That my neighbour’s paranoia is not my problem.

[Libertylawn]

I have lived in my house for 20 years and it’s got a loft conversion which was done originally as a granny flat, so little kitchen and bathroom, 2 bedrooms. We are semi rural but near a couple of major employers and a business park and so I started letting out the annex to contractors. They are all fully vetted and usually just down for a couple of weeks or so. The rooms overlook farmland and my garden and also my neighbour’s garden.

My neighbour when she found out about the lodgers went bananas and has tried to report me to anyone that will listen, because she firmly believes it isn’t safe and as a consequence she and her children won’t go in the garden AT ALL, in case my lodgers are watching her. Why the hell they would want to watch her or her kids is beyond me.

The neighbour has kids the same age as mine, and we have mutual friends. She has cried - tears crying - saying how worried she is and that I’m ruining her dream house. The houses are detached, there’s no shared drive etc so this is all on the basis of the chances of nutters watching her put her washing on the line. I’ve ignored her so far but this morning I got a card through the door from her begging that I stop letting out the annex to anyone “except maybe relatives.” I’ve tried talking to her but am getting nowhere. She’s crackers isn’t she?

She’s crackers. Make sure you’re all 100% within the rules - planning, letting, taxable income etc…..I mean I’m not sure what the rules are but she strikes me as someone who will want to try and catch you out

Get some cardboard cut outs of various celebs and stick those in the windows between lodgers.

Sensible man.

She doesn't. She lives in a residential area where the OP is sticking to the rules. If she really doesn't want to be overlooked by anyone she needs to live somewhere more secluded.

She was already overlooked by OP and her DH - they could be anyone!

i Think there is a great solution here: rent it out to your neighbor!
She won’t be there too much, long stay could get a discount. Bob’s your uncle.

Yeah, she’s definitely massively overreacting. That’s just crazy. I would have to assume some major trauma in her past that has caused this but you are not responsible for her mental health or managing it for her.

If the conversion and your lodger arrangements are all up to code and declared then she hasn't got a leg to stand on. A final firm response is needed - you're happy with your arrangements, you're sorry she feels the way she does but you aren't doing anything wrong and if she doesn't like it she needs to move somewhere with no houses around, and any further letters or complaints about the matter will be considered harassment and reported to the police as such.

Your post drips in judgement, which is ironic now your exs workspace is housing random strangers. Her husband likely loves her, hence they’re together.

Teenagers also suffer abuse. Your posts show a distinct lack of safeguarding awareness. You’ve now said they’re not a risk as 1) they are workers at a household name company 2) your kids are teenagers.

Housing strangers in your loft conversion with no checks, and around children (yes, teens are still children), is questionable.

Well as the op would have done the sensible thing and checked with all the relevant authorities ie mortgage, council, done fire checks any other relevant body and made sure they were fping 100 thr right thing there would be nothing to catch them on

Make sure you keep a record of her behaviour, so you have evidence if it escalates.

What valid point?

You have no control over who lives near you - unless you grow ridiculously tall hedges, you've no say over who can see into your garden from a neighbouring window.

OP could sell up and anyone could buy her property. As could any of the other neighbours.

That doesn't give the paranoid neighbour the right to harrass OP about her perfectly legitimate lodgers!

The lodger is no more 'around' the OP's children than a next door neighbour in a terraced or semi-detatched property would be...

Did you not read that they aren’t around the teenagers and it’s totally separate? That’s the equivalent of complaining about someone living in a flat next to you

Obviously you can do what you like with your property but she sounds very distressed and I feel
sorry for her for that. Not sure how tasteful it is to judge her marriage either tbh.

Well you can if it is all legal and above board

You need to call social services. It is batshit that she is preventing her children from playing in their garden because someone might occasionally look out of their window at them. She sounds genuinely mentally ill. Since the father is away as much as possible, who knows what those kids' lives are like living with a mother who is so deeply unhinged? And to the usual performers who will say "oh they won't do anything" you have no idea if they will do anything, and they certainly won't if you don't report it.

Your neighbour has obviously got bats in the belfry.

But:

They are all fully vetted and usually just down for a couple of weeks or so

How have you “fully vetted” them?

I wouldn’t want to live next to it either to be honest, I’d hate it but I would know I was stuck with it and start planting some conifers to screen you off.
Maybe she’s fled or experienced violence from men, her reaction is OTT.

Tell her you're working with a local prison to act as a halfway house for sex offenders.

Cool. You could move them. The OP is doing nothing wrong. At all. People banging on about the ‘vetting’, how much do you think Airbnb guests are ‘vetted’?
these are people staying for a couple of weeks in a self contained annexe.

And the ‘children’ are big teenagers! 😆

I think the OP is entitled to pass a few comments in light of the consistent, and unfair harassment this paranoid woman is carrying out.

The OP’s marriage is no more, she is living there and supporting her teenagers, and she’s making a bit of extra money fully legally, by letting a self contained annexe out very short term.

This woman sounds obsessed, potentially unwell, and is being a relentless pain in the arse.

People are “banging on” about the vetting because OP herself claimed the lodgers have been “fully vetted”. It’s not unreasonable to ask for clarification on that, is it?

I think very few posters are actually on the neighbour’s side.

Exactly this. I was going to say as they’re contractors then they are out at work everyday anyway so they’re not even going to be there “to watch her children”. Tell her that if you stop renting to contractors then you’ll have to advertise on Airbnb instead because you need the money (whether true or not), and point out there will be multiple different people every week, who will possibly be home during the day at some point and may even - shock horror - want to also use the garden themselves and then what happens if they accidentally see over the fence?

So, yeah, she’s bonkers.

You can report businesses to the local council if they’re being run from a residential address. However, the problems arise if they’re causing a nuisance . For example, multiple deliveries or visitors to a house, repairing lots of cars in a drive etc. However, you’re running an air BnB so that’s fine.

All those people saying the OP shouldn’t have strangers around her teenagers- she has already said that the unit is completely self-contained. It’s no different to having two flats in the same building. You do realise that the vast majority of people in the country do
not live in secluded detached homes? Most live in flats or terraces or semi-detached with small overlooked gardens if they have any garden at all. If OP lived in a flat she would not be able to vet the other residents of the block - are you saying that all people who have neighbours and children are irresponsible? We should all only live in places where no one apart from us can see our children at all times?