Neighbors in our garden in the midst of project site

[unname]

I am in US and we are having a patio installed at our house. It's a process that takes several days - framing, pouring, stamping, polishing and sealing the concrete.

This morning they are pouring the concrete. 5-6 workers in our yard and it is a mess with wet grass, mud, concrete, tools and men working. I looked out 30 minutes ago and saw neighbors wandering around with their coffee, asking questions, standing smack in the middle of the project staging area, in front of tools and equipment, talking to the men.

I was floored! Who does this? I watched thought about it for 5 minutes or so, then told my husband and we agreed I should go speak with them. We are both WFH today and even we don't go out and stand in the middle of the project unless we have a quick question.

By the time I got out there they had walked out into the street, through a small gap in one of our hedges. I told them I was shocked to see people in our yard and to please knock before dong that again. I said "This is a real boundary issue for me."

He said "Well we will be back in an hour to watch them stamp the concrete."
I was just so surprised that they didn't immediately apologize, and continued to feel they had a right to be on our property without permission.

I said "Well no, I would rather you did not."

Would you mind having neighbors just entering your property without asking?

They weren't in your house! They were probably just interested in the process and asking questions about it, and then want to see what they do. Maybe they're thinking of having similar done.

It’s a bit off, but maybe they enjoy watching building works being carried out. They should ask your permission, but it wouldn’t bother me and certainly not worth falling out over.

They weren't in your house!

They were in her garden, though?! You can't just wander into someone's garden whenever you feel like it, just because there happens to be some work going on there. I was quite interested in some work my next door neighbour had done in their garden a while ago, but I didn't just let myself in and stroll around with a cuppa chatting to the landscapers because, you know, that would be fucking batshit.

They were on her property, having wondered in uninvited! Very rude of them

Ah come on..do you know your neighbours? I presume it was men as they often seem to get excited at the thoughts of some building work. Honestly l would not have any issue with that and would see it as an opportunity to get to know my neighbours. It will be a bit awkward bumping in to them from now on.

Oh, well, that's alright then... 🙄

You are right - they want to hire the same people now. I would have been happy to facilitate discussion and observation in a way that did not disrupt the job.
We are paying considerably (for us!) for this installation.

The workers were looking very confused and uncomfortable. The owner of the business had stepped away during this time. One of his employees later told my husband "We thought they were the home owners!" and another said to me, "I had to ask them to move out of the way, twice!"

Loudspeaker and announce tickets to watch the builders are 10 quid each.
Cfers indeed!

And our garden looks right into the main area where we spend our time. I am usually working at the table there. We are frequently in this area barely dressed. You cannot see directly into our house from any other spot outside.

I wondered what other reasons would they feel entitled to wander around our property? Maybe they feel like having their coffee on our new patio. Maybe they want to look at the flowers.

LOL! That would help defray the cost at least.

The is MN so you'll need to quantify harm before some people will consider you have adequate justification for objecting to your neighbours coming into your garden without permission.

OP - a stranger parked on my drive AIBU
MN - were you using it

OP - my neighbours children were playing on my kids garden equipment whilst I was out AIBU
MN - don't be selfish, maybe they don't have their own

Etc etc

The expectation is you should tolerate any behaviour if it doesn't "harm" you but there rarely seems to be an expectation for piss takers to behave like normal, well mannered people and just ask permission.

I think you were very clear with them, they shouldn't be in your garden without your permission and I wouldn't be inclined to grant in now they've exposed themselves a CF's. Stand your ground.

If you're in a US state with stand your ground and castle laws just shoot them.

I mean, in your mind only, obviously.

It doesn't matter if they were interested. They went into someone else's garden and were clearly getting in the way.

I know them pretty well and have had them over for a party, had her over for coffee and I spearheaded a big neighborhood get together that they attended, etc.

I thought they would simply say "Oh that was thoughtless of us!" and it would be no big deal. Instead, after I told them to please knock if they wanted to come into the yard, he looked at his watch, smirked and said "Well, we will be back in an hour to watch them stamp the concrete."

If he'd simply asked, "Would you mind if we came in a bit?" I would have been out there with a tray of coffee for them and visited while we watched.

Honestly, I hope they do feel awkward.

I do not take kindly to anyone trespassing on my property.

@FOJN so true.

@MrsTerryPratchett I am going to get a super soaker and keep it by the back door.

nerf.hasbro.com/en-us/super-soaker

Maybe go and set up in their yard, take a lawn chair and your work stuff. Or a BBQ. See how they like it

If I saw any of my neighbours in my garden, I'd go out, say hello and catch up. 🤷‍♀️

Seems fair and proportionate.

Fair enough. Would you go wandering around your neighbor's garden like they did? Stand in the middle of a work site forcing the workers to navigate around you?

We have a neighbour who always likes to interrogate any workmen we have. Blooming annoying! I usually now ask any workmen to refer her to us and not to engage with her - most of them oblige because they don't want any confrontation!

She once listened in (unbeknown to me at the time) to a conversation I had with someone working on our garden - he's DH's cousin and we were joking about something not even to do with our garden, but she decided it was and that she didn't like it and next thing we had a two page letter from her! So if he's doing something for us we'll usually have a loud chat about something outrageous but just about plausible to wind her up.

Oh don't be so pathetic
It's rude/trespassing/inappropriate /disrespectful and intrusive
Sometimes I can't believe what I read on here

I had this once OP, when part of our front garden was being paved with a path put in. Two doors down we had really unpleasant neighbours who had fallen out with us over another issue to do with a separate but communal garden that they treated as their own. And yet they felt free to come and walk on our front garden and chat endlessly with our builders, about the work itself - the type of bricks and paving stones etc. (not that they were going to have work done themselves, just being nosy). Then they started to chat about other things. I was livid. We were paying the builders by the hour! Eventually one of the builders said they assumed they lived in our house too, as they were here so much and talked so much. As a consequence of thinking they were our family, the builder stood up and gave full answers and discussed the work in detail with them, wasting more time.
These were people who had no business at all enquiring about our garden and who refused to speak to us from day to day. I still cannot get my head round this kind of entitlement.

Two pages! Retired?

Sure you would. Neighbours appear uninvited in your back garden and you don't wonder what's going on?