Housing association/communal garden

[Lwilson96]

Hey everyone, am I being unreasonable?

i have been living in a Housing Association flat for a short while. We’re on the top floor and overlook a communal garden.

the garden has always been covered in rubbish from old furniture to burner bins full of shit so I’ve never used it because it’s unsafe for my toddler.

recently one of our bottom floor neighbours decided the garden would be used as her own (she had a little space beforehand) but cleared it up, has multiple pets too and put up pebble dash, washing line a trampoline, a sun lounger you name it, and literally put up this divider thing to create her own garden as were next to a house there’s no access to her bit apart from her back door.

It feels a bit inconsiderate as we could have all chipped in and made a genuinely nice communal space for all the little ones in the block. It seems a bit like “fuck everyone else I’ll only make it nice if this can be my space”

I feel like I don’t want to complain to the HA as it might seem obvious it’s me and make my life difficult as I’m at home more than my partner. She can say no one else uses it, but the main reason being it was always trashed and unsafe/full of old toys.
Is this even allowed surely not?

i don’t want to sound like a Karen but that’s a shared space and we all pay the same rent

Why didn't you look to put together a community project before she cleaned it up and started using it?

You can't complain that she has cleared an area of the communal garden and is using it. If you want to use the garden stop being lazy and start clearing it up and doing your fair share of the gardening

There's no such thing as a Karen.

...however, YANBU. But the answer is in your hands. Instruct your housing association that they have to keep access open to everyone, and then do your bit to keep the space nice.

So why didn't you do anything about it to make it usable? Only when she took the initiative, then you want to enjoy it too? that's not nice of you.

Have you actually been told by your neighbour not to use it or are you just assuming she will say this?

What she said.

If no-one could be "bovvah'd" then you reap what you (didn't) sow.

Yes to be honest she may now be claiming space as her own due to the non interest of others wanting to tidy the area .
But I'm not sure she can deny anyone access as it's communal it would be covered by a service charge I'm guessing

Oh and your unreasonable for using the term karen

Pop down introduce yourself and say - I’d love to help keep the space clear if I can use it too

I don't think she's doing anything wrong. She can't trust others to keep the communal area clean and safe so she's cornered a bit off to use. If others are jealous then they need to pull their finger out!

Why don't you go and clean up the rest of it and use that?

Go tidy another section of it if you fancy. Karen is a horribly misogynistic term; please find another way of expressing yourself.

So she has cleaned up the bit by her back door and is using it but the rest of the garden is still a mess but you want to use the bit she has cleared up and furnished. How about you clear up the rest of the garden and furnish it and use that.

YABU for using the term karen.

What are the HA rules regarding the use of the communal garden?

Communal gardens are for everyone. Where I lived before we paid a service charge in with our rent and the council cut the grass in our garden and kept it nice. If people left toys out it was understood any kids could play with it. 1 brought a trampoline and all the kids used it. 1 put up a pool and all the kids used it.

It feels a bit inconsiderate as we could have all chipped in and made a genuinely nice communal space for all the little ones in the block.
But no one did did they? Sounds like she’s the only one to put any effort in even if she’s being a CF.

Please don't use the term Karen. It just reinforces the idea that women shouldn't complain and it's insulting.

So now someone else has done all the hard work your miffed that they have sectioned it off so you can’t use it when you did nothing to make any of it usable. While she may be cheeky to fence it off she’s the only resident who’s given a toss and now your jealous.

report her by all means or tidy a section up yourself. You may even find she rang the HA and got permission to section some off since it’s such a mess and it won’t affect ownership because the HA own it all.

I am in a similar situation, one neighbour planted flowers and other plants and refers to the communal garden as her garden. Not only that but had to ask her permission to sit there. After telling her that I like her garden and even my cat likes the garden she proceeded to tell me that she puts down poison to kill the neighbourhood cats. If I complain about the poison she will know its me and she is not the sort of person to cross. I can't stop my cat going out into the garden as he only goes out once a week during the summer months and the garden is his safe space, he is mainly indoors(uses the litter box never outside) he doesn't leave the garden and only goes out for 30 minutes. I'm also worried that if I complain she may retaliate by killing my cat.

I learnt this the hard way I brought a trampoline for the kids in.the block to use it was there a week before the housing association removed it for health and safety reasons.

for all the little ones in the block.

Why are “the little ones” taking priority here?

YABU because you want to reap the benefits of her hard work.
YNBU because you pay for usage of that land in your rent.

Don't go straight to complaining that is being a bad neighbour, let her know you'd like to use the garden. If she says no then complain.
Also if you are going to complain don't be so scared of it, own it.

I don't know why people are so scared of speaking to their neighbours and being scared to complain about behaviour that is anti-social.

Thought we had got past the Karen think . Still some fools prepared this insult blameless women. This is getting very old now