AIBU to want a little more garden privacy

[Wingit01]

We recently moved into a new house and I love it but I’d really like some more privacy in the back garden as the fences are only about 3ft tall. We mentioned to the neighbour that we wanted to put up a taller fence and he was really offended and started saying how it was never an issue for the people before .
It’s a small village and they have a lot of friends and family in it and they are lovely people to stop and chat to so don’t want to cause too many problems but I just feel my back garden is open for all to see as they have a lot of visitors too.
Should I just leave as is or go ahead and put new fence up???

I would hate this! I live in a gff so already hate the fact neighbours from upstairs can look in etc (nothing I can do about it though) would definitely get a bigger fence in your situation

Can you plant a hedge that will grow so in a couple of years you will have privacy?

More tactful way to do it would be to put up a tall trellis and say you want to grow something along it.

I currently live in a new build estate and hate the fact that every house opposite me can see into my garden and front room! We’re now moving and the house we’re moving has a private garden so we actually have some privacy! Definitely see if you can get a higher fence, 3ft is nothing!

3ft is so short. Just put up a proper height fence. Then just make sure you are polite and friendly whenever you see him so he knows it isn’t personal.

We had this as our ground floor flat garden is at the front of the block so any passers by could see in.
We completely overhauled the garden and put up a 6ft fence (which doesn’t look as high as it sounds). The neighbours above us overlook our garden and hate the fact we now use our garden whereas before it was an unusable wasteland. I frequently hear them bitching about our garden but I couldn’t care less.
Go for it

Put up a fence and say you are getting a dog and they can jump over. Then when asked about the dog start crying and say you can't afford it

YANBU - we have a low garden wall, only about 4ft, and our newish neighbours want to put a higher fence running above it, which I expect will happen in spring now. I'm not at all offended - the house used to be bedsits and they didn't use the garden much, I quite like the low wall but at the same time I totally get they might prefer greater privacy.

My (chatty) husband wondered if they didn't like him talking to them over the wall but I said honestly I didn't think it was anything personal and it's understandable they might want to feel less overlooked.

@user19990

Great idea, ...or a crocodile.

If you want to be a bit more subtle so as not to cause an issue plant/pot some bamboo. It grows very quickly gives all year coverage and there are no restrictions on height 😉.

My neighbour was also keen to keep the fence between us low - in fact it was wire and therefore a useless boundary. She's also a nice woman and I didn't want to offend her. Fortunately she had a pond and I had a small child living with me so a proper fence had to be installed for safety reasons...

Not sure if any of that works for you? And we now have a dog too so I'm sure she's very grateful that he only rampages through our borders!

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles haha!

It depends a bit on what is there already. Like if neighbours only have a lawn then fair enough put up a tall fence, but if they have a thriving vegetable garden or sunny patio area which your new tall fence would throw into total shade and make unusuable, then it is mean to put a fence in that kinda location.

In my old house a third of our garden was a dark slimy patio which was unusable cos after it was built, both neighbours put up 2m fences and as the garden was only 12 ft wide it got pretty shady on our patio!

Other thing to bear in mind is the planning permission height limit starts from the lowest side. So if you put up a 2m fence from your ground level but your neighbour’s side is a bit lower, they can make you take the fence down...

I had this and bought some large plants to fill up the space. I spent about £400 on 5 nice shrubs that were already about 4-5ft tall and a few smaller ones that would grow quite quickly like buddleja and fill up the spaces. Managed to avoid upsetting the neighbours as when we planted them they could still see in, but it only took one summer to get them tall enough for privacy, and it looks nice for us too.