People keep reporting us - a WWYD?!

[HorseWhisper]

have name changed for this. I have lived in London in a v small house for 17 years and know everyone on the street where I live and they all know my dcs. Everyone looks out for each other - there are a few nightmares, but nothing unusual. It's basically been a fantastic, peaceful existence.

I met dp 4 years ago and he has young dcs who live in a village in a rural area (around 2 hours away from here). It happens to have fast connections into London and I wanted to buy a house and we could get a lot for our money in this location. So we bought it, with the idea that we would move here around Easter and rent London out.

It is v rural but the previous owners went on about what a friendly small village it is. I was nervous moving here because I'm a city person at heart and was worried about 'village life'.

Obviously Covid got in the way of things and we've only just managed to move.

it is a beautiful house with a large plot (an acre of garden) and one side of the garden backs on to the gardens of a street (so say about 10 houses gardens back onto that side) but we have been here a week and

1. Had the police round within 2 days because someone reported us for breaking lockdown when we were moving in (this was after it was announced that we could move house)
2. Had the council round twice because 'someone' has been reporting we are damaging trees (the guy just came round again now!)
3. My children are in the garden today (they are 19/20) and I've just had the police drive past to ask if I am having a party in the garden because someone has reported us AGAIN.

What should we do? Should I just ignore this? Should we insist on finding out who is reporting us? I'm quite happy to speak to people directly, I just can't believe that people have so much time on their hands that they are doing this. I told the police I felt this was harassment. I have to say they did seem a bit fed up of the whole thing themselves but they couldn't tell us who reported us. I have given them my phone number now so they can call us if it happens again.

I definately would join the facebook group. Apart from anything else, it should show you who is the grumpy people.

Put up a "hello, we are new, we had our move delayed due to covid". type post. State age of kids etc.

The best advise is to get involved a bit if there's anything going on.

My parents moved to a tiny village in the french countryside a couple of decades ago. They had the added complication of not being fluent in French (don't get me started on this decision, they are at least much better now). There were other Brits nearby that were looked down on a bit by the locals, very much us and them.

But then when they'd been there for about a month, there was a situation with a herd of cows - the fence had come down for their field for some reason over night (parents French wasn't up to get the full details) and the entire herd of cows were wandering around the village centre at breakfast time. The other Brits were watching from their balconies and windows, while most the local men were out trying to sort this - my Dad went out with his walking stick to try and be helpful. Now, I think he was not really much of a help at all, but he was noticed as one of the 'outsiders' trying to help. They discovered afterwards they were treated as much more one of the community, rather than the other Brits who had been there for years already but really weren't included in village events.

So get involved. Offer help with any elderly people in the village getting shopping. Get on committees. You only need to do it a few times and people will get to know you are good sorts.

Just pondering.
The person who reported dc must have been able to see them in your garden.
Does that narrow it down?
Are there many houses that can (even from upstairs windows if you have big hedges etc)?

Either that or they’ve been the puppet master and it’s someone e else they’ve bitched about dc to and that person has phoned.
Na, that didn’t narrow it down at all...pants!

@manitobajane you are coming across very badly.

and?

What, making sure to tell us it has a acre of garden? yeah, that's bragging. Saying it's a lovely house is one thing.

I took it that OP was explaining how she gets to have ten houses bordering her garden, so there were any number of neighbours who could have complained about the 'party' in the garden.

In the country villages not unusual to have big gardens, we had three acres, other homes had more than that. One neighbour fenced his off and a farmer put cattle on, We had the seaside donkeys one winter that was lovely.

Cheeky buggers! Cut out that Dominic Cummings mask they printed in the paper and drive around the village on a quad bike giving the finger to everyone.

@draughtycatflap

Cheeky buggers! Cut out that Dominic Cummings mask they printed in the paper and drive around the village on a quad bike giving the finger to everyone.

Cheeky buggers! Cut out that Dominic Cummings mask they printed in the paper and drive around the village on a quad bike giving the finger to everyone.

Make sure you go two villages away to buy that paper though!!! You'll never live that down once the village shop assistant tells everyone!!!

One of the benefits of living in a small community is that things are noticed. Sounds as if they have gone a bit over the top, but it may well (it often is) be coming from fairly good intentions. When I was on holiday my parents came round to check on the house - the strange car was spotted in my drive and neighbours immediately knocked to see who it was. And you should have seen the hoo hah when some of the church yew trees were (legitimately) cut down.

Some might find it oppressive, but I enjoy living somewhere where people really do care about the community and haven’t sunk into apathy - even if some of the busybodying is a bit much. But it’s rare that it’s not something to laugh off/ compare to the vicar of dibbly...

It's why I sold my house in a village and moved back to the city. I'm now in a town and it's very welcoming despite me moving in 2 days before lockdown. New neighbours are all incomers though as it's a new development

Who was the under bidder on your house? Does your garden have a pond? If it has a dead donkey in it, watch yourself and don't get into any fights beside waterfalls.