Neighbours Indiana Jones-ing their way into our garden

[Dadfromthesea]

This is making me seethe and chuckle in equal measure.

At the end of our garden are some big old fir trees, then the boundary fence. After that there’s a little stream, and if you kept going you’d find the fence of the people who live in the house behind (let’s call them Mr and Mrs Jones), then their back garden.

The Joneseseses have just bought a big seating unit thing and plonked it at the back end of their garden (the bit nearest us). It’s about 10ft from my boundary fence and a good 70ft from the back of my house - we’re lucky to have a big garden - and there’s the fir trees as well which make it a pretty thick barrier.

But they decided they want some privacy and put up a big canvass barrier. Fair enough, I don’t care.

Except…

They’ve tied it to our fir trees!

They’ve clambered over their own fence, slung a ladder (an actual LADDER) over the stream, scrambled up the bank, and cable tied the bloody thing to our trees! Without so much as a word!

They did it in the dead of night! Came down the other day to discover the bloody Shroud of Turin cable tied to my trees! The ladder was still there on the bank of the stream.

So obviously, being British and terrified of confrontation, I did the natural thing of not mentioning it to them but instead cutting the fucker down. It’s now in my garage.

And they’ve replaced it with another!! It arrived overnight this morning!

Just to be clear - I don’t care that they want to shield themselves from us. It’s a dark green thing so I can barely even see it. But I can see it, and I do care that they’ve gone on a bloody Navy SEAL Commando mission, twice, to my garden to put the bloody thing up!

Yes I could go and talk to them but a) I’ve never said a word to them before b) they might kill me and c) this is funnier.

But tell me I ANBU please.

Thank you for pointing this out to the OP! From his writing about this exact issue I think it was clear he had no idea!🙄

😀

Why can't they tie it to their own fence?

For people that enjoy passive aggression. I don't. I prefer to communicate clearly to know where we stand, instead of avoiding a face to face talk.

Id get some fake crocodiles to put in the stream. Then grease a few ladder rungs

The problem with CFers is that they will always continue to take the piss if they can.

So if their plan to install the tarp goes unchecked, their next move might well be to claim the land probably over the stream up to where your fence is. So don't be surprised if you wake up one morning or return from holiday to find a fence erected on your side of the stream to annex that land.

Whether you care about that or not is another issue.

Next to the Pergola Of Fornication.

I think you ought to pull it down and cut it into small pieces, along with the ropes, put the pieces into a bin bag and hurl it into their garden. Keep the ladder on your side and smear the whole thing with golden syrup.

Then set up a camera.

I don't know how that would be possible. His property is registered in the Land Registry with the plot measurement. Any encroachment on his land, he can destroy it as property owner.

What made me chuckle about the OP story is that he took the canvas down and stored it in his garage. That canvas was attached to his fir tress by cable ties - the only thing he needed to do was to cut the ties and let the canvas fall in his neighbour property. Why would he retrieve a canvas not belonging to him with the work involved instead of doing the simplest thing?

The whole thing is a beautiful story with no basis of reality.

I believe it only constitutes theft if OP intends to permanently deprive the CFs of their property.

I am sure that she will be more than happy to return the tarps when requested.

Perhaps you could charge a warehousing fee for them, OP, as they are taking up your garage space.

But as others have suggested, put a notice on your trees pointing out that they are in your garden, it is private property, and you don't want stuff attached to them.

Because it would block their own view of the stream. They want to eat their cake and have it too 🙄 I wouldn't stand for it but each to their own and it's given me a laugh today!

Because it wouldn't have fallen into his neighbours property. The area beyond the fence and up to the stream is his so he would have been littering his own property.

Yep.

Because no one ever has erected a fence in the wrong place in order to try to take someones land.

Thank you. I didn't read well enough that the stream was his as well. Still, why twice cutting ties and canvas retrieval to his garage without having a face to face conversation with the neighbour? His excuse is being British and being terrified of confrontation. He doesn't need to confront, he needs to have a good chat with his neighbour like all of us do when we have problems with trees, fences, etc etc. We are all in a community living close to each other.

I'm still convinced there is something off with the thread and OP.

Maybe this is normal in the UK, in which case I bow out.

It's not the case in the countries I've lived.

I think the answer to this issue is to write on the side of Shroud III facing them, in bright pink spray paint and a font similar to Comic Sans, “Not your trees”.

Commenting for further updates.
Very funny

@Sumthingsweet
What harm is it doing ?

It will completely block all light from that direction - not just like tree shade - total block so it is likely to cause plants, tree branches, wildlife affected to die.

We had part of a hedge die because a neighbour put a massive lightblocking shed in front of it.

@Alondra. You'd be amazed what CFs will do. I'll always recall coming home from a family holiday when I was around 13/14 years old to find a wooden fence has been put amount 1.5 meters into my parents garden. At that point the CF neighbours hadn't had time to demolish the brick wall that had been installed at the time the house was built.

On going to speak to them, the CF neighbours told my parents that the new fence had been in situ for 2 weeks and that they had now claimed the land. They received short shrift from my mum and the new fence was quickly removed.

We had a similar incident with CF neighbours. Went away for the weekend and came home to a TV ariel attached to one of our trees.

This was a number of years ago, neighbours had a summer house next to the fence between our two gardens. They wanted to be able to watch TV in said summer house, this is back in the day when you needed an analogue ariel. Anyway, they climbed over the fence in our absence and attached it to one of our trees (for height!). DH went straight round when we got home and asked them to remove it, they knew they'd been well cheeky doing it but had thought we wouldn't mind. The excuse was it was a bit on an eyesore! Happy for us to have the eyesore in our garden though rather than their own, cheeky feckers.

I understand that arseholes (never understood the CF concept) can try to bulldoze their wants to everyone and everything around them. But a house has tittle deeds and arsehole neighbours can claim what they want, but the title deed is what counts.

Your mother did what I would do, spoke with them, told them a few facts, and the new fence was removed. Simple and direct. It's the opposite of what the OP has been doing in the name of being "British afraid of confrontation".

Frankly, If I was British, I would take offence.

I'm not quite emotionally ready for this thread to end.... There's gotta be a Series 2! There just has to be!
I guess I do have GB Bake Off now... but I'd got rather attached to GB Shroud Off.

There is a lot of people in the UK and not much land.

Houses are built in close proximity and often plots are small. People jealously guard their area because if they don't some CF will probably try their luck and try and take a slice of it. It's difficult to go down the legal route to enforce your rights because things can rapidly become very expensive, so a lot of CFs will grab the land in the hope that legal action will not be taken.

People will literally fight over a few inches of land or so.

In addition to fence/border disputes, there is also a lot of CF regarding parking on other peoples property and attempting to deny rights of way (for example one house may own a right of way over another property that the other property does not like and decides to impede because it impacts their privacy).

Hang around AIBU for a few months and you will see it all.

I'm still convinced there is something off with the thread and OP.

In which case you should report the thread, not cast aspersions aka 'troll hunt', which I'm sure you know is against MN rules.

Good advice. Thank you.