Love Thy Neighbour... continued

'The Day the Worm Turned!'

Imagine being woken up one morning by a noisy vehicle and upon looking out of the window seeing an 18 ton lorry being driven across the front of your property and narrowly missing the guttering on your porch. This happened on the 25 November 2020 at 07:15. Before we could do anything about it the lorry drove off having delivered kitchen equipment to our neighbour's property. My wife and I decided that this was the final straw and we realised that something had to be done to clearly define the boundaries of our property. I couldn't talk to my neighbour about the occurrence as, by now, he was no longer speaking to us so we decided to just leave a bin there.

We were advised that any object placed on our land to define the boundary without restricting the driveway width was acceptable as any attempt to move it would be a trespass. Realising that we were 'making a rod for our own backs' we decided it was worth it to make a point.

We placed our rubbish wheelie-bin at the edge of the driveway on our frontage to define exactly where the driveway boundary was and were surprised to see our neighbour, the next day. wheeling the bin back to its normal place in front of our garage. What a neighbourly thing to do, we thought, as he obviously thought we had forgotten to put the bin back. Unfortunately, this was not the case as he had moved it so that he could drive his car off of the driveway across our frontage which was a common occurrence!

We put the wheelie-bin back and our neighbour seemed to get the message. His wife, however, was unable to drive off of the driveway without frequently brushing the bin with her wing mirrors but, eventually, she got used to it. Other visitors also hit the bin regularly, fortunately without damaging it, which showed just how often they were driving across our land to reach the street! We lost count of the number of visitors that actually moved the wheelie-bin so that they could drive onto the driveway. I started to challenge them and received abuse as a reward. One couple in an estate car accused me of being unreasonable and aggressive when I pointed out that they were trespassing!

We had been informed on a number of occasions when challenging visitors who had parked on the driveway that our neighbour had actually told them to just move the wheelie-bin to gain access and not to worry about it!

At the beginning of 2021 we purchased a red wheelie-bin, weighed it down with rocks and placed it at the corner of the driveway. We also placed signs on the wheelie-bin stating that "No Parking" was allowed on the driveway and we put a sign on the top of the wheelie-bin stating that it was on private property. It had little effect as visitors ignored the "No Parking" sign altogether.

We also installed CCTV so that we could see callers at our door, monitor the end of the driveway and the wheelie-bin. What we recorded over the months was often shocking and showed how totally rude and disrespectful our neighbour and his visitors could be. I won't bore the reader with all the incidents but the one that sticks in our minds happened on 20 November 2021 at 17:25 when our neighbour decided to move our wheelie-bin, so that his visitors could drive across our property and park on the driveway. We were on holiday at the time so he took advantage of this for his own purposes, which shows just how devious he can be! He didn't even try to hide what he had done by putting the wheelie-bin back in its original position, he just left it where he had moved it. Another of my neighbours put the wheelie-bin back a couple of days later.

In March 2022 we had had enough, when Mr Angry parked his private car blocking the driveway and I wrote a very strong letter to my neighbour telling him of our problems with his visitors parking on the driveway and also his parking so that his vehicles encroached on the 'right of way'. I made no threats of legal action but I did inform him of what action I thought could take if the situation didn't improve. I hoped that this would focus his mind

I hand delivered the letter and, as usual, the door was opened by my neighbour's wife. I explained what the letter contained and that my wife and I were at 'the end of our tether'. She was extremely apologetic but made it quite clear that she had no influence over her husband, indeed no one could influence him. I was also told that he had stopped talking to me because he didn't want to discuss the damage done to the driveway and it was during this conversation that I became aware that he never intended to keep his promises to reinstate the driveway.

Parking improved thereafter but, Mr Angry managed to upset everything when he had a delivery of what looked like large floor tiles. He had them dumped at the entrance to the driveway and took over 3 hours to  move them. We had just made our wheelie-bin a semi-permanent feature by surrounding it with large rocks. This made any attempt to move the wheelie-bin a clear case of trespass.

Tuesday 28 March 2023 Today was the day when, having thought things could not get any worse, I experienced a shocking event which really upset both my wife and I.

My neighbour had been employing a new contractor, who appears to be Eastern European with a heavy accent and only moderate English, for some weeks (we are so glad to have seen the back of Mr Angry) and there had been no real parking issues to date but that changed the previous day when the contractor parked his very large van on my neighbour's property partially blocking the driveway entrance and my right of way. I spoke to the contractor's assistant and the van was moved back unblocking the driveway.

This morning, the contractor again parked so that his van was partially blocking the driveway entrance so I waited for the contractor/driver to appear and asked him if he would please move his vehicle back off of the driveway entrance. There was ample room for him to do so. The response I received thouroughly shocked me!

His response was to laugh at me and tell me that he would not move his vehicle. I asked him if he was definitely refusing to move his vehicle and he said "yes" and burst out laughing again. I pointed out that I could not drive off of the driveway and he replied that I could move my wheelie-bin to make enough space. I advised him that the wheelie-bin was there to define the driveway boundary and he again laughed at me. I then asked him why he was laughing and he replied "We are all laughing at you".

 This was the final straw so I asked him to tell Mr Brown, my neighbour that I would see him in court but, the contractor just laughed at me again and told me that there was nothing I could do. I pointed out that I could sue my neighbour and cite him, the contractor, as the reason but he just told me, and I quote, "I am older than Mr Brown so take me to court and see how far you get!"

When I re-entered our house my wife pointed out that the contractor was the same one we had problems with a couple of years earlier, who kept asking "Why do you not say hello?" and told us that he had permission to park on the driveway. He seemed very strange then and even stranger this time.

We have nicknamed him 'Ivan the Terrible'.

This was the final straw and my wife and I took steps to once and for all tell Mr and Mrs Brown that we were no longer prepared to put up with their behaviour. They have been told in no uncertain terms that the next step is legal action. It seems to have done the job, for now, as the parking situation has significantly improved albeit with a 'knock on' impact on our other neighbours as Mr Brown is now parking, at the time of writing, 3 of his vehicles on the road.

Mr Brown and his wife were advised that they were failing to comply with the covenants of the property deeds with regard to parking on the area of the driveway over which my wife and I have a 'Right of Way' and the very important covenant that states that they "Must not cause a nuisance or inconvenience to any of their neighbours". I truly do not believe that Mr Brown even understands or cares about his responsibilities to others, let alone any intention of considering them.