Long garden - too many neighbours?

[OUB1974]

Just wondering what everyone's thinks about this? We're moving due to noisy neighbours and I'm incredibly anxious about ending up in the same position.

There's a house we really like the look of. It has a long (35m) garden, which is really our dream in terms of finding a property. It has a neighbour to one side and one to the end. However as it is the first house on the road it's perpendicular to the main road and there are 4 houses whose gardens border width ways onto the garden.

This seems a lot of potential for disruption and neighbour issues. But I'm not sure if I'm over sensitive about it due to our current situation. We staked out another house yesterday and it was constant dog barking (which is what we're trying to escape from) and so ruled it out. I'm worried we set our bar too high though as we're so sensitive to noise now due to our current neighbours and we need to get used to normal neighbourhood noise again. Is this too many neighbours?

We have this and it has been fine for five years . I am now feeling a bit overlooked and claustrophobic so thinking of moving but it’s only just set in and the rest of the family are fine. Wondering if it’s a work from home/lockdown issue.
in terms of noise , we can occasionally hear gentle chat or lawnmower but that all feels quite comforting.
A couple of summers ago when everything opened up post covid it felt like a sort of pub garden as we all had small groups around garden tables and you could hear the gentle murmur of happy chat.
My one worry is smokers moving in as I would find that unpleasant close to the house- but obvs their own garden so they wouldn’t be doing anything anti social or wrong.

Maintenance of boundaries/ fences would be a consideration - e.g. if each neighbour was responsible for the fence at the end of their garden you may have difficulty maintaining a nice boundary should some of them not be bothered about looking after or replacing their boundary. It may be that the house you're interested in 'owns' the boundary in which case you can decide what you have running along the boundary and can then maintain it as you wish. It's common for the house at the end to be responsible for both left and right sides.

How long are the gardens in question? If they are similar lengths 35m then you're likely to find you don't hear too much from the neighbours as they'll not spend too much time at the end of their garden and typically spend more time just outside their back doors! Can you spy on Google maps to see what's in their gardens near the boundary (it's usually a collection of sheds!).

Finally I'd say that when back gardens are perpendicular like this, it creates quite a large area of collective garden space - something that property developers are interested in so be aware of future developments overlooking your house.

Thank you (for some reason I can't see my original reply). I can live with normal neighbourhood noise, but I'm paranoid about dogs now from our recent experience.

@Senseofnopurpose the gardens are around 10m to the side, at a lower level than the one we like as it's on a hill. I will certainly check for any boundary issues. I don't think there's anywhere that could be developed as the surrounding gardens enclose this one and are too small to put another house into. It's an old estate and only grows occasionally at the edges. The garden at the end is around 20 m. I've attached a plan!

I can see lots of trees and a few sheds. I think I need to go and sit outside a while in my car (trying not to look too suspicious!).

Excellent diagram.

Because I'm not invested emotionally in the house you like, and simply looking at your garden plan, for me it would be a no. Far two many gardens backing on and too small, so any activity will be close to your garden. I do love privacy and personally get quite bothered by this sort of setup and potential for neighbour noise.

When I first saw your garden, I thought no. The gardens to the right of yours aren't huge and you could well have noise issues with so many neighbours.

However, your diagram does say you are 5m higher than the gardens to the right. Did you mean 5ft or is 5m correct? If its 5m (and that sounds like a huge height difference) then that height difference could well be enough to mitigate issues. You certainly wont be overlooked by your neighbours and any noise they make would probably be significantly reduced in your garden.

If its only a 5ft difference, then with a decent sized fence on that side you could still have privacy but I dont think it would be enough to stop noise.

If you're anxious about noise that's the worst house you could buy tbh. You are literally surrounding by people. It is a big no from me.

It would be a no from me if you are easily irritated by people / noise. Plus that’s a lot of people to overlook into your garden.

Statistically at least one of those households will own a dog.

And there's an approx 7% probability that one household in the row has a dog that has an antisocial / behavioural problem with barking - so the good news is you have a 93% chance of not having a noisy dog nearby!!!!!

No from me too. It would be like living in a goldfish bowl.

My own noisy neighbours are about 30 odd metres away and I can hear them through my double glazing.

I think it's a pretty bad option if you're noisephobic. You'd be better off in a traditional terrace / semi maybe, just a neighbour either side...although a dog 4 doors down could endlessly bark I suppose.

I live on a weird reverse culdisac and have about 6 gardens backing on to mine. No dogs thank god but the man next door smokes the occasional joint which is a nuisance.

What direction does the garden face when you stand at the back door in the house you like? I would work then out where people in the houses with the gardens backing along to yours would be likely to sit in the sunshine. Or potentially where all their compost bins might be.
If you are that sensitive to noise I think though this might not be right for you. A garden either side might be ok, but not that many. I always think about how many boundaries there are around a property as to how many people you have to work with for planning purposes for example.

Thank you for the replies, I really appreciate it. Sadly it's looking like it's not going to be the house for us. It's such a shame as it's lovely and the garden is just huge.

I am currently sat outside it in my car...it is so peaceful up here compared to our road! 15 minutes in and all I can hear is bird song and the occasional train at the bottom of the hill (not a problem for us).

@NameChangedToAnswer I think my calculqtion was terrible. Looking again it's a little over the height of a fence panel so maybe 2.5 metres higher. The garden faces north east, so the houses next to it face north west. Bins as far as I can see, are around the sides of the house near the garages.

If your plot is 2.5m higher than surrounding plots, and you invested in acoustic fencing I think it might be ok?

it makes life very difficult to have got so anxious about noise (not a criticism I’m the same), and if you’re sat there on a lovely BH evening and all you can hear is birds, then I wouldn’t rule it out.

If all you can hear is birds on a sunny Saturday of a bank holiday weekend I wouldn’t be too worried.

But then my garden is like the one you’ve drawn, but flipped - one next door neighbour with a long garden to our right, and on the left 5 houses with smaller gardens on a neighbouring road. It’s not been any problem for us, but the neighbours are mostly elderly TBH.

@Tatiepot it does doesn't it? I am so sensitive now to noise, it's difficult to work out what's reasonable and what isn't. A single bark can wind me up because then you're waiting for the cacophony that inevitably follows. I do need, to a certain extent, to train myself to get used to it. As we can't afford a house with no neighbours! A friend who lives nearby says it's very quiet up there. More staking out required over the next few days I think...

There is a story about a composer- I can’t recall which one - who soundproofed his study and silenced his family to provide the silence he was craving. But what he inadvertently did was make even the slightest sound more noticeable, the exact opposite of what he was trying to achieve. So I think somehow we need to desensitise ourselves…I also had nightmare neighbours and had to move…as otherwise everything is intrusive and we’ll never relax and find peace.

This house sounds ideal, and the garden will be lovely - if it’s on a bank above your neighbours then a lot of any noise they make will be deadened by the bank … and the most distressing noise comes from things at the level of your ears, so the gardens on the right can be ignored I think.

would you consider hypnotherapy or something similar to reduce your sensitivity, so you’re not straining to hear the slightest sound? Or maybe just keep repeating “this is a normal noise” to everything unless it is something really extreme, to retrain your poor nerves?

I do sympathise, it is horrid, but this house sounds really good and I hope you can persuade yourself it’ll be ok x

One of those is bound to have a dog. One thing we discovered is long gardens cost a lot in fencing. It recently cost us several thousands when one side came down.

About 2/3 of my neighbours are away this weekend it seems. The 4 day weekend is different to a regular 3 day one, especially as it's also school holidays. OP would need to go back on a regular Saturday to get a truer picture I think.

Staking out in the school holidays/ long weekend isn't necessarily going to be accurate as many households could be away.

The other issue of course is that it only takes one household to move to completely change things.

Good luck!

I think that if you are moving due to noisy neighbours, then you really need to move somewhere with as few neighbours as possible, which isn't this house.

I grew up in a house like this. We had conifers running down the side to help with privacy. We had one neighbour which would complain it blocked their light and one neighbour who had a yappy dog but we only heard it in the garden. Couldn't hear anything from the house.

My parents garden is like that. They have one to the side and then 3 houses from another street the back of their gardens are to the side of my parents. None at the bottom though. So 4 in total are next to their garden.

They've lived there for nearly 30 years. The only issue they've had is with trees overhanging and over growing in one of the other gardens. One of the neighbours pretty much abandoned the last few meters of their garden and stuck a big hut infront of lots of trees at the back. So basically my parents have to manage these trees and cut them etc but apart from that it's been fine.

You could have only one neighbour and they turn out to be difficult. It's just ur luck.

It would be a no for me.

I moved because if nightmare neighbours so I feel for you. The less people to cause noise the better xx

I feel with each neighbour the chances of someone being a pain increases. You could be lucky, but one is likely to have a dog or young child. It's all if they are considerate or not. Can you ask around? Then again it only takes one neighbour to ruin everything!

I am currently sitting outside the house in my car again...5 minutes in and very peaceful! I've asked a friend who lives nearby and she says the neighbours are all quiet and no problems...so far so good but it still does worry me.

Considering though that I can't even walk from my front door to my car on our current street without barking, it's 100x better already! There are a lot of houses parked on the roads (not usual as they all have driveways) so at least there are some people in. Will continue to do it for a few days. We're expecting an offer on ours this week. I've ruled out the other house due to noise.