Garden Fence Options

We've recently moved to a new house with a garden, which we wanted so the kids could play safely. Obviously, when they're playing football or tennis there is a risk of the ball going into the neighbours garden. They are a middle aged couple (no kids) who look after their garden and won't put up for too long with our kids climbing over the 4ft stone dividing wall to fetch their balls.

I want to avoid any aggro. It's not that the couple are nasty or anything - they have been helpful since we moved and are generally OK, but I dread the day when my kids kick the ball at their single pane windows and smash them. To be honest, I wouldn't like it either if I were in their shoes.

I was going to have a sports fence put up along the wall, but since the wall is theirs they objected. They also commented they wouldn't like it on the grounds that it would look like a prison camp.

I thought that perhaps I should consider restricted the kids ball games to one area and putting one of those cricket nets there so that we could be sure that the ball won't go far. It'll be safer because at the bottom end the garden faces a busy road and I don't want the kids chasing after the balls on there.

So the questions:

  1. What options are available to erect a suitable barrier between our and the neighbours gardens?

  1. How much of a say do they have in what sort of fencing I put up on the edge of my garden?

  2. What is the maximum legal height for a garden fence.

  1. What if we put up an 8ft high washing line and hung some nest from this as and when the kids were playing. The netting could be easily taken down when not in use.

  2. Would I require permission for cricket net type apparatus?
Reply to
S R
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Tell the kids to play ball games elsewhere and reserve the garden for family activities like barbecues and the like.

Reply to
R

I am afraid this is..in all reality, the best option. There is a doctrine of 'quite enjoyment' as a right for any householder, and strictly that means kids don't rush around yelling their heads off booting curvers into your windows. However the reality is that people are to an extent tolerant.

This is a case where I would definitely go and knock on the door, and ask to speak, and outline your dilemma openly sincerely and honestly, and make sure that whatever they are prepared to put up with, is clearly understood, as is the principle that if they change their mind, they only have to say so, and you will 'cease and desist'

What is legal is not what you need or want to know: if it gets to legal you are already living in a bad atmosphere, where relations have broken down.

What you want is a fully understood friendly relationship with your neighbours, where they have been able to set limits that you WILL abide by (no screaming in the garden after 7pm etc etc)

What you DO NOT want is sudden disappearance of planted vegetation due to surreptitious application of weed killer, caltrops sprinkled in your drive, and your kids coming up in a rash because the ball came back coated with a rare south american poison. ;-)

When I was young we did all of that lot, and when the neighbours 'told us off' we were suitably chastened, and did not call them obscene names and nor did our parents immdiately take our side, and threaten them with legal action: Instead the whacked our backsides and told us not to annoy our elders and betters again.

It reminds me of a dreary half an hour I spent at a party once many years ago in another country being regaled by a bored German housewife on the terrible parties and endless noise generated by her neighbours. And on what I thought her rights were and should she call the police etc etc.

After discovering this had been going on for months and months, I clucked and said 'and what have you said to them, and did they listen?'

'Oh, no, I have neffer spoke to them at all'

Someone defined the socialist state as being 'a way of getting someone else to do to someone else, what you yourself are too lazy and lack the courage to do for yourself'

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

It's generally considered polite to *ask* before retrieving balls etc. You never know, your neighbours may well throw the balls back over if you treat them with respect.

Reply to
pete

One we had when a nipper .. used to delight in kicking the ball back over the fence where we'd kick it back;)

Till his missus came out and started grumbling!..

Reply to
tony sayer

Some interesting views, and all sensible.

Our previous house was in a neighbourhood of large terraced Victorian houses, with hardly any garden space, not even enough for off street parking really. In that neighbourhood, kids play in the streets. They were loud, boisterous and care free, but never rude, confrontational or intimidating. However the noise levels could get annoying, and there was no point in keeping a nice car (bikes and balls being the danger, not theft) , and recently the first signs of a gang culture beginning to emerge could be seen. This is why we moved.

I guess I thought that by not letting the kids play their preferred games in their garden would be an oppression upon them, and I was wanting to try and see if I could balance their wants with the rights of the neighbours. But this "quiet enjoyment" doctrine is a just one, and I will re-think this issue with this doctrine in mind.

As regards the fences, any view from a purely decorative perspective?

Reply to
S R

Too many to list

None as long as what you do is entirely on your own property.

6ft I think.

I can't see why.

Having had to endure it for 10 or more years until the neighbour's kids grew old enough to stop doing it I'd also suggest you consider the noise nuisance to neighbours of footballs and tennis balls slamming into wooden panel fences all day long. The constant crack, crack, crack coming from just outside the lounge window can drive you nuts. The kids are oblivious of course as apparently was the she-devil who spawned them who could only ever shriek abuse if you tried to discuss anything sensibly with her. Netting sounds a good idea or a trellis with foliage growing on it would prevent such noise.

Reply to
Dave Baker

Unless you are in a restricted planning zone, normal accepted planning height for a boundary fence is 1.8m from ground level (your side) to top of fence.

Posts must on your land .. centre of fence line is usually the boundary.

It's your garden, & your kids ... enjoy. As long as your enjoyment does not constitute a nuisance, is not outside the

0700-2300 zone, and is not an eyesore then you are OK.

Fix posts up against the diving wall, and 2' fence panels as infill's, make sure you don't encroach boundaries ..... by all means explain what you are doing .... but other than that, get on with it.

Reply to
Rick Hughes

It used to be when we had old money (6'), but it's 2m now (6' 8").

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Yup

Nope, that's the kind of assumption that leads to neighbour disputes.

It *can* be the boundary and *may* well be(especially if it's a party fence) but "usually" ? Not around here.

Cheers,

John

Reply to
John Anderton

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