Terrible neighbours

[Lindsaycreate]

I’m hoping for some advice. I moved into my terraced home six years ago and unfortunately on one side have unpleasant neighbours. They are a couple in their early 70’s, she literally never leaves the house/garden and they have CCTV all round the house. We are constantly watched. They have no friends. All other neighbours are lovely and have had the same problems with this particular couple for many years so the small comfort is that it isn’t just me they have a problem with.

However, I am the one directly beside them. They put a fence up in my garden (there is a dividing wall and they put it up on my side of it) and I had to go through solicitors to get it taken down. They then built the dividing wall to two metres and said I couldn’t plant any plants in my flower bed beside it - apparently plants would discolour it. My flowerbed is full of flowers in summer - really beautiful and I cut them all back in the winter. They know this. I’ve just gone out the morning and they have poisoned all my plants within half a metre of the wall. I’m so upset. I don’t know whether to ignore it or say something to them about it.

They are very malicious - they call the police if you engage with them at all. I’ve learnt to record every interaction on my phone so I can replay for the police as the couple lie about everything. The couple seem to thrive on arguing and fighting. I don’t. I haven’t engaged with them since last July when the fence was removed.

There is no way to discuss anything with them, they cannot see anyone else’s point of view. The neighbours who have lived here longer say this has gone on for 30 plus years. Solicitors have been involved with every neighbours interaction with this couple.

I have a primary age son who is scared of them. I can’t move. I love where I live and every other neighbour is fabulous.
I would love some advice about how to get through this. I do not want to put CCTV up.

Out of interest, what law are you referring to here?

My goodness, you could be describing my friends issues with her neighbours!
She has also had the false info to employer (after a letter from my friends employer was wrongly delivered to the neighbours house for person asking how. All post now collected from the PO), the poisoning of the plants (just sprays weedkiller over the fence), a boundary issue and the Cctv (5 cameras pointing at my friends house) amongst many other things.
Her latest trial is the neighbours teenage grandson standing outside her house with large groups of friends repeatedly in an effort to intimidate them.
I couldn't stand it myself and would have left long ago or be in prison by now but my friend refuses to let them drive her out and has coped by ignoring them completely and not reacting to any of the provocation.
She tells of one incident where her DH did react to the neighbour making gestures to him from her window, he cracked, gestured back and swore. Police then interviewed him as caught on neighbours camera.

Maybe through linked in? Or the OP wears a uniform? Quite easy to find out for a lot of people

Are they in good health and any chance they might not be? (Sorry) On the other hand, things could also escalate if one of the goes.

Actually read the thread and you'll find out one way they may know. Another could be by OPs uniform. Maybe it's a recognisable uniform or has the company logo on her shirt. Maybe they've seen her when they've been in town, if they go out for shopping. Maybe overheard a phonecall where op mentioned it. There's many ways someone could find out where a neighbour works. What exactly is your comment adding to the conversation?

Exactly.
Exact same thing happened here.
Neighbour retaliated, they caught it on camera and she's the one who got pulled in for interview .
When she's not the one causing the trouble but she reacted (like many people would do).
It's very scary really cos some people actually do push people until something like this happens.

Bad neighbours are awful, I feel so sorry for you, I’d say fight fire with fire!

Absolutely go back at them, do what you want in your own garden, enjoy your home.

What is it with neighbours in this age bracket - we have always got on with past and present neighbours but the elderly couple next to us have been a nightmare as well. We had been warned that the man was ‘difficult’ and had heard he had poisoned a tree on our land when the house was empty.

We tried befriending them initially. Over the years, the requests got more and more ridiculous. He would come knocking on our door complaining about overhanging trees (which we cut back) but then started complaining that the birds were dropping cherry stones from our cherry tree on his garage roof, implying he wanted us to remove the tree. The roots from another tree were apparently causing the fence to bow - a tree specialist came to survey it and said it was because the fence was old and not properly set. Despite it being their fence we paid half to have it replaced. They complained about the sound of the kids on the trampoline - could we soundproof it? 😂

Branches were continuously chucked over our fence despite me saying I would happily provide them with bags to dispose of them as I didn’t want them hurled over - they caused damage to our garden.
The final straw was when he stomped over in a rage after discovering a nice nest in his garage and blamed our walnut tree (a good 10 metres distance away!) for attracting the mice as he found evidence of the shells in the nest. When I asked him what he wanted me to do - cut the tree down? He said yes! We stopped talking to them at this point and then a few months later we had a letter from the council as there had been a complaint after our trellis (attached to posts on our side I hasten to add!) were too high. Our garden is a higher level than theirs and without the trellis on we would have full view into their garden! They sent someone from the Council around who immediately dismissed it and told us we were actually entitled to raise it higher by another 2 foot if we wanted!
I think the man must just be very bored and actively enjoys finding reasons to initiate disputes. He has reported other surrounding neighbours to the police for bad parking, reckless driving, noise, harassment etc. We live in a quiet cul-de-sac! We keep hoping they will move but they’ve put their house on the market about 20 times in the past 10 years - I think it’s just something for them to do!

i would have thought you would have been over the moon and they made the boundary wall between you much higher!

If they used some form of poison, that could be dangerous to animals...

I am a great believer in using the law to your advantage. Think, fellow posters!

Could the OP contact the council or even the RSPCA over the risk to cats?

What about "potential danger" to your son?!

Alternatively, can you physically "block" them out of your life? Construct a sort of "Berlin Wall"? I bet they get off on being unpleasant to you and others. Crowdfund for a wall, I would be happy to contribute!

There is a wall

a 2 metre high wall

That the neighbours recently made higher

It's not illegal to record a conversation.

How did they get into your garden to put up the fence if you have a dividing wall there?

I sympathise. I had a similar situation with a neighbour in my terrace house years ago. I just ignored him. He reported me to the council because he said smoke came from my open fireplace into his house. I showed the council officers the unused fireplace…. Even when I sold the house the survey report stated a neighbour had advised of problem with the shared chimney…

As hard as it is you just have to ignore them as reacting is what they want - they clearly like conflict. They will hate you not reacting.

I assume they own the house do they?

It's a criminal offence if you record someone without them knowing and share it, look it up. You can share if your going for compensation but nothing else.

It is if you share.

@Thegoodbadandugly it isn't. It is significantly more nuanced than that.

This is on a private setting not a work environment or on behalf of a business and the only people the op has shared it with are the police.

It's not even a GDPR breach.

There is a possible civil claim for breach of privacy under tort but the op neighbours would need deep pockets and it's likely to fail as I set out above as the op has recorded in a household setting and only shared with the police.

I sympathise I have awful neighbours on one side too. I would get a ring doorbell for your back door, this will hopefully deter them as you’ll have a record of any trespass or throwing things over the wall. Still ignore them and their behaviour. On the upside they’re in their 70’s so won’t be a problem long term.

Involve your community police as others have said, if they are spoiling your life for malicious reasons, such as trespassing, slander and verbal abuse. Keep notes and evidence. How about some decorative pebbles, or stones along the fence line a kind of rockery? Weed killers can seep under the fence. And totally blank them this is what they hate most of all! They are playing a kind of attention seeking. Otherwise enjoy being the witch.

Where had the OP said she is sharing the interactions? Unless playing it back to the police to defend herself if necessary is "sharing"?

I’ve learnt to record every interaction on my phone so I can replay for the police as the couple lie about everything.

Does the CCTV cover your garden/front garden?

Completely sympathize with you.

If there is now a high fence between you and the neighbors, that they put there by adding on top of the original fence, then shouldn’t that mean no more problems or interactions with them? Do they throw or spray poison over the top of the high fence? How high is it? Is it all a solid fence?

And you say the postman has to go through their property to deliver your mail. I guess there’s no way to change this.

Sounds a nightmare. I would never speak to or engage with them again no matter the reason, and I would set up a camera, not because they have cameras but so you can see if they try to poison your flowers or trespass. And the fence…I would go ahead and make sure the fence is so high and so solid any every point of possible access for them that it would be near impossible for them to bother you at all. There are restrictions to the height I’m sure. I would go to the limit.

We have a set of malicious neighbours on our street op. I do sympathise. They've driven out every neighbour that's moved next door to them. They made phone calls to places of work to say people are stealing from them, poison cats, chuck water over the fence while people are out their gardens...the list is endless. These people exist.

Luckily we have stayed off their radar but I do feel for you. Record everything and if you're not planning on moving, report. It must be so draining.

Yes they will die but it may not happen for years and you need a quicker solution. My grandad is 97! It could be another 15- 20
years. It sounds like harassment - keep good records of every incident, date and time, any pictorial or recorded evidence, and see a solicitor.

Solicitor can send a "desist" letter to the neighbours, after that if it continues it is a civil matter and can be difficult to prove and costly. Better is the harassment route with the police, this can be a criminal offence and has to be logged. We have quite a big log with the local police! Eventually if bad enough it can go to court. In a way it isn't worth the effort, it is better to ignore them entirely. We have 2 sets of neighbours that are blanked who have caused ridiculous amounts of bother since they moved here, where previously there was none! One of them moved to get away from a previous neighbour dispute and the other neighbour just believes in them. They just shout over anyone else, and there is no point in arguing anything rational. It is a great pity as we all lose out not having friendly neighbours.