AIBU to not want kids to climb along the side of my fence

[HKM94]

hello :) I am just wanting to know if I am being completely being unreasonable or not! I hope I am making sense when I explain this but it is quite difficult to describe. There is very thin gap between the side of the boundary fencing along the side of my house and the neighbours and between there is a brick wall which is the width of a child. The wall leads to a public path then stops, I can’t see whether the brick wall is the fencing of the neighbour but it starts before my fencing and runs down the side. Children use this brick wall to get from the path to our street (The park is nearby) I don’t know whether to fit something on the brick wall in between the neighbours gap and mine! The back garden is for privacy and we have a very very high fence fitted! We have a baby girl and we are worried that she will learn bad habits from seeing other children doing it and when we first bought the house I was more worried about children falling but the final straw was when a child climbed over my fence and when I asked what they were doing they said they dropped something over the fence! They jumped down into my garden and then started to climb back over, when I asked if they wanted me to let them out of the gate instead of them climbing back over my fence and potentially hurting themselves or damaging the fence, they said no and jumped over! No thank you or manners! When I was younger I would have never been so rude and climbed back into someone’s garden and then when they were watching climb back over someone’s fence!! And the fence did get broken as well, the next day after the child climbed over I noticed the panel to the right had been pulled up of the concrete base, I think the boy didn’t throw anything over but he had pulled the panel up and couldn’t push it back down so he was climbing over to try and pull it back down but I didn’t notice it then because I was too busy confronting the boy! litter gets thrown over all the time! I don’t know whether to ring the council as I think it is their land and ask them to fit something or do it myself. So the question is AIBU to not want children running along the side of my fence to get to this path & to fit something in order to stop them or should I just ignore it?

YANBU. Some manure down there might work.

Thank you for your response @whiteroseredrose! I would do that but I wouldn’t want the adjacent house to complain about us (their children are one of the ones who climb over from their garden) I would put something down there but I don’t want to come across like I hate children.. because I don’t hate children in anyway and I don’t want to be that neighbour who makes the kids lives difficult but when my panel is lifted and there are million different kids faces looking into my garden every day, it just a bit tedious! I also want my daughter to feel secure in her own garden.. luckily she is only 10 months now but this is going to be our forever home! The area may not be excellent but there is a decent primary school within walking distance and it has enough land to extend and add 2 extra bedrooms so we would hate to start hating it because children can’t be taught manners :(

I'd be inclined to speak to the parents at the adjacent house. Approach it from the perspective of you're concerned their child (and others) may fall and hurt themselves. Emphasise it's not just him doing it, but due to damage to your fence due to kids climbing on it, you'll be putting some anti climb paint on there. I'd use the paint but also get some warning signs to go with them.

YANBU. I'd speak to your neighbour and block it off.

Can you use anti-climb paint on your fence? From the description it may be difficult to get it on the exterior of your fence though.

YANBU. That sounds quite annoying!

Who owns the brick wall ?
If it is yours then block the front/back with something. If it belongs to the next house then you will need to speak to them about it and maybe offer to go half/ pay all of a fence or similar to block it.
I would go with the security angle (say you’ve seen someone squeezing through) rather than it all being about their children climbing on your fence if you think they will take offence.

Or go with anti-climb paint (make sure there is a sign warning about it)

I’m not sure who owns the brick wall as it seems to be built in between my boundary face and the adjacent houses (which is another street entirely), there is then a path that leads to all the front of the houses of the next street and the kids are obviously coming down the path climbing onto the wall then walking alongside whilst holding onto my fence, they then use my fence and the brick wall to climb down into the cul de sac which again is another street entirely, if we blocked it off they would have to go through one side of the public park to the other which in my mind is not completely unreasonable

I think this post needs a diagram 😉

I think this post needs a diagram 😉

Yup we need a diagram.

I'm not entirely sure what the situation is - a diagram would help!

Is there a path between the wall and the fence, or are they walking along hte top of the wall?

If there is a path, you need to check with the COuncil to see if it is a public right of way before you start trying to block it off.

I couldn’t think of a way of drawing diagram so I’ve taken a picture instead 😅 so the wooden panel to the left is the neighbours fence and the panel to the right is mine so the brick wall just runs between them, maybe to stop it being a walk through if the makes sense.

How long is the wall? Can’t you just put some heavy pots along it to block access?

From s child’s pov is a genius unhindered short cut. Put some obstructions on the wall to deter them. A small plank of wood to block off access should suffice.

Who owns the land the brick wall is on? It must be either yours or the neighbors or councils. Find out before you do anything

Yes whoever put the wall there has just made a more dangerous path haven't they!

You need to find out who owns it. So it it's yours move your fence!!

It seems to me the wall is the old, original boundary and the fences have later been added to give height. I'd chat to next door about safety and security and come up with a scheme to block the wall off at the start by fencing across between the two fences somehow. It looks like your neighbour further along has stuck pot plants on the wall presumably to prevent the kids going further along the wall? Could you get a large tall and fluffy bamboo in a pot and wedge it between your two fences? Or some prickly roses?

Nettles! Spiky berberis! Anything that would be unpleasant to jump into.

It looks like the low wall is the boundary between you and the neighbour but you have both put up higher wooden fencing.

You need to find the actual boundary first

Like others I think the wall is the boundary and the fences have been added for privacy later.
Find out who owns the boundary where the wall is and if it's you then remove the wall and put a normal fence up so there's no access.
If it's next door, have a chat with them about security and safety.

That’s a tough one OP

Ye probably both own the wall but your the only one with the issue because the neighbors kids use the short cut.

I don’t think the safety excuse will stand, it looks pretty secure to me. The flower pot on the wall looks dangerous, is that yours?

You could take down the fence on your side and plant a hedge. That would block the access without interfering with your neighbor.

The weird thing is we each have our own wall and the brick wall runs past the neighbours boundary fence and we have own high fence with a concrete base, so the brick wall isn’t anyone’s fencing. The back of our house used to be garages or marked parking bays so I wonder if originally the brick wall was a boundary wall for our back garden and the parking for the street at the back of our house? If it was it would have been there from the council to stop people climbing into the car park and damaging by falling onto cars, our fences have been added years since and the height is to stop people falling in from the wall? I have just thought of this now.. so it might not belong to anyone but the council! I am thinking I might have to walk round to the street where the path leads and see what the situation is round there! Otherwise i’ll be nailing a bit of wood between mine and the neighbours fence at this rate.

Looking at the photos, some of the bricks on the top of the wall are already broken and the mortar is also breaking up, so you would be within your rights to say that it is a safety hazard (what if a child hurt themselves) or say it’s an ideal escape route for burglars.