Do you talk to your neighbours?

I get on ok with my neighbours, one side usually only talks when she wants to borrow/ or help with something, the other side we usually just take in parcels for each other but don't really talk. Used to talk to more on the road but most have moved out now.

Yes I have noticed that over the years people talk less. We have had some really good neighbours but if I talk to the bloke next door it,s usually to complain. Apart from the one I have already mentioned which took place in 1979, they are the only other ones that have caused trouble, as follows.

The houses are semi-detached and as soon as they moved in he wanted to drop the chimney to lower his house insurance. I thought,well it will cause a bit of mess,but o,k if it saves them a bit on insurance. Now he must have assumed that we had central heating because he just removed our chimney pot and capped it off, but we had a gas fire. Luckily I got home from work before the scaffold had gone so I had a look, otherwise we would have been dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The next thing, the following summer we were sat in the garden one Sunday and his kids were playing in the back yard, they were slinging his plumb bob around and it flew over and just missed us, now if that had hit, it may have killed,I don,t know but it could well have blinded. The next thing, he renewed their central heating and we had the upstairs bedroom wall pouring water through, which brought the plaster down. A bit later the garden fence that he had put up,blew down,so he built a wall,but he only built it single brick wide,not double,so that blew down,and when it did it demolished half our greenhouse.

He then removed a lean too along with the ridge tiles so that left our lean too open to rain. Later he renewed the gutter and came 4 feet over our side,and just abutted it with no proper joint so it leaked down our wall, and when they were doing it a brick fell down and damaged our new front door. The following Christmas another neighbour just going to bed spotted her putting rubbish in the bins on either side,not communal, by the way. These two bins she left with the lids up, but not her own. A few years later he did the same thing again with the guttering, so it,s fingers crossed now.

My block of flats has communal bins.

So it wasn't her bin at all?

---------- Post added 31-10-2014 at 08:32 ----------

Yes I have noticed that over the years people talk less. We have had some really good neighbours but if I talk to the bloke next door it,s usually to complain. Apart from the one I have already mentioned which took place in 1979, they are the only other ones that have caused trouble, as follows.

The houses are semi-detached and as soon as they moved in he wanted to drop the chimney to lower his house insurance. I thought,well it will cause a bit of mess,but o,k if it saves them a bit on insurance. Now he must have assumed that we had central heating because he just removed our chimney pot and capped it off, but we had a gas fire. Luckily I got home from work before the scaffold had gone so I had a look, otherwise we would have been dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The next thing, the following summer we were sat in the garden one Sunday and his kids were playing in the back yard, they were slinging his plumb bob around and it flew over and just missed us, now if that had hit, it may have killed,I don,t know but it could well have blinded. The next thing, he renewed their central heating and we had the upstairs bedroom wall pouring water through, which brought the plaster down. A bit later the garden fence that he had put up,blew down,so he built a wall,but he only built it single brick wide,not double,so that blew down,and when it did it demolished half our greenhouse.

He then removed a lean too along with the ridge tiles so that left our lean too open to rain. Later he renewed the gutter and came 4 feet over our side,and just abutted it with no proper joint so it leaked down our wall, and when they were doing it a brick fell down and damaged our new front door. The following Christmas another neighbour just going to bed spotted her putting rubbish in the bins on either side,not communal, by the way. These two bins she left with the lids up, but not her own. A few years later he did the same thing again with the guttering, so it,s fingers crossed now.

Did he pay for repairs each time he caused damage?

I live in very close proximity to 20 other tenants and we only talk to only four of them because the others are just not very nice people.

So it wasn't her bin at all?

 

---------- Post added 31-10-2014 at 08:32 ----------

 

 

Did he pay for repairs each time he caused damage?

No. Not even an apology, in fact when I mentioned about the carbon monoxide he just laughed.

I'd have been presenting him with a bill for the damage.

I'd have been presenting him with a bill for the damage.

Yes, I know what you mean, but I know he wouldn't have paid, so I would have been battling through the courts with all the costs that entails for nothing in the end, at best a couple of quid a week.

Small claims is very easy to use really.

Do you talk to your neighbours?

I don’t have any. The nearest is over 10 miles away.

Hello and brief chats to next door on either side, but we don't go in each other's homes. I also know a couple of families across the street to say hello to, but that's about it. All very polite and pleasant, and that suits us just fine.

Small claims is very easy to use really.

The chimney I fixed myself because the materials were still there.The greenhouse would have come too more than the smalls claim court could deal with,so I demolished it. The bedroom wall I replastered myself with some plaster I had left over. With the lean too, the ridge tiles were still there so I managed to refit them. With the guttering,by the time theirs want's renewing ours wanted renewing as well. I think at the time a new front door was more than small claims court dealt with. The plumb bob came down so hard it left a dent in the tarmac of the yard but that needed re surfacing anyway.

Small claims is up to £5,000 isn't it... That's an expensive greenhouse and front door.

Small claims is up to £5,000 isn't it... That's an expensive greenhouse and front door.

I remember enquiring about it at the time, in 1984, and it came nowhere near the price of a new greenhouse,it was damaged beyond repair. The same with the door I think. That happened 12 years ago and cost £850. I don't know what the limit was by then but only about £500, I thought. The door which was modular plastic and one piece was just scratched by the way, but that does not excuse him just laughing it off the way he did.