Neighbour has built a bar

[Julshk73]

My neighbour has spent the last three months building every night beyond 10pm. Sawing hammering, no use of my garden this year so far. Yesterday they unwrapped their new building.

It's a bar.

On a raised platform.

That looks right into my daughters bedroom.

She is terrified as a preteen as grown men were staring in all day yesterday.

Then the drinking began.

Until 3am we couldn't even hear our tv for the shouting screaming and chanting.

The council noise team aren't working due to covid. The police don't answer calls anymore on 101 (we tried several times on advice of the council).

What can I do?

My daughter is extremely distressed at losing her privacy and I cannot deal with parties that go on until 3am that are so loud we have no respite.

Help?

Why are you “@“ing OP the FB screengrab? Are you trying to embarrass her? Intimidate her? Weird

I assumed it was to let the OP know quickly that people on FB are talking about her post?

@RickiTarr absolutely neither, it seemed like the polite thing to do, to give the OP a heads up that this is being discussed elsewhere. If it was me, I’d absolutely want to know that any advice being received or any comments being shared may be seen by my neighbour.

This is useless without pictures OP. Honestly, if it were me I'd be straight round there, smashing up their fucking bar shouting the odds. Nobody gets to upset my DD & get away with it. I'm the aggressive type though & don't advise doing that. What I do suggest is getting one of the battery-powered ring cameras. We have several & they're quite good. Get some of that window film stuff, but in the meantime shut her blinds/curtains.

@LonginesPrime

Why are you “@“ing OP the FB screengrab? Are you trying to embarrass her? Intimidate her? Weird

I assumed it was to let the OP know quickly that people on FB are talking about her post?

But she’d already said it once, a few posts up.

Seemed a bit aggressive to keep banging on about a FB group. It’s not the Daily Mail. Who cares what a garden bar group think?

[quote Biscoffin]@RickiTarr absolutely neither, it seemed like the polite thing to do, to give the OP a heads up that this is being discussed elsewhere. If it was me, I’d absolutely want to know that any advice being received or any comments being shared may be seen by my neighbour.[/quote]
EVERYTHING posted on Mumsnet has an evens chance of being discussed on Reddit or Facebook or WhatsApp or somewhere. The only question is whether the group will be open or secret.

In the shortterm, Dunelm do some modern voiles for privacy. IKEA do double curtain rails so you can have the voiles mounted behind the curtains.

Take a look at the Eufy camera system. They are battery powered and a charge lasts 3-6 months and the data is stored on a hub in your home. You can also have a video doorbell linked up to the same system. Much cheaper than Ring as no subscription required and the quality is excellent.

www.amazon.co.uk/Security-eufyCam-Wireless-Weatherproof-Compatible/dp/B07W4MY7HL?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

@RickiTarr it’s an open group, with over 280k members.

Okay so it’s an open FB group. A good proportion of the content of Mumsnet gets shared round FB. 🤷🏻‍♀️

"you can say that you are very worried that he built the bar with direct view into her bedroom window because he must be a paedophile"

Are you fucking kidding me? It's one thing to be pissed off at a neighbour having a party and making noise but to brand them a paedophile is fucking disgusting.

And do remember, OP did NOTHING about their apparent staring and did NOTHING when her daughter was terrified which if she were treated as other parents of abused children are who allowed it to happen would make her complicit.
OP's story has so many holes in it

I do think that he really might be a paedophile (or just completely stupid and thoughtless), and if he isn't then it won't hurt for him to have to prove that to them

Erm, that's not quite how the law works - it's innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent.

The police aren't going to ask him to prove he's not a paedophile because he built a bar in his garden!

I can absolutely see why OP and her DD are intimidated, but this idea is just bizarre.

I don't understand why people are suggesting he's a paedophile or illegally selling alcohol or drink driving out of nowhere - he doesn't need to be doing any of those things for the OP to report him through various avenues (planning, environmental health, police as appropriate), so there's no need to dream up weird excuses to report unreasonable behaviour as she already has valid reasons to take action.

I don't know why everyone's surprised this is being discussed anywhere else. is it in the Daily Mail yet?

I smell BS. Just a grumpy one who is jealous they have a bar and you dont.

😂 Why would someone be jealous of a bar in their back garden? It's just the latest 'thing' (it was hot tubs a couple of years ago) that a certain type of person seems to think is necessary to have in their garden.

Why do you think they can see in her room (unless of course she has the light on and curtains open) when its a North facing upstairs wondow and they are atground floor level

Next time the men at the bar look towards your daughter's window with more than a split second sweep whilst just looking around generally, then please call 999 immediately, this would be a safeguarding issue for any child's bedroom window, but your daughter is extra vunerable, and as your neighbour hid the structure until the last possible moment, you can say that you are very worried that he built the bar with direct view into her bedroom window because he must be a paedophile - any normal man would be far too worried to risk that charge, so I do think that he really might be a paedophile (or just completely stupid and thoughtless), and if he isn't then it won't hurt for him to have to prove that to them.
This is an incredibly disturbing post. Wtf??
Safeguarding issues when someone in next door's garden glances at your windows? They'll be asked to prove they're not fucking paedophiles?!
I'd ask for your post to be removed because it's made you look absolutely unhinged.

How about blinds for your daughter 🤷‍♂️ that would be a simple solution.

Also detect a slight jealously, why not go and ask to join the party instead of moaning and whinging. Typical jealous neighbour.

Alot of people here suggesting things but most ideas dismissed because you probably just like to moan.

Ring security solor camera would cost £100... No wires, powered by the sun and cheap... Go on say you don't get any sun

@Sparklingbrook

I don't know why everyone's surprised this is being discussed anywhere else. is it in the Daily Mail yet?

Exactly.

Our next-door-but-one neighbours have one of those patio-doored shed things like the OP posted, but as a dining area and deck not a bar. Took them months to build. It's at the bottom of their garden facing back towards their house.

Since we have been and eaten there, I can say that we could not see into the first floor windows of the neighbouring houses because the angle and height are wrong. I imagine if someone was stood right at their bedroom window, they could be seen, but otherwise not. You could see a bit into the immediate neighbours' kitchens because the walls between our gardens are not that high. Really, the people over the road have a far better view into our houses than the people sat on the deck at the back.

You can test what they can actually see by going to the same point in your garden and trying to look into your neighbours' first floor windows. There is a limit to how high the base/deck can be off the ground and it's not that high, probably slightly over the height of a chair if you want to test.

The noise is a different matter, but realistically, these few weeks are likely to be the most the bar is ever used because it's new and because the football is on.

Judging by some of the comments on that fb post you’re fighting a losing battle, OP.

@a8mint

It is probably a permitted development. The rules on height state 'Outbuildings must be single storey with a maximum eaves height of 2.5 metres and maximum overall height of 4 metres with a dual pitched roof, or 3 metres in any other case.

If the outbuilding is within 2 metres of the
property boundary the whole building should not exceed 2.5 metres in height.'

I cant imagine they can see anything in your dds first floor room unless she stands right up at the window.
The noise is another issue! Totally unacceptable!
Also ignore the terrible advice to, have a cctv Camera trained on their garden!! You will be liable under GDPR if you do that!

CCTV would be on her garden but would pick up items being thrown into her property

I’m not at all surprised that this is being discussed elsewhere. It’s a common courtesy, the same as of this was being picked up by the Daily Mail, to let the OP know.

Annehedonia, I can safely say, I have never posted in that group or interacted with a post in that group. I’d joined because my DH and I considered building a garden building for a small home gym and office when lockdown started.