908/i-Berberis-i-Boughton-Red/Details
I grow all mine in pots on my terrace and it's a surefire way of keeping neighbours at bay!

Or you could open the window really wide, put a Des O’Connor record on very loud and nip out to the shops for a few hours.

Love the chamber pot idea lol!

I have a communal area outside my bedroom window too. If anyone put table and chairs there when having it by their own window was possible I'd just have a word with them.

OP, just move the table and chairs away from your window.

If they say anything say that you need your privacy and they were blocking your view.

Ok it was winter but you could surely imagine this scenario

But presumably you still knew the shared patio was outside your bedroom window when you signed on the dotted line, so still should have been a consideration.

Just talk to them.

I'm a joint freeholder and my advice is to have a freeholders meeting and discuss it, ideally as part of a longer meeting including other, more innocuous issues.

Bring it up not as a dramatic problem with these neighbours specifically, but as 'Can we discuss the layout of the patio and furniture and talk about us all maintaining our privacy while still being able to have good use of it?'

Ok it was winter but you could surely imagine this scenario

Erm ... nope. Not when there’s tons of room out there. No I didn’t imagine the couple 20 years older than me would pitch a table up right by my window.

It was in winter and there was no furniture placed outside

So you failed to imagine summer and the fact that people sit outside when the sun shines? Not really anyones fault but yours.

Get a window box that is v wide. Plant with prickly plants that overhand and preferably attract bees!
And definitely get the aforementioned chamber pot ! Sorted ,

Overhang !

You need a blind (longterm) and some drum and bass playing out of your bedroom window(short term)!

Iron and fascinated, I'm not convinced that most people would look at a shared patio and think 'Best not take this place, I'm sure the neighbours will be out there with a table pushed up against my window at the first sight of sun.'

No, but they would look at a shared patio and think, I have no control over who uses it, when, how and with what furniture...and factor that in?

@dougfargo

And what do you mean so what? If you miss out literally the actual point of the thread, so what? Are you on glue?

Wow, what a fucking witty, hilarious person you are.... using one of the naffest, most laughable phrases on mumsnet. Give yourself a big round of applause........

And by the way..... It's a bit early in the day for wine hun

Not everyone remembers every last detail in their OP. Quit reaching, you're sounding pathetic.

And as for the 'well I wouldn't have moved into a flat like that anyway.' Not helpful. This is the 'why did you have a child with him' brigade!

When people come on just to accuse people of drip feeding, and to tell her she is a fool for moving in there in the first place, they just make themselves look like arseholes tbh.

dougfargo

Actually speak to them, having a reasonable and adult conversation? Are you mad? Who does that when you can moan on aibu instead?

What is your fucking problem? Someone shit on you cornflakes this morning or something? Why are you being such an arse?

I agree with Iron

Shared patio is bad news as always a risk that CF do this kind of thing

Presumably reflected in the price

Sorry!

Agree a meeting at which the issue is discussed as one of several agenda items is way forward

No, but they would look at a shared patio and think, I have no control over who uses it, when, how and with what furniture...and factor that in?

OR (more likely IMO) they'd think, if anything, that furniture would be placed in sensible locations. And/or that the freeholders could at any point have a joint discussion about it.

I would move the table and chairs and place large planters in front of your window. If they can put a table in the communal space then you can put things there as well

"Hey folks, I understand you like the patio, but there's an ocean of room here and I'd like some privacy in my bedroom, can you move it over so you don't peep in please?"

They can use the patio. I do not care about that.

I care that they decide to place themselves with their heads practically resting on my window sill.

If they just moved further down there’d be no issue.

Mmm not the best diagram I'm afraid. 👎🏻

I'd try speaking with them. Do they chose that spot because it's sunny?

Is it their patio furniture?

Could you buy your own patio furniture and leave it outside your window.

All those suggesting the OP does 'hilarious' things like dry her underwear outside/get massive window boxes etc, that's only going to cause resentment. It's a shared freehold and you have to act like an adult in that set-up and face up to having sensible and open discussions, not play silly games.

I am sure we can have plenty fun thinking of ways to make them move - come on MN. Lets get creative.

Take up chewing tobacco- and spitting it out the window.

Gat your own table and chair and place it outside their window. Early in the morning or late at night sit there and have full blown loud conversations with yourself. The weirder the better.

Play very loud music - then go out.

Keep opening and shutting your window and looking out and muttering to yourself but not speaking to them.

Yeah it does sound pretty horrible OP. And yes it's odd that they put their patio tables next to your window.

If I were you, I would see if you could get a big tall tree in a pot, or maybe a wide bush. As has been said though, you need to talk to them.

@hidingtheworld Is this you by the way ??? It's a thread from this time last year, and the problem is virtually identical.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2936151-Neighbours-sitting-outside-my-window