Our garden is not the cause for the lack of sale

[maoiBYRD]

Neighbours have just blamed me because our garden is a mess. That’s why they can’t get their sale for the flat upstairs.

They are selling for 10 grand over the asking price. You can get a three bed in the next road for 5 grand less, they are going with an online estate agent and you have to do viewings yourself. We are in the middle of a pandemic and no one is buying at the moment.

I’m currently clearing the flower bed of the “jungle” of wild flowers, potatoes and garlic that I created with my little girl, and trying to find a scrap man to take away the bikes and scooters and wondering how how I “shape” a bush that we really want to keep because my mother planted it.

Would a neighbours garden really influence your purchase of a property?

Im digging up the unsightly veg bushes. I will clear the garden. We don’t have any rotting cars or rat nests. It was just a bit overgrown with wild flowers and veg. :(

@megletthesecond

can I just add I would also judge a sterile garden without any dandelions, daisies and nothing for wildlife. Although it wouldn't put me off. But they probably wouldn't be my kind of people.

I don't know whether this is a serious post or not 🤔

YABU

I would not be put off. I am far happier to see overgrown gardens than concrete or astroturf which are awful for flooding, inhospitable to birds and insects, as well as being ugly.

I'm surprised at the number of posters who are happy to have a view of their neighbours junk in their back gardens

Strongly suspect these are the folks with gardens which are shit tips. So just saying they are happy when they themselves are the culprits.

can I just add I would also judge a sterile garden without any dandelions, daisies and nothing for wildlife

We don’t have dandelions because my husband pulls them out. We have daisies but our garden is well kept, it’s also three acres and full of plants that attract bees, butterflies etc . You don’t need to be living in a shit tip to attract wild life, trust me on that, scooters, bikes, dog shit and weeds are not The or the only favourite of wildlife.

If what you Mean is “my garden is a hot mess and I like folks whose garden is also a hot mess as it makes me feel less embarrassed” just say so...

this it's serious. Can't bear a sterile garden. Tidy =good. Weedless and primped = not great.

I get what you mean @megletthesecond. We have a neighbour with plastic grass . I think it looks 🤢. (Apologies to all owners of plastic grass on here - personal taste and all that)!

Some assumptions here! I don’t think that a woman who developed a veg patch with her child, and had her mum plant a bush, is the sort of woman who retains a junkyard also!

The neighbours may have overpriced their flat and are now lashing out about a garden that isn’t “manicured” because it’s stuck on the market due to their own foolishness. Is that not possible?

@bigblonde artificial grass makes you feel sick? Really? How strange

A messy neighbour's garden would absolutely affect a sale. I don't know where you are but the housing market is really buoyant at the moment. I think also one of their issues is using an online estate agent - they are absolutely useless.

Yes, that's right, that's what I meant. I literally vomit when I see plastic grass.

Ok, not really. I just think it is revolting stuff. Especially when someone has a lawn there already and they dig it up to put it down. It symbolises everything which is wrong with the human race to me and does make me feel a tad disgusted if not literally nauseous.

@megan2018

Well you just described my nwighbours house, peeling window paint and untidy garden....but he is retired and quiet, no parties, no loud music.....

So there goes your assumption on what type of person they are.

I'll take that over over him having perfect window frames and perfect garden but having loud parties and making lots of noise anyway.

Infsct my neighbours to the right, they maintain their garden yet are out at 7am in the morning having loud conversations even on a Sunday! They also have form for doing lengthy video calls in their garden and slamming their back kitchen door every time they go through.

So there you have it, people shouldn't be too judgemental.

"🎵 Oooohhhh ba, ba, ba! Took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum 🎵"

Ahem, sorry !

Op I’d get rid of the scrap but have the rest how YOU like it. It is, after all, your garden.
If you like it to be a bit wild and don’t want to trim the bush into a shape then don’t. As long as it isn’t posing a risk or like shameless Id do what you please.
Shocked at how many people feel it’s unreasonable to live how you want to in your own home in order to support the neighbours sale
Before anyone points out that I must be a scruff too, I like my garden to have a bit of wild. I don’t mind some over grown bushes and Ivy.. I plant veg and have fruit trees and my kids have built dens on occasion. It might not look picture perfect but it’s my garden and my home.

[quote LST]@bigblonde. Well nice to know how disgusted you are with me for wanting a nice garden for my dc. I am disabled so can't cut a lawn. But hey. I am what is wrong with the human race. GFY.[/quote]
Certainly not disgusted with you ! That's quite a different scenario.

Putting it down because it doesn't look perfect enough, au natural, symbolises everything wrong with the human race, to me.

Hope that clarifies.

And, I'm sure the owners of manicured gardens, plastic or otherwise, wouldn't like my taste very much either 🤷‍♀️.

Would a neighbours garden really influence your purchase of a property?

Definitely would! Who wants to look at a mess near them when they are paying thousands for their dream home.

The market is moving fast where I live.

Yeah, a neighbours mess garden would put me off.

@cyclingmad get off your high horse. People judge, it’s what keeps mumsnet going.

A person with a decrepit house might be lovely or they may not. But it’s a risk. Of two otherwise comparable properties I’d pick the tidy, well kept neighbours. It’s a lottery but you gave to think of resale too.

We all judge each other. The end.

@LST

BigBlondeBimbo clearly didn’t mean to cause offence to someone who has artificial grass out of necessity so that seems over the top. And of course plastic grass is a bit fugly and bad for nature. But obviously very practical in your circumstances.

The flat is overpriced and can't be viewed properly during the pandemic. The state of your garden is just the final straw.

@nancyjuice7

It would bother me as the buyer and it would bother me as the seller upstairs. Tidy your garden if it's a mess, even more so if other people have to overlook it.

Clearly scrap bikes and scooters can be taken the tip you don't need to wait for a scrap man.
Secondly, she hasn't asked you to chop down the bush but if it's over grown and all shabby then you should be shaping it. For your own sake and for theirs.

No, no, no.

Yes gardens and homes in disarray would play a factor for me.

Are you accountable and expected to do anything about it? Absolutely not. If he's so desperate say that you're happy for him to pay a gardener for you to instruct.

But I personally wouldn't be in a hurry to sort it for the neighbours benefit. Do it only fo your family when it's convenient.

[quote GalesThisMorning]@Ginfordinner No. What does it have to do with me? I don't sit out in other people's gardens, I enjoy my own. I have a fence either side. How could it possibly affect me?[/quote]
No problem if their mess causes rats and vermin then?

My garden's a bloody mess (the Junior Engineer dug and planted a wild garden for wildlife, it has brambles in it and nettles for butterflies - fight me?) We also have a log pile for bugs and a pond.
No junk, but plenty of assorted and weird wildflowers, not all of which are pretty or small. (Fout foot high teasel plants - goldfinches love the seeds.)
If someone said "oh your garden is a jungle" I'd tell them we had hedgehogs, frogs, toads, a breeding newt population, dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies, swallows, sparrows, nesting jackdaws, finches, and altogether too many kinds of bugs and beasties to count. And right now they are of more ecological significance than the sort of tidy but nature-sterile environment that's contributed towards the decline of many native species.

Next door, on the other hand, have just cut down a 50 year old apple tree in order to put decking down. It looks lovely and I hope they get a good deal of pleasure out of sitting in it.

@BigBlondeBimbo, I agree. I'm afraid, extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, I judge people that put in fake grass and I'd like to see it banned. There are all kinds of interesting low-to-ground wild flowers that you can sew / plant so you don't need to mow - better for wildlife, better for the environment, better for water run-off and flood prevention. The new trend for fake grass makes me think of Thneedville in The Lorax.