Why do my neighbours insist on sitting in their front garden?

[vnk21]

I am sure this makes me unreasonable but the incessant noise is giving me the rage.

I WFH, in an upstairs room at the front of the house. Today it's about 26 degrees here so I have the windows open. And all I can here is next door.

There's currently an entire family of them outside (mum, dad, and various kids). The parents have garden chairs out in the front garden and the kids are kicking a ball around - all of them are making a load of noise. Plus every time anyone walks past they have to engage them in conversation.

The houses in this street have small front gardens, Theirs is paved, and the size of 1 large car. Their back garden is at least twice the size. Why would you not sit out there?!

I'm not expecting silence, but the incessant shouting/screaming is so bloody irritating - especially when one of them goes indoors and they carry out a yelled conversation from the house to outside! First thing this morning it was lovely, birdsong and (because it is a relatively busy road) cars going past. But their noise is far more irritating than cars going past.

There's no solution other than closing the windows (and sweating in the heat) is there? Or hoping for rain.

I appreciate it's only a week and the schools will be back next week (so at least I should get some quiet 9-3), but I'm concerned they're going to be like this for the whole 6 weeks holiday which will drive me mad!

There's your answer theres grass in the front and not in the back, kids are playing on it, they probably would prefer them to fall on the grass than a hard surface.

@wildchild554

There's your answer theres grass in the front and not in the back, kids are playing on it, they probably would prefer them to fall on the grass than a hard surface.

No, there's no grass in front. The front is a paved driveway.

There's no point moving to the back as at various times of the day the kids are all in the back garden, or between the two. Plus of course I don't have room for a large desk in other rooms which are rear facing but have existing purposes ie bedrooms, kitchen, lounge etc . If I worked on a laptop of course I could swap rooms at will, but I don't. So keeping the windows closed is the solution, with a fan when necessary. If I can find some comfortable headphones I will try those too.

It would annoy me too.
Is there no sun at the back? That's the only reason I can think of that they might sit at the front.

I can totally relate, my down the street neighbours are sun chasers . They start in the back garden , then when the sun goes they sit on the end of the cul de sac road outside their house then when the sun goes there they move all of their chairs and benches all the way up to the communal grass in front of my house right up the the steet and stay there sometimes until 2am. I see them as my personal house security guards at that time in the morning 😂

Get over yourself. The whole country has been locked up for months and the first bit of sunshine and freedom, your getting your knickers in a twist. If you were my neighbour I’d be bringing you some herbal tea to calm you down. Get some headphones on or move to a detached house in the country. Jeez let people have a bit of exposure will you.

Well, it seems to me that they're using their property for purposes that suit them (playing out front), and you're using yours for the purpose that suits you (WFH). Could you set up your work station at the back of your house? Or if you must stay at the front of the house, perhaps invest in an aircon unit, and keep the windows closed? I hope you find a workable solution - it's so hard to concentrate with lots of noise going on.

@Sandfairy69

Get over yourself. The whole country has been locked up for months and the first bit of sunshine and freedom, your getting your knickers in a twist. If you were my neighbour I’d be bringing you some herbal tea to calm you down. Get some headphones on or move to a detached house in the country. Jeez let people have a bit of exposure will you.

I agree!

I agree with other posters, they sound irritating and a bit inconsiderate, but they're entitled to use their gardens however they like.

Headphones, music, a fan, relocating your office if possible are all potential solutions.

Perhaps you could try building a rapport with your neighbours? They certainly seem to be open to chatting. We had a very similar situation with our next door neighbours - a house share of five twentysomethings + occasional boyfriends/girlfriends - who spent most of lockdown and beyond following the sun from the back to the front garden, sometimes partied loudly into the wee small hours and seemed to shout every conversation (we still "affectionately" refer to one of them as "Foghorn"!) We thought they were dickheads until we plucked up the courage to actually talk to them and let them know how their noise was getting to us and they were super apologetic. They even proactively set up a Neighbours WhatsApp group so we could let them know if they were getting too rowdy.

Maybe if you're on friendlier terms with next door you might feel more comfortable asking them to keep the noise to a minimum, even if the best they can manage is heading out back for an hour when you've got something particularly taxing to focus on.

I do sympathise though, noisy neighbours are the worst, even if they're sweet-natured!

'Get over yourself. The whole country has been locked up for months '

Well we've always been allowed to sit in our gardens so not sure what your point is.

They can sit out the front obviously just why not be considerate of the neighbours and do so without bellowing and making loads of noise?

Sounds annoying but not sure there’s anything you can do about it OP.

This is why people need to go back to the office

Earbuds or earplugs

You could always sit out the back.

I can sympathise, risking the wrath of all. It reminds me of a Christmas dinner the family had in a restaurant a few years ago. The restaurant set up two tables seating about 15 people each. The rest of the tables in the restaurant were empty and remained empty. We had to sit through our meal unable to speak to one another, because the table next to us, with a few more people was incredibly noisy, and I honestly cannot think that they could hear one another speak over the din. The restaurant manager did nothing, said nothing. The whole place was empty except for the two tables. It was a most painful experience. Some family members I had not seen since the previous dinner, and we just had to eat our meal with the din. I wondered why they did this, and why the restaurant manager did not ask them to quieten down. Perhaps they knew it would be useless.

I can imagine for the OP it is like living next door to a school playground.

Some people have a great desire to draw attention to themselves. They also, like two year olds banging on saucepans, want to know your tolerance level. Try not to show it. If you can remain silent and not commend, chances are they will get fed up with it. If you say something, you may suffer throughout the coming summer holidays.

I dont see how it can be sunny in both at once.

My front flower beds gets the sun but my back yard never does because when the sun is on the front the house blocks the light and when the sun moves the surrounding buildings block the light making our yard useless but even without the other buildings the sun wouldnt be shining on both sides at once.

Empty vessels make most noise. That is the problem. And the emptiness they spout is excruciating. Common as muck but few people admit that that is the actual problem. These kinds of people are not going to sit outside quietly. I sympathise with OP.

@JaniieJones

'Get over yourself. The whole country has been locked up for months '

Well we've always been allowed to sit in our gardens so not sure what your point is.

They can sit out the front obviously just why not be considerate of the neighbours and do so without bellowing and making loads of noise?

It alot more fun to sit out in 26 degree sun now than in the pissing sleet and snow we had throughtout almost all the lockdown.

Trees deaden sound. Perhaps you can grow some which grow upwards rather than spread out - there is a column Berberis which has reddish brown leaves and flowers in the spring. So long as the trees do not spread over boundaries, you might find they help with the sound, but you will have to wait for them to grow for a year or two.

I would love to have a seating space in our front garden. Where I grew up, (not in this country), we all had space at the front to sit, play and talk with neighbours. My kids love going to where I grew up as they actually know my family's neighbours better than those here. Your neighbours sound like they need the connection to the outside world. I know this does not help you, but perhaps temporarily move to a new space? or headphones? It won't last long, but best be prepared for the summer.

Have you tried competitive noise from a radio? Perhaps they will see your side of it. If they are doing it to get attention, they will not succeed if your radio drowns their noise.

Are you Oop North? It's normal to sit in the front yard Oop North, so experience has taught me.. so perhaps you're the odd one

Set up a sound system with the speakers outside and play classical music at high volume; Ride of the Valkyries, Queen of the Night, Radetzsky March 🤣 Any suggestions MNers?

I agree with you, it winds me up as well when people insist on sitting in their front gardens in full view of everyone, and creating a disturbance in the street, when they have perfectly reasonable back gardens. I'm quite a private person myself, so I wouldn't even want to sit at the front. Most people seem to share this view, as you only ever see about one family doing this in an entire block.

It's a cultural norm in council areas isn't it? Perhaps it's just what they are used to? For the social aspect I assume.

Not in the north, we're in Greater London.

Very much not the norm in the local area to sit in the front garden, I've not seen anyone else do it where they have a back garden too (typically in our town most houses have relatively small front gardens of only a car length or just over, but much larger rear gardens of 50ft or more.