Neighbours for sale sign

[chesterfuckingdraws]

I've woken up this morning to our neighbours for sale sign in our garden and I'm a bit pissed off about it.

I'll set the scene. Row of 4 houses we're the end terrace. Houses in the middle of the row have no front garden just their drive. We have a long front garden which borders their drive.
Neighbours house was put up for sale during the week and today the for sale sign has been erected in our garden. Granted it's only about 6inches from the boundary but it's there.
It's pretty damn windy here today and already the sign is at a jaunty angle and our cars will be hit it it blows down.

No one has asked us if the sign could go there. Am I being petty about this? DH is telling me to get over it but it's annoying me every time I see it!

Just go out and take it down. And call the estate agents and tell them they need to collect it as your house is not for sale.

They aren't worried about causing bad feeling for you are they?

Alsohuman
Please don’t ring the agents, you’re not their client.*

No wonder the world is full of CFs.

It’s not your neighbours fault, it’s the board company. Ring the estate agent tomorrow and tell them to get it moved to the right property.

This happened to us a few years back, the outsourced sign company had just gotten mixed up and put it in our garden by mistake. I called the agent's number on the sign and asked them to arrange the removal. All very apologetic and sorted the next day. The house that was for sale was unoccupied though, so it was my only option. Do not just sit back and accept it though, that would be extremely odd.

I’d decide based on how it affected my garden.

As in, if it was in bare soil behind a hedge or next to the boundary then why would you care?
If they’ve put it into your lawn or trampled all over your crocuses that we’re about to flower then I’d be raging

Probably thoughtlessness combined with the people putting up the sign (in our area that isn't the estate agent, they have a mutual chap that goes round putting up/taking down all the estate agent signs) deciding the best place.
We're at the end of a walkway and I lost count of the number of times we came back to find a sign in our garden or someone commented they didn't know we were moving, having seen a sign that morning.
It was simply that they get more passing traffic at the end of the walkway.
Eventually we caught the van that does it and explained our issue with it, and they've never done it again since.

Put a bid in on the house for 10k above asking price, go through all the motions, get surveys done and contracts drawn up, then at the last minute, pull out.

That'll show 'em.

I’m not sure how it being a different style of house will make it obvious which one is for sale? Surely if people see a for sale sign in your garden they’ll assume your house is for sale?

And yes, just ring the agents and ask them to move it on the basis your house isn’t for sale.

What has speaking to the correct person got to do with CFs? Utterly confused.

I'd be asking for the agent to move it; I can't see how it's obvious which house is for sake though. If I was passing - and hadn't see the details online or whatever - I'd assume it was your house if the sign is within your boundary.

sale

You should ring the agents op. Our agent put the board attached to the neighbours fence. She just called them and they came and moved it.

I thought the point of For Sale signs was to attract attention that the house is being sold. No point having one in the wrong garden.

Ring the estate agents and ask them to out the sign up on the property of the house for sale as you haven't given permission for them to put it in your garden making people believe it's your house for sale not theirs . They'd have to remove it as it's your garden

We had a sign put up in the wrong place, it was done whilst we were asleep! Van pulls up, man does sign in about 3 minutes, back in the van, gone.

They don't have a nice discussion on where you'd like it! And it fell down several times as the place they'd put it was exposed to the wind. I think your DH is being silly saying it would be "nice" of you to let it stay there, but you are being equally daft - isn't the agents open today? I'd ring up myself and say move this by 9am tomorrow or I will.

Alsohuman
What has speaking to the correct person got to do with CFs? Utterly confused.

The agent is the correct person. You said "Please don’t ring the agents, you’re not their client."

When we sold our first flat, one of the neighbours took exception to the sign being put up in the communal front garden, so they took an axe to it, and to the replacement that the estate agents put up - they gave up after the second one.
Apparently the neighbour who we were told did it had been trying to get the management company to agree to a ban on For Sale signs for years without success, so he just took unilateral action.
Not that I'm suggesting you follow his example...

@snarferson ordinarily no. However it looks like it's going to blow over and I don't want any damage to my cars.

Take it down and put it in their garden.

Whatever happened to asking permission?

I can't see any problem here at all. Why does your DH think you will be offending anyone if you phone the agent and get it removed to the correct house.

Surely the whole point of the board is to show potential buyers a house that is for sale, as well as advertising the estate agent, surely your neighbour would want people to know it's their house and not yours that is for sale.

Also if it's left in your garden and your house is the only one with a front garden the agent might get a lot of inquiries from potential buyers thinking they're going to look at a house with a lovely long front garden; yes, I know most people look online, but that's going to cause confusion too if they're previously seen the board in your garden.

@Alsohuman the advice I got from local trading standards when a "For sale" sign for a neighbour was put in front of my window was to ring the agents and get them to remove it. They came out within 3 days and did. I was tempted to just cut it down and dump it in the bin.

how can the agents be the wrong people to call about this?!

Definitely ring them and say that their sign man has made a mistake and put their sign in your garden - which is obviously the wrong place as your house isn't for sale. Furthermore, the sign looks rickety in the wind, you're worried that it will blow into your car and cause damage, which obviously you will hold them liable for. So please could they get it put in the correct house/garden asap.

Perfectly simple conversation, I bet they have it several times a week. You say it politely, they polietely reply that they're sorry, they'll have somebody around to move it asap.

I would however take a picture of the sign and your car together without any damage on it - bit of video would be even better if it's rattling in the wind - so that if anything should happen it makes it much easier to show them that the damage was caused by their sign!

What's the betting that when you ring the agent they'll tell you to just take it down and then at some point another board will appear by your neighbours house.

The EA aren't the people who actually put the signs up or collect them once they're no longer required, there's a special board man for that, and judging by the amount of discarded boards you see in people's gardens or even just thrown into the street these boards aren't something anyone values.

Ring the EA and get it removed.

It's normally not the agents, most have an external board company (agency express, boards online..etc) who have the address and go and erect the boards separately, most board contractors get paid a flat fee per job e.g £7 per board regardless of how many visits they have to make to change it (move it, remove it, change it to sold) so on a whole they try and get the job done properly first time round.

Call the agents and ask them to have it moved but don't give them an earful about it unless you know specifically they do their own boards.