Should neighbours ask beforehand?

[TisforTucan]

Woke up today to our neighbour nailing spikes onto the top of the fence (i'm assuming it's to deter our cat from going on it). We've never had any bad words, sure we probably irratate each other but never argued or anything and we've talked before.

Im not offended by the spikes, cat annoys us half the time by pooping in the garden ect but I just feel like they could of knocked and said "hi were going to do this, as we don't really want cat in our garden". I would of appreciated it more to have been told and think I'm more offended that they couldn't come talk to us.

Would anyone else want to be told? Funny thing is, it's not going to work as cat can jump over other parts of the fence so it's just made things a bit awkward I feel now.

Is it your fence or theirs? If it's theirs, they can do what they like (though common courtesy would be to speak to you!). If it's your fence, then I don't believe they can - and should have sought permission. (No expert though!)

If I could put spikes on my fence to deter cats I would. !!
If you know your cats poops in their garden , which you do as you recognise why they are doing it, then have you ever mentioned cat poop to them. If not that's why tgeh never told you. You made things awkward not them.

@Minimonkeysmum Yeah it is their side they've done it, and they can do whatever they want as it's theirs, but it's obviously because of the cat. I think it's going to be very awkward now.

I think it's fair enough. Why didn't you stop your cat going on the fence?

It wouldn't bother me. (I have a cat). It would bother me more if neighbours came to complain and expected me to fix it. As it is, they've been proactive to solve their problem at their expense and hassle. No need to take offence.

Assuming he owns the fence, why would he speak to you? I know from this website most cat owners don’t care to hear about the nuisance their cats cause. You yourself have shown no interest in his issues with your cat. You just seem to feel it is somehow disrespectful of him to proceed without seeking your permission. You’d like to have been consulted but you must know that there are many things in life we may want that we can’t have? Like a cat free garden.

Why does it need to be awkward? I wouldn't think so at all. You're overthinking here

Why didn't you stop your cat going on the fence?

Ha ha ha!

@NagaisAce I mean? What can I do close to putting a tether on the cat? Failing to understand how I've made it awkward, I don't even know if she's going to poop in their garden, I just know she goes on my garden like I have said!

What do I do strike up a conversation "hi does my cat shit on your lawn?"? There's also 8 cats in my street, so they could also be doing it because of them.

It's their fence and their garden so they don't need to ask. It might have been nice to tell you what they were doing but that might have been awkward so I guess they decided to crack on and do it.

I really wouldn't worry about it

The person that said why don't you stop you're cat going over the fence... that's like asking a toddler to sit still, for three hours

pocketem it would be almost impossible to stop a cat from jumping on or over a fence.

If there are loads of other cats it's probably to try and keep them all out, not just yours anyway.

Why didn't you stop your cat going on the fence

I tried to have a reasonable conversation with the cat but she was having none of it.

If your cat does half of its poos in your garden clearly it must do the other half elsewhere. If it annoys you and you choose this then surely it's no surprise your neighbour, who hasn't chosen this, would be annoyed.

What happens when your cat is injured by the spikes? Are they going to foot the vet bills?

Why would it be awkward? It's their fence, you have no say in what they put on it.

Why would they foot the bill for an animal injuring itself on something on THEIR property?

If it’s their fence then YABU

Legally they need a weather proof sign to advise the fence has spikes. And if your dcat is injured the spikes then become illegal.
Your ndn is an arse to not use rubber spikes..

I noticed my neighbour did his with spikes a while ago to stop my cats going in, he didn't mention it beforehand but if he did I would have offered to pay for it

@Hercules12 Not sure if this is because cat is going toilet there, they are mostly an indoor cat with a litter. Cat just goes out when we leave windows open and ventures a little bit away then comes home.

It's going to be awkward only if you allow it to be awkward 🤷🏻

@Wewearpinkonwednesdays I agree and never said I did have any say.

What I did say however was I felt it was a bit more awkward now as they feel they can't come talk to us about doing it. I'd tell them if it was going to affect them in someway.

I have very good relations with my neighbours on both sides, largely because I always tell them what I’m going to do if it affects them out of basic politeness. For example they were sitting on their patio last weekend and I got out the pressure washer. I called out to them that I wanted to clean the patio but I was happy to do it later if they let me know what time was best. I also asked if it was ok to trim a hedge between the gardens. Even when a complete arsehole lived there before them I dropped a note round when we were replacing the fence
It just shows consideration and means they are less likely to get upset if you need to do something messy or noisy