A mum has been left fuming by a 'breach of my privacy' because her two neighbours talk to each other over her garden fence. Posting on Mumsnet, the mum said that the layout of her street means that her garden backs immediately onto the garden of the house opposite hers.
Further, the two neighbours at the centre of her complaint live at a diagonal to one another. That means that one is the house next to hers and the other being the one opposite. She says that, because the pair of neighbours live so close, they have chosen to talk over the fences of the houses surrounding them.
It has angered the mum who's been caught in the middle. She says the neighbours stand on objects to see over the fences and in doing so can see into her garden while they chat - invading her privacy, reports the Mirror.
In her post, she said: "The houses on my street back into gardens from the people behind with no path in between. The issue is with people behind and people next to us. I think they are close friends.
"They constantly talk in the corner of the fence between mine and theirs. This happens quite a lot so not just a one off. The fences are relatively high, about average adult height, but they stand on things to speak to each other over the corner of the fence, or they are shouting over to get each other's attention.
"I was in my garden playing with my dog and I had two people talking at a higher height than me at the corner of our garden. As someone who suffers from social anxiety too, it might be just me (maybe others wouldn't feel so annoyed), but I felt like my privacy was breached."
The mum insists her neighbours also don't move when they see her using her garden and says she feels as though she never gets to use her own garden because her neighbours are "always in".
She added: "They don't budge when they see me either. because they are stood up high I feel awkward as hell like they can see my whole garden and into my house. They are always in too! One side has six kids that are all home schooled so they are often talking over the fence too. I wouldn't mind if it was just the kids, to be honest!
"I feel more awkward with the adults having a conversation. I just feel like there's often someone in corner of my garden."
Commenters on the Mumsnet post sympathised with the woman and did their best to offer solutions - including planting a tree in the corner of her garden to give herself some much-needed privacy.
One person said: "Oh I'd hate this! You could buy some bamboo in pots to put in that corner - won't stop them gassing but at least they can't see you/you see them."
While another added: "Can you put a mature tree up? That would drive me bonkers too."
And a third noted: "Massively rude, would really hack me off. You can get clump forming bamboo that doesn’t spread too much. Otherwise a large bushy evergreen, maybe something spiky…"
