AIBU to ask again for neighbours to move their trampoline

[Jynxed]

My well being and happiness are being severely impacted by my neighbours noisy children. They scream, argue, shout and kick footballs at the fence all day long. They only have one volume and it’s loud. The whole family just shout at each other. Last year they got an enormous trampoline and positioned it right up against (their) fence bordering our garden. We are a terrace row, but each house is staggered, so our back doors are not aligned. Our back door and patio area is about a third of the way up their lawn. We were aghast when the neighbours chose to position their trampoline right in line with our back door and patio table, where I also have lots of pots and plants. When the kids use the trampoline they stand higher than the fence and stare straight into our kitchen window, and they used to call out to us all the time until we asked them to stop. The noise and shouting makes the patio unusable, and as I write this yet another ball has come flying over. I darent go and look as I heard something smash. We can no longer eat or read at the table because of the noise and the risk of a ball hitting you on the head. We did ask them not to put the trampoline there, and brought them round to show them how much it over shadowed our patio and removed all privacy. They declined to reposition it saying that there was nowhere else in their 80ft garden they could put it. Given that there is nothing in their garden apart from lawn and garden toys this is blatantly untrue, so I have no idea why it cannot move a few feet away from our patio door. What do I do now? Ask again? Beg and cry? Puncture every ball that comes over and wrecks a plant? Write a letter? Build a cage over our table to protect ourselves? How can I make them understand what they are doing to us? For context, I do have kids myself, all teenagers now, so I do understand that children need to play. However mine were brought up not to scream and shout, and I would not have dreamt of refusing a reasonable request from neighbours such as this.

[justfiveminutes]

My friend had a similar experience. One night it inexplicably burnt down.

[Cr3ateAUsername]

Whilst I understand your frustration I don’t think there’s anything you can do. They refused the first time you asked. And the noise is just what comes with kids.

[MadMadMadamMim]

Send them a bill for whatever they've smashed and puncture the ball.

[dizzygirl1]

I'm exactly the same. My neighbours children are LOUD... so much so that I can't spend a lot of time outside and even the kids avoid being out there.
I can understand them throwing theor kids outside all day every day, it's loud outside and horrendous so what it must be like in an enclosed space ..... 🤯🤯😵
But I think they are beyond selfish really.

[TigerLilyTail]

You can ask but i doubt they will care.

Is there any way for you to screen them off? Can you build a gazebo type thing on your patio? It won't help with the noise though.

You have my sympathies but I don't think there is much you can do.

[SunshineAndFizz]

Tricky one. They don't really need to move it if they don't want to. You've asked very nicely so I'm not sure if asking again would do much good. Unless they have broken something - good timing to ask them again to move it.

Could you build a fence on your side that's higher?

[gunnersgold]

I would get those big trellis bushes and plant them along side the patio so it's higher and covers the fence ! I hate trampolines !

[picklemewalnuts]

Do you also have an 80 foot long garden? That would give you some room for manoeuvre. Basically the conditions around which you arranged your garden have changed, much as if they'd planted a big tree that shaded your favourite bench.

My garden is two 5m squares, so I don't have much room for rearranging!

[MzHz]

@justfiveminutes

My friend had a similar experience. One night it inexplicably burnt down.

Damn! 🔥

[purplepaintedpineapple]

I think I'd be putting a 3ft solid trellis on top of the fence and then putting something sharp on top of that... or starting a very smoky BBQ the other side of the fence every time they get on the trampoline...

[VerifiedBot2351]

As a pp said, now is the perfect time to ask again if shoe thing has been broken.

[BlueOverYellow]

Complain to your local council. There are actually restrictions on how close to boundaries trampolines can be placed when they imping on privacy in this manner. I know people who have gone this route and have been successful in getting them moved.

Our neighbours stupidly put one next to the fence, too, overlooking our patio and into our living room. We told them it needed to be moved because of the way their children stood on it and stared at us and talked to us and left us with not privacy. They tried to argue, so we just started correcting their children every single time they stood on it to look over the fence/talk to/at us, firmly telling them to turn around, they were being rude. It was moved within a week.

[BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation]

Don't hand anything back that goes over into your garden. Just deny it ever did come over.

Extend the height of your fence with trellis panels - the new sturdy kind, not the old fashioned flimsy stuff. Plant some none spreading bamboo. It grows quickly and is high.

Re noise: get a mosquito sound deterrent and play Vivaldi or Mozart in the garden - those types are allergic to it and will flee indoors lest they become contaminated by harmful culture 😃

Seriously, get a mosquito.

[SmudgeButt]

Start gardening and sunbathing in the nude or doing more rude things out there. If they want something to look at you might as well give them a show.

[Shehasadiamondinthesky]

NO this noise isn't typical with kids. My DS didn't scream the whole day long
He was taught manners. If he wanted to run and scream I took him to the park to let off steam. Its poor parenting and very selfish.
I'll tell them the noise is unacceptable and to move the trampoline.
I had to sell my last house because after 10 years of next doors 5 kids screaming all day I had a breakdownwhst about night shift workers and people working long hours who need peace in the evenings.

[worraliberty]

Realistically the only thing you can do is keep the blinds closed on your kitchen window when they're on the trampoline, and put a net up to try and stop the footballs going over.

They're not going to move the trampoline are they?

[BonnesVacances]

I'd be looking at getting one of those high pitched things that only young DC can hear. And switching it on when the DC are on the trampoline. They'll soon stop using it then.

Defo keep anything that comes over the fence.

[WouldBeGood]

Oh, @Jynxed you are not being unreasonable. But a lot of parents today seem to be so entitled about their DCs right to play/make noise/be a pain in the arse. Mine are teenagers but like you i was always strict about them not upsetting the neighbours, and it was reciprocated.

Where I live now there are screaming children behind me who climb on a swing set over looking my garden and screech constantly. The big children across from me who play basketball in the evening which echoes off the houses, despite them having a massive garden on the other side.

my requests for peace have fallen on deaf ears, so I can’t help, but feel your pain

[worraliberty]

@purplepaintedpineapple

I think I'd be putting a 3ft solid trellis on top of the fence and then putting something sharp on top of that... or starting a very smoky BBQ the other side of the fence every time they get on the trampoline...

You can't attach a trellis to the top of someone else's fence.

[LeevMarie]

Definitely not BU. I hate trampolines.

I wouldn't return anything at all that comes over your fence in future. Consideration works both ways.

[Cauliflowersqueeze]

Hi agree with those high pitched mosquito things. Deny it of course. They are perfectly legal.

mosquitoloiteringsolutions.com/

[BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation]

If the fence isn't yours then you can erect your own running parallel to yours, but make yours higher - you can go up to 2 metres in back gardens. Bamboo will grow higher than that. The fence will block some of the noise too.

[BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation]

Parallel to theirs that should read.

[Jynxed]

Walnuts - we do also have 80ft, although only 20 ft wide. Typical terrace house long thin strips. (I know, we are lucky, but I wouldn’t mind bigger - gardening is my thing 😊) I have thought about rearranging our garden. But the patio and the house are fixed, so we can’t move that sitting area. I have started to sit on a bench in our veg garden at the end, but there is no space for a table there unless I gave up on veg and removed the greenhouse. The central part of the garden is lawn with wide flower beds, which I could remove for a table, but it would make me very sad to loose my growing space. I think moving would be preferable.

[cuppygup]

higher fence? bill them for breakages? screening? I do think you have to expect some noise with neighbours though, one of mine is a fan of DIY every weekend drilling or cutting something up.