A neighbour one!

[WorrierorWarrior]

I find my next door neighbours to be very strange. They are extremely nosey. We are semi detached. The only time they ever talk is when they want something like access through the garden. They might be very private as they have huge trees all round their house. I really don't know the whys and wherefores.
For many reasons I had decided that it was time for me to leave that house. I started packing up some time ago but them lockdown came. We decided that we would both live in my partner's house during lockdown. I had a medical appointment which I had to attend and as I passing very near the house I went in for a look around and to do a bit more packing.
In the kitchen one wall is completely covered in kitchen units both floor stand and wall hung. This is the wall that divides our kitchen from next door's kitchen. There were some things on top of these cupboards so I got out the ladders and went up to be able to reach these things. While I was up the ladder I noticed that there was a square (about 2.5 inches square) which was cut into the plasterboard very neatly. I know I did not do that and the previously occupant was not physically capable of getting up there. I have noticed for about 2 years that I can hear their conversations next door quite clearly.
I have no idea what could have caused the very neat cuts to the plasterboard. I think there should be a fire wall between the two houses.
AIBU to think that just possibly they have cut through the plasterboard and possibly the fire wall just to be nosey. I cant think why the cut is so exactly square and regular in its cut unless it is man made.

We have an air brick at the top of the kitchen wall, at the height of the top of a cupboard, in a 1930's house. Maybe ventilation if there is a gap behind it. Or perhaps a hiding place for something.

Above the wall cupboards there is still the old wallpaper which was put up years ago. It is anagypta (sp) which was painted several times. The paper is still on the square. There is a cut in the wallpaper which goes down then a right angled corner along then another right angled corner and back up to ceiling. It is a very neat cut.

It is a mystery but next time I am at the house I will be investigating further. It is strange because all the other cracks in the house are not smooth and neat.

Would an air brick not be on an outside wall. There is one air brick on the outside wall of the kitchen but this is the wall between my kitchen and next door's kitchen

So is the cut in the plasterboard or just the wallpaper?

Are you saying they cut from their side all the way through to your side? To make some sort of noise spy hole?

How do you think they lined it up so perfectly with the hidden space on top of your cupboards? To me it’s much more likely that it happened accidentally or it happened from your side eg when installing the kitchen.

Reality check, because in all honesty in this story you are coming across as the weird one.

The wall between you and them will be:
your plasterboard-
wall eg brick-
their plasterboard.
So unless you can SEE through to their side your hole was made on your side. For some innocuous reason such as socket.

Chances of them making a nest square hole from their side 7 ft up without hitting anything your side ... about a 1000 to one.

But crack in if it helps you move one / pass lockdown time.

*neat square hole

it's most likely an interior air vent.

The cut is through the wallpaper and the plasterboard.
Next time I am in the house I will be looking at it a lot more closely and from a better position.
I was very stressed, uneasy and creeped out living in that house. These last 9 weeks have made me realise how bad I felt and the damaged it was doing to my physical health. I really don't think I would want to go back into that atmosphere.

I'm surprised at all the people surprised at just plasterboard and insulation separating terrace houses.

If I had a long enough drill I could easily get through to next doors walls. However, cutting a neat square hole from my side would be far more difficult. You'd need a long plasterboard knife and it would be tricky. If you look closely at the hole you might be able to see which way the fibers on the plasterboard have been pushed and determine if it was cut from your side or theirs.

If the flap of paper is there, is it bent in mainly one direction i.e. in or out.

If the cut to the flap of paper is neat, it also suggests it was cut first and therefore done from your side.

I will have a good look at it when next in the house. The top of the square of plasterboard is right at the ceiling. I will look at it and check against the information given here.

Is there any debris on the floor beneath the hole?

Just stick something over it to block it up again.

Our NDNs and I shared a mouse in our kitchens for a while (long story), we had no idea how it was getting from one side of the wall to the other, but there must have been a gap somewhere.

I can not see if there is any debris on the floor without taking the kick board off.
After I have checked this over thoroughly and with a view of the information given here, some of which I had not thought about, and photoed the area I will be sticking some wood over the area with sealant around the edge. I will watch what happens in the future.
I am not living in the house at the moment.

@WorrierorWarrior

Would an air brick not be on an outside wall. There is one air brick on the outside wall of the kitchen but this is the wall between my kitchen and next door's kitchen

It is normal to put them on the outside wall but sometimes on a place that might need air circulation, maybe there was a chimney breast there once, or a cooker, in the old days.

@TheMaddHugger

it's most likely an interior air vent.

Similar to an airbrick but more modern.

I can not see if there is any debris on the floor without taking the kick board off.

The debris would be on top of the cupboard you had the stuff you were climbing up to retrieve.

But realistically there isn’t going to be any debris.

That side of the kitchen has been the cupboard side and the other opposite side has always been the side with cooker sinks washing machine etc for as long as the house has been built. There is only one chimney and that is in the middle of the house, half way from the shared wall to the outside wall on the other side of the house.
I was on a small ladder when I took the items off the top of the cupboards. I will be getting a higher ladder so that I can get a better look at the top of the wall and the top of the cabinets.

I think I am just creeped out by all that has gone on in that house and locality

What stuff has gone on?

You're being paranoid and not making much sense.

Why would debris from a hole above the wall cupboards be behind the kick boards. Your neighbours haven't cut a hole to spy on you, it'll be a vent that has lost its cover over the years. Or previous occupiers planned to put a switch up there at some point.

Surely if there was a hole which went from your kitchen into theirs you would hear them as if they are in the same room as you?

I am really surprised this isn’t a brick wall - maybe just single skin but it would be really odd if it was plasterboard only. It would have also flagged in your survey when you bought.

I think there will be a reasonable explanation, and the hole wont go straight through the wall.

Surely you could see whether it was just a recess, or a hole right through the wall.

It has been difficult to live there. I don't feel at all welcome. I go about my own business and rarely talk to anyone and they rarely engage in conversation with me. I didn't realise how bad it was until I started going about DP house and the neighbours all smile, wave, greet each other and currently talk from a distance. They talked at a normal distance before lockdown. Neighbours at the various houses I have owned have never been like the neighbours around this house.
The previous owners were well known to me and I have been around the house almost all my life.
I do hear the neighbours talking and also a dog which barks a lot. It is like they are in the same room as me.
There was only a valuation done on the property not a full survey. There are other reasons concerning the house that mean that I will have to have a survey and maybe even a structural investigation on the house and one issue I will be asking is about a fire wall between the two houses.
Since moving to that house, I have been diagnosed with one illness after another. There has been none of what I experienced before like neighbours putting Christmas cards through each other's doors or people saying "Hi" as they pass. It just feels strange. I realise now that I have probably made a mistake by staying in the house for the time I have.
There is more to life than living in an "atmosphere"