To think my new neighbour has over reacted...

[monotata]

I managed to get into my new house a couple of weeks ago. Took a lot to get in with lockdown etc but managed it - had viewed it before lockdown.

It’s a detached house but there’s a shared bit of grass at the front between the houses. Anyway, a couple of days after we moved in, I got the lawnmower out and cut front garden and moved over to the shared grass. As I was cutting it, I noticed the neighbour staring out the window at me.

I Smiled and waved and kind of signalled to him to open the window as I was going to ask him if he wanted me to cut the grass on his side.

Lo and behold the window opens and he screams out the window

“DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH MY GRASS. I HAVE JUST SCARIFIED IT. DO YOU HEAR ME? WELL DO YOU?!

I’m laughing writing this because he was like a man possessed and I nearly took a fit of the giggles.

My husband had been in the garage and he came out to see what was going on.

I said to the neighbour “no worries, I leave it alone...” Later on we were out the back having a glass of wine and I could hear him speaking to someone perhaps on the phone about the upstart neighbour trying to cut his “recently scarified” grass and how rude I was 😕

Now when I leave the house he glares Out the window and if he’s out the back he humphs about when I go out to hang the washing out.

He is going to be the neighbour from hell, isn’t he?

[whatcolourisyourfriday]

given that you're too cool to care, just leave him to care for the patch of grass.
It's perfectly possible that it belongs to him anyway.

[echt]

As it's a shared area of grass, it might be that he has been the one maintaining it all this time, so is over invested in it.

He certainly shouldn't have shouted at you. I see he's being an arse but shared areas need to be, er, shared so probably best to go to him with your DH and say you hadn't realised that he's just worked on it and you'll need to work out sharing.

Do not apologise.

Agree with others that the height of summer is not the time to scarify. so he's a now-nothing and a loon.

[Justmuddlingalong]

Give him a breezy wave and a smile every time you see him. Kill him with kindness while keeping the upper hand.

[EveryDayIsADuvetDay]

according to google "cut and remove debris from (a lawn) with a scarifier"

Probably scared it with all the shouting as well.

[makingmammaries]

Herbicide is the obvious answer.

[LakieLady]

Herbicide is the obvious answer

Yes, Pathclear would probably do it, preferably applied with a paintbrush, in the form of the rude word of your choice.

I'd wait till after dark though.

[FinlandFlag]

[TimeWastingButFun]

He's overreacted for sure, even if he had just scarified it. He sounds horrible.

[1Morewineplease]

Your neighbour is clearly 78 years old and scarifying the lawn is a dated practice. Alas we should all be doing it but we’ve all clearly got better lives to live.
If you have a shared lawn ( which is fraught with difficulties, as you might prefer a meadow to a striped green) then maybe get together for a chat.

[FreddoFrogAddict]

I wonder why the previous owners moved?

[user1471462428]

Tell him he should do it Autumn and mow after as any good gardener knows!

[YeahWhatevver]

Get a 4 ft fence up and let him scarify his grass to his heart's content.

[VenusTiger]

I'd pop a note through his door OP - you don't want to carry on like this, it's really not fair on you - he aggressively shouted at you like an idiot - I'd tell him politely that you were going to knock on his door, introduce yourself and offer to cut his lawn and that's why you stopped and looked up at his window first, but he never gave you chance. Try and start again imo.
This coming from someone whose neighbours are utter nightmares!! I haven't the energy to write the book about the man but my god, heed my advice - try and sort it if you can, otherwise there's a chance other neighbours will believe his grumbles. Oh, and don't apologise, as you've done nothing wrong.

[VenusTiger]

@FreddoFrogAddict it took us only about a week to realise why our previous owners moved!

[SWnewstart]

The key word here is surely "shared". You can do whatever you like to your bit of grass. But is it definitely shared ownership? On title / boundary documents and not the responsibility of Council / Highways? Like others have said, he may have been looking after it for a while if previous house owners didn't bother, but that doesn't mean YOU can't take over now. Check the ownership 100% then speak with neighbour accordingly. Not in a nasty way of course, but don't be cowed.

[PyongyangKipperbang]

I would mow my half, to last millimetre and when he goes mad point out that as it is share between the houses you have mowed your half and he can do what he likes with his.

[monotata]

@FreddoFrogAddict

The lady died....so we were told 🤔

[monotata]

@SWnewstart

It’s a rectangular piece of grass about two metres wide buy about 3 metres long. So I own 1 metre By 3 metres. I checked this when we bought the property. I was just being neighbourly asking if he wanted me to cut all of it....I’ll not be doing that anymore

[Ireolu]

We are in the midst of neighbour wars at the moment unfortunately. He sounds unhinged

[ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia]

Wow on the face of it from the brief description posted it would appear that indeed this is everyone’s least palatable neighbour. Handle with care but be on notice to be fair and not give ground (literally). This can be the type to find offence even if you only had good intentions and remarkably show a disliking to anything, everything and everyone. Perhaps some amateur psychologists would typical say text book trouble maker grumpy idiot or the grown up version of the playground bully!

Are you and family from a visibly different demographic eg age, social economic etc? This from experience can unseat some long term residents who feel some sort of marginal relative inferiority complex to new comers. Or perhaps I am clutching at straws as he is just an unpleasant territorial type setting out his marker on seemingly most trivial of non issues?

Good luck and handle with caution and upmost sensitive diplomacy as unfortunately customary on a few other threads here on Mumsnet! Perhaps you will initially have to over look some transgressions and play along nicely (permit yourself three bad strikes and then zero tolerance) as that may be more agreeable for your own long term sanity than to have neighbours from hell on day one and forever having to defend your actions etc.

[Jaxhog]

I sympathize. With your neighbour. We had a very expensive dressing applied to ours, and our neighbour's 'gardener' did what you did. We tried to stop him, but to no avail. This transferred all of his moss back onto ours. Now we have an uneasy truce about the grass. and have to monitor his 'agrdener', who has been told to mind us too. We are great friends in everything else though!

You must NEVER mow your neighbours grass! Now fences...

[Mushypeasandchipstogo]

It is too late in the season to scarify grass. Tell him I said so !

[RedDiamond]

@nancybotwinbloom
You could write "you missed a bit" in salt and it will stop the grass growing where the salt is. But I have had a hard day and I've been dealing with fuckers like this since work started.

YOU MADE MY NIGHT! Thank you! 🤣😂🤣

[didireallysaythat]

The lady died....so we were told

Na. She's under the lawn. Pushing up the daisies.

[GimmeAy]

Well he'd have scarified the life outta me, let alone the poor lawn.
Lockdown has everyone a bit scarified I think.