Neighbour seems to think he has the right to jump our fence

[Twatforaneighbour]

We moved in about 3 years ago and put up a fence on top of an existing low height wall (which we own) across the front of our front garden which has a footpath the other side. We got planning to do this.

One of our neighbours had an issue with this, because his adult son (early 20s) liked to walk across our front garden and hop over our wall to save him from walking around. He put in a complaint when we went for planning saying that if the fence went up, we would need to make it safe as his son would be climbing over! The council made no comment on this.

This has made it inconvenient for him as it adds 5 mins walking time to walk down the road and up the public footpath. Since the fence went up, we clarified with the neighbour (the dad) that this was our property and our fence/wall, to make 100% sure there was no misunderstanding with who owns what, which he agreed.

We have now got video from our ring doorbell of "someone" walking across our garden and jumping the fence. It is unlikely to be anyone else as we are at the end if a small road.

What would you do? Trespassing is not a criminal offence. So far we cannot for sure identify the person as it was at night and not a great image.

They obviously see no issue with doing it so speaking to them wont help, Considered anti climb spikes but have seen you can be liable if trespasser gets injured on your property.
WIBU to get spikes if I put a warning with it?
Any suggestions? If he keeps doing it, it will end in damage to the fence and probably us paying for it

@Santaischeckinglists
Is Glaswegian.

Either you put up and shut up. Or you use anticlimb paint. Spikes should not be allowed as cats get caught on them as do people. Imagine going outside and finding a young person stabbed through the groin on your fence because of a dare! Or a line of cats hung by their collars. Anti climb paint needs 2 signs on a domestic fence - 1 at each end of the fence. And it ruins clothes only, so 1 time over the fence, the person stops unless they have far too much money.

Flimsy trellis is a good idea. That way it will get damaged easily and quickly, I'm pretty sure he'd get fed up of being done for criminal damage, having to pay compensation a fine and court costs. Not to mention the criminal conviction on his record. Also you could install an angled piece of fencing overhanging on your side. This would eliminate or at the very least make it extremely difficult to climb over. The goal is to make it more effort than it's worth to take the shortcut through your private property.

How do you prove that you have been trespassing on private property for 12 years. Without admission of guilt and basically incriminating and condemning yourself. Wouldn't this be a bit of a "cutting your nose off to spite your face" situation.

Berberis. Nice thorny hedge perfect for wildlife as well. Just buy one plant and take lots of cuttings and in a while you will have an hedge that no man nor animal can get through. Good for security too. Just make sure you keep it clipped back from the footpath. You could also dig up the grass along where he nips in and make sure its dug up and nice an muddy so it will get his shoes in a mess should he decide to cut through while its growing.

I had an open plan front garden and got a fence put in. No more dog turds, people wandering across the grass thinking its a public park/area and now I can grow things that wont get trampled on by goofballs! I found that the wildlife/animals tended to get used to it far quicker than some humans who seemed to think they had a god given right to trample across whenever they wanted.

@Twatforaneighbour - so what have you decided to do about the situation?

I’d go with the trellis. Not expensive, little maintenance an can look really nice with a climbing (thorny) rose. It will increase the height but because it’s not solid it shouldn’t affect planning rules. All round difficult to climb

@Muchmorethan Ive ordered some roses and am going to dig a wide flower bed all along the fence line so he will get muddy and prickled! I plan to dig it quite deep so sits below the grass level. I think it will look quite nice in the summer with different colour roses.

Also going to put the trellis up as PP said it will be annoying to get over and I can then go with the criminal damage route if he still tries to jump it, without getting too annoyed if its broken (i'll get the fairly cheap stuff).

@Mirw - I was actually thinking more along the lines of the short plastic cat deterrent spikes to make it uncomfortable to pull himself up on rather than spikes he could impale himself on, he's annoying but not that annoying!

Roses like horse manure...

That sounds like a plan! Looking forward to the CF landing in horseshit 😄

Honey and Turmeric over my walls did the trick. The kids from a neighbouring estate used my garden as a shortcut in the summer, this did the trick and within 2 weeks, no more shortcuts over my garden.

It sounds like a good plan. I think whatever you get, you need plausible deniability. That it was nothing to with him and just to keep out stray cats or just to stop birds pooing on your wall. Anything like that and you won't have problems if he complains to the police. The trellis and roses sound perfect!