I will try not to ramble but I am still very upset about what recently happened to me.

My OH has lived on the outskirts of town for over 18 years.  He only had one neighbour who also had dogs.  As the years have gone by the town has got closes to him and now he has people at the side and the back of him.  The neighbours to one side are great complainers.  They watch everything and complain about the noise of children (tiny tots) playing in the close, dogs barking - anywhere near, and are general busy bodies.  The neighbours opposite them have to keep their curtains closed at the back of the house because they peer in through their bedroom windows and now the children are at the self conscious stage this is becoming a nuisance.  They have also taken pictures of the gardens of neighbours from their own upstairs windows.

Directly outside our home is a hammer head turning space which we agreed to when the new close was built so that we would turn our cars when going into and out of our drives as the gate is at a funny angle since the developer asked for some of our land to give access to the new estate, which we did in return for a wall being built instead of the bank we had before.  The nosey neighbours regularly park on the turning space and let their guests (they run a B&B on the qt) park there as well because it is difficult to maneuver into their drive - that is why we have a turning space!.  It is very rare that any one else gets to use it.

Unfortunately anyone parking in the turning space walks across our gate and drives the dogs wild.  You got it neighbours have complained to me - when it is them causing the problem.  Now I cant open my curtains because they stare in at me or the dogs cant wait to get out to bark at them.  The main garden is a no go area and we are all restricted to the back.

What I find most annoying is that when they moved in about 5 years ago they were always wanting to take the dogs for walks.  When I explained they were not easy for strangers to walk they may have taken offence and now complain at me.

What I really need to know is can I ask the council to erect a turning space sign, even if I pay for it, or can they park outside my house all the time driving the dogs to distraction.

Wouldn't this also contravene traffic laws? I've had neighbours blocking my drive (different problem, I know :(  ) and asked the police about the law. They were breaking it. We also have neighbours parking on the turning circle with 2 transit vans making it very difficult to turn. They have been reported to the police and the council. Now we only tend to have 1 parked there!

If they are using their premises as a B&B why not give the tax man a quick call (anonymously, of course ;) :D ) If they don't get the visitors coming and going things might start to calm down a bit. Then again, you could always ask the other neighbours to help start a campaign against this horrid neighbours ;) :D

Unfortunately I am having the same problem with new neighbours and it has caused me such misery and upset to the point of wanting to move again  but can't my eldest has Autism and would be detrimental to him.  My husband is at the fianl hilt and I can see it all ending in tears, I telephoned environmetal health myself and they were so good, sent someone out to me and we had a very good discussion it may be worth giving them a call because there are privacy laws and as for taking photos this is illegal we had a family at the ladt place we lived taking photos of "noise nuisance" we informed the police and he was given a warning and was old he couldn't do it.

Linda

Thanks for the ideas.  My neighbours, who keep their curtains closed as do I, have been very spooked by the strange behaviour of the nosey neighbours.  The children, now early teens have waved at the offending couple staring at them through their bedroom windows and the neighbors just waved back.  Sarcasm is totally lost on them.  When the bad neighbours are in the garden they shout very loud when speaking  and laugh so loudly the dogs are spooked and I have to bring them in or they will bark.  Since having a go at me - they sent me an email about barking dogs (form Bolton DC and we live in Cornwall) suggesting I have the dogs vet checked, walked more often, trained better and played soothing music to.  I find all of this offensive (they should see my vet bills) as they bark only at these neighbours and understandably the dogs do not want to have anything to do with them if I meet them out walking.

Those of you who know me will understand that the dogs are all trained very well, waked and socialized and are checked if they bark and stop right away or are taken into the house.

The turning space and access road have not been adopted by the highways department yet but I believe that will happen in year 8.  In this respect the police cannot help but I will certainly contact the environmental health people about the intrusions and photographs. 

Can only sympathise as I have no useful advice.  I think I would be speaking to the police though about them taking photos and staring in at people's windows for no good reason.  Surely there is an invasion of privacy here and I would hint to the police that it sounds suspicious if the house opposite has teenage children.  I would expect the police to look upon that sympathetically.

I know how infuriating parking problems can be which is why when we moved here I was pleased we had a double garage en bloc.  The cul de sac has only a handful of parking spaces but there are laybys around the corner if visitors can't find parking.  The access to the garages is directly outside our house and it is so obvious that it is the entrance to garages.  It doesn't stop people from parking across it occasionally and it drives me nuts.  One occasion I came home to find I couldn't access the garages so parked in tandem to the offending vehicle effectively blocking them in.  When they eventually knocked, apologised and then asked me to move my car I smiled sweetly and said "of course. I've just poured a cup of tea though but I'll be out as soon as I've finished it" 

BTW My dog goes loopy loo when she sees someone pass the end of the road, nevermind pass the house

Hi Christine,
have you thought about putting up full gates that cant be looked through for more privacy then the dogs cant see anyone walking past (although knowing B they can hear very well)
I would be enclosing myself in very high fencing if my neighbours were looking in .Plus knowing me I would be having a word as it wouldnt matter if there is an atmosphere afterwards as you are not getting on with them anyway.
You could always invest in an old banger park it up and leave it there!!!!!!LOL

Not call barking B for nothing are they LOL ....my three are so excited in the morning in the garden I do sometimes worry eventhough it doesn't last long I have lovely neighbours who love my girls they come out to hang over the fence for a morning kiss!!!!

Roni

I was just wondering about this turning space. Was there anything in writing when you agreed to  it, that gave a provision for it to be forever a turning space? it could well be that there is some civil action that could be taken. Pref before the highways take it over. As to the nosy neighbours, boy can I sympathise with that....had that problem when at my last home, so many problems with the family next door, as everyone did at one time or another. People kept their windows covered because of her 'watching' and many were actually frightened of her! I would ask Police advice, and also check with the council that she has whatever is needed to run a B and B.

Thanks once again.

For Beardies they are not great barkers but the TT's start them off and it goes through the pack but I always stop them the moment they start.  We are investing in 6ft gates for the back garden which joins the front at the side of the house.  The front garden has a six foot wall most of the way round only dropping to five feet at the gate and it is the five foot section of wall they stare over having planted a garden in front of the rest of the wall, which was never intended as the area was supposed to be left gravel for drainage.  The plans given to us before construction clearly state that the turning space is just that however quite a bit more of our garden was taken away to give the developer space to get traffic in and out so I doubt what he gave us will stand up in court.  I will check into that just incase.

Knowing the new rules on disabled access and fire regs etc I am pretty sure they are in contravention of most of them and they have had a visit from the fire officer recently.  They are German by birth and go over there pretty regularly but spend most of their time here so I doubt our tax office will want to know as they most likely pay taxes in there own country.  I will look into that again though.

Just to add - thought about getting all of Ash's mates around to park in the turning area and play loud music but it would not be fair on the rest of the close as all the little girls would turn out to hero worship him (he's the one who has alternately be described as Orlando Bloom or Justin Timberlake) and no his dad didn't look like either.

Get a copy of the title deeds and you will see what is shared access etc.

http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/lro/servlet/TitleSearchServlet?searchType=advanced

You are liable for taxes in the country that you live in if you are in the EU I believe.  Doesn't matter where they come from they are still beholden to the laws of the land (unless they have diplomatic immunity)

Try parking in the turning space yourself and see what happens :)

Have a chat with the developers (or are they not around?) - you may also find that they are not allowed to run a B&B according to their deeds

> You are liable for taxes in the country that you live in if you are in the EU I believe

Not necessarily :) Our European Sales Manager is based in Belgium (he is Belgian) and pays UK tax :)

Daisy

Think that's because the company paying him is based in the UK maybe?  I think the general rule of thumb is you pay tax in the country you earnt the income and then can claim it back if necessary or can get agreement not to pay it. I get dividends from American shares but because i don't live in the states I am exempt from US tax but not UK tax - could be similar

Thanks for the link.  They have had the B&B bit written into their deeds but there is also a bit about allowing right of way over the frontage and parking in the turning space may affect that. 

They are big money people and bought their house cash as well as having property overseas.  I can't understand why they want to run a B&B as well.  Anyhow I think I have found the new gates I want so I will get someone over to measure up. 

Hi echo,

I'm sure as already suggested that legally you can stop the parking altogether in this spot, you can police this yourself and also write down the number plates that are regularly using the turning point as a parking space.

As for the neighbour, I do sympathies and had a similar problem when we lived on a large new housing complex, (hence our move to the country) the houses were built closely with other homes overlooking our garden too, and a new neighbour moved in to the back of us, it was very un-nerving as the husband was always in the back bedroom staring into ours and our neighbours homes, he was even seen staring into our home with binoculars by our neighbour, it really gave me the creeps.

My husband eventaully knocked on their door and spoke to the wife about her husbands behaviour and it came back that he was watching the local wildlife, particularly the birds, (yeah, he was watching this bird constantly :-D ) it turned out there wasn't much we could do legally, I know my next door neighbour was very disturbed about it and began closing her blinds when he was home, it shouldn't be that way, but there didn't seem a lot we could do, without a long drawn out detailed diary and then solicitors, courts etc. I think he was a little worried after hubby going around as they moved not too long after to all of our relief, but it is un-nerving.

All I can advise is lead your life normally, try not to let others dictate how you live, open up your curtains and if the neighbours are looking in perhaps a rude gesture will make them turn their sights somewhere else, normal living, normal dog barking, normal children playing is not illegal :-) let them moan, and groan there is nothing they can do, but waste their own energies, try to think how sad they are and live your life.  Too many of these arrogant busy bodies are causing normal living too much stress, don't let them get away with it.

These types of people should be moved next to unsociable rough people with 10 kids causing havoc where their complaining and nosieness would come in handy, not next to normal living.

Try to see them for what they are and don't let them ruin your life, the best defense is to laugh and show you don't care. :-)

I love my house but do not like the on street parking as everyday people who work in town use our street of ten houses as a free car park.  I enquired into the laws of parking and the amazing thing I found is that you can block someones drive if no car is in the drive i.e block them out but you cannot block them in!  I automatically thought a lowered kerb drive meant do not park over it but apparently not! hope you get the resolution to the problem you want.

lovley dog craigles