To be slightly pissed off by neighbour's window cleaner (Inc diagram!)

[Everybodyneedsgood]

NC as I'm worried this is a bit outing...

OK so first some background. We moved to a lovely village a couple of years back. It's the type if place you settle and stay forever so has a lot of retired people but is starting to come back round to young families as the original owners are downsizing/moving to care homes etc. We have 3 kids (10, 9 & 6) who honestly are lovely, not saints but respectful and well mannered. We have had comments from lots of neighbours who have said how lovely it is to see children playing again and also how they can't believe how quiet they are. They do make noise obviously but I absolutely wont have them screaming or having a temper tantrum, if that happens they come indoors until they can play nicely again.

One of our next door neighbours (all detatched houses) clearly dislike kids. They are in their 40's with none of their own and I get it, they preferred the widow in her 80's who lived here before. They have made a few snarky comments about the Christmas lights we put up, the kids playing in the garden and another neighbour talking to us at the end of the drive in the middle of the day! However we have kept things civil and in the grand scheme of things they don't really bother us. It's a bit of a weird set up in that we have a very long front garden and their house is set forward to ours so the side of their house runs parallel to our drive

The other day, I was unloading shopping from the car and their window cleaner pulls up and parks over our drive. When he notices me he asked if it would be a problem and I said no, I wasn't going back out for ages (not really relevant but just to show I'm not a nob about things). After a few minutes, he walks up my drive, places his ladder in my flower bed and starts to clean the 3 windows that overlook our drive! For some reason this has really pissed me off, I was there, he could have asked to enter my property and I would have said it was fine but to just ignore me like he has a right to use my flower bed and potentially crush anything I was growing just really wound me up. I geared up to go and say something then wondered if I really was being a pathetic busy body (and potentially overly annoyed due to their rudeness in the past) as there is no other way to clean their windows without coming on my drive. So I thought I'd draw a diagram and ask you lot 😂

Fwiw I am not going to start a war about this but we are thinking of doing up the boarders soon with planters and I'm not sure I want ladders propped up against them if we do plus his ladder was also alongside my car and could have damaged it so I'm kind of wondering whether I'd be within my rights (morally, I'm pretty sure window cleaning isnt considered maintenance legally) later to tell him not to do this? If it matters their windows are privacy glass and looked perfectly clean anyway!

Would it bother you or was it just a bit of a slow day for me? 😁

This is 2 separate things. Sure the neighbours are a bit U to find you noisy etc. Maybe you are, maybe you're not. They are hardly waging war.

What their window cleaner does is the window cleaner's issue. Why didn't you just go out and say " that will be 30 quid for ruining my flower bed?" or just go out and tell him to find a solution that doesn't ruin your flower bed?

TBH if the window cleaner is a bit on my path to clean the neighbour's windows, i don't really care. If he's ruining my flowerbeds? I'm going to say something.

I imagine he’s been doing it for years and you just haven’t been at home to see it. I can’t see how putting the two small base pieces of a ladder could ruin a flower bed. I suspect if you got on with your neighbours you wouldn’t give it a second thought.

I would expect the window cleaner or the neighbours to have asked permission,just common courtesy.

Put a hedge up along the border
Your neighbours sound like twats
Talking on the drive in the middle of the day? Tell em to get a grip!!

I'd go round there and ask them to ask their window cleaner not to come into your garden as the ladder ruins your flower beds.

How do your windows on that other side get washed? Does the cleaner you have use next doors driveway (other next door?) is there something in the deeds about access to clean windows/ repairs etc?

.... Just to add to my previous message above - he should have asked and he should use the driveway for his ladder as you may have plants or bulbs under the ground that may be damaged (had you agreed to him using the driveway to access the windows that is )

Thanks everyone. Not sure why people are still asking why I didn't go out and say something when I have said 3 times now (over only 2 pages) why?? but I think you are right that it has more to do with my feelings about next door. I will say something next time though just so I've made it clear for when we do sort that bit out but will do so politely (again if I'd have said something at the time it may have come out rude so probably best I've taken some time to think).
@Georgeskitchen Yeah they are! But pretty harmless twats I guess given its 3 moans (to our face!) in 2 years hence why I'm keen to not start something. My neighbour I was talking to though certainly wasn't shy about telling her to eff off when she had a go!

For those who asked, we don't pay a window cleaner so no we don't use him too and we actually don't have windows to the side of our house. It's 2 different styles of houses round us, our style which is face on with windows from and back, and theirs which is sort of side ways on (door to the side) and indows all round. From what it looks like, I think 2 of the 3 windows are bathrooms upstairs and down and again our bathrooms are all to the back

*all to the back - sounds like we live in a mansion! I meant both, upstairs and downstairs loo