We've lived next door to these neighbours for years. Know each other well enough to say hi, put bins out on holiday, but we're not friends. We've been using our garden in the same way for years. No changes on our side, nothing new.
We've come back from holiday to find neighbour has re-organised his home office and he now sits at a massive (open) window right on the boundary between our gardens. That must have been a spare bedroom before maybe, I don't know. We never saw anyone in it.
I sat outside at our patio table this morning to have a coffee and I could hear every word he said through his open window, could hear every word his colleagues said on their online meetings. He might as well have been sitting at the table with me. Not sure there's much I can do about that, he can use his house however he likes.
Ds10 and his pals are sitting outside at the table trading Pokemom cards. There's 4 of them, they are laughing and chatting but they're not shouting or being silly. And it's a sunny afternoon in the school holidays, they can be outside laughing in the garden if they want to be.
Neighbour has just come to the door to ask me if I can take them inside because he has a full afternoon of work meetings and their noise is distracting him.
I said "what, the whole afternoon? You want them to stay indoors all afternoon?"
He said completely straight-faced "I'll be working till 6.30pm"
I laughed and said "well no, that won't be possible".
At this point he said in a very slow, careful, mansplaining voice just in case I couldn't follow him "I don't think you understand. I have a Very Important Job. These are very important meetings. I negotiate multi-million dollar contracts every day, I need to be able to concentrate."
Seriously? I always though he was a bit of a twat but who talks like this? Who actually says "Very Important" like that? Twice? He has no idea what my job is or how important dh or I might be.
I just said "no, we'll carry on using our garden as we always have. Maybe you could close your window when you're needing to concentrate. And just so you're aware, I can hear you and your colleagues when your window is open, I hope you're not saying anything confidential. I must get on, thanks for doing the bins while we were away" then shut the door.
He's gone, I can hear him on his Very Important Meeting. I could join in, I can hear every word on both sides. I suspect he'll be back, probably when dh is back from work so they can talk man to man.
He's unsettled me though, he was so self-confident when he came to the door, so sure that he would get exactly what he wanted. How do you get that kind of confidence? I wish I had it. Or is it arrogance? He made me think I was in the wrong at first.
We love our garden, we use it all the time. I'm not sure how we'll deal with this one, but I wasn't BU by refusing to bring the kids inside, was I? He's the one who has made the change, not us. I don't think wfh is new for him, he was just somewhere else in his house before I guess. Now he's on top of our patio with his big booming voice. I feel quite sad about it, if he's there all day every day it's going to be awful.
AIBU?
To not accommodate Very Important Neighbour's new home office?
Knitwit101 · 09/08/2022 14:35
Am I being unreasonable?
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BlackbirdsSinging · 09/08/2022 15:08
A bit of consideration works both ways. I wish people would think of the other person as well as just themselves. Love thy neighbour and all that. It’s very sad how society is all about the individual now adays.
BlackbirdsSinging · 09/08/2022 15:10
Of course that would work the other way too.
Both sides should be considerate of each other.
mummymeister · 09/08/2022 15:06
So, this is probably not a route you want to go down but thought it worth mentioning as I am an ex EHO. His meetings with loud conversations being heard could be considered to be a Statutory Noise Nuisance. Hearing the other end of his discussion loudly is no different from him having the radio on or the tv or stereo at the same level. If he carries on being a knob then tell him that under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 he is interferring with the quiet enjoyment of your property and as such is likely to be causing a statutory noise nuisance and if he continues you will either report him to the local Environmental health officer or take your own enforcement action.
drawacircleroundit · 09/08/2022 15:13
Oh, Op, the fun you could have with this. Could a helium balloon float into his “office”? Could you make doctors appointments loudly whilst he’s on a call? Could you have some sneezing fits?
He can go into the privacy of his home when he needs to chit-chat with Richard Branson.
Goldbar · 09/08/2022 15:03
There is a misconception amongst some people that Covid and wfh transformed the whole country, including suburbia with tightly packed terraced houses and semis, into one gigantic office space where office rules apply. You see this not only with people like this (and we also have a neighbour who conducts work meetings in the garden and sighs audibly whenever DC uses the paddling-pool), but also in the number of men who set up their laptops at the kitchen table rather than in an upstairs bedroom and insisted that the whole family tiptoed around them.
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