'Entitled' Neighbors Spying on Next Door's Yard with Binoculars Spark Fury

Mumsnet readers are supporting a woman battling with "nosy" neighbors who "wandered" into her yard without permission.

The woman shared her frustration with the forum's Am I Being Unreasonable? (AIBU) thread, explaining that her neighbors had come over unannounced and distracted the workers installing her new patio. It was not the first time the neighbors had ignored her boundaries, added the homeowner, who used the handle "unname."

Most Mumsnet users agreed that the neighbors had crossed a line, but the post has sparked a debate about the difference between being nosy and being neighborly.

1 in 4 Americans Have Feuded With a Neighbor

According to a survey published in April by LendingTree, 73 percent of Americans dislike one of their neighbors. The poll of 1,537 consumers found that Generation Z, North-Easterners and people living in apartments were most likely to despise the person next door.

The top reason cited was "giving off a weird vibe" at 28 percent. Noise and rudeness were in joint second place (27 percent), followed by pet disruption (17 percent) and nosiness (16 percent).

Different age groups had different reasons for hating the neighbors. Generation Z reported a strong dislike for smokers, while millennials were the most likely to complain about pets. Baby boomers loathed messy yards, whereas Generation X got more annoyed about rudeness.

How many of these bugbears escalate into full-blown arguments? A 2021 survey of 2,000 adults, conducted by Homes.com, found that 36 percent had fallen out with a neighbor and 25 percent of fights had turned into a long-term feud. Forty percent said they actively tried to avoid their neighbors and one in five believed their busybody neighbors were spying on them.

'Who Does This?'

In the Mumsnet saga, which began with a post on August 19 but is still being discussed on the site a month later, unname explained that she and her husband were having a patio installed. The first task was to pour the concrete. While the contractors were busy at work, her neighbors walked into her garden and began asking the workers questions, irritating the woman.

"It is a mess with wet grass, mud, concrete, tools and men working," she wrote.

"I looked out 30 minutes ago and saw neighbors wandering around with their coffee, asking questions, standing smack in the middle of the project staging area, in front of tools and equipment, talking to the men.

"I was floored! Who does this?

"The workers were looking very confused and uncomfortable."

The poster and her husband decided to speak to the neighbors, but the response they got surprised them.

"I told them I was shocked to see people in our yard and to please knock before doing that again," she wrote. "This is a real boundary issue for me.

"He said 'Well, we will be back in an hour to watch them stamp the concrete.'

"I was just so surprised that they didn't immediately apologize, and continued to feel they had a right to be on our property without permission."

In later comments, she explained that this isn't the first time the neighbors have made her uncomfortable.

She added: "They are entitled—parking their caravan on the street for months. Asking a neighbor if they could hook it up to his electricity. And [they're] admittedly a bit nosy. She once told me she sat and watched work going on in our yard from her window for hours with binoculars."

The majority of Mumsnet users were unimpressed at the neighbors' behavior, with Serenitymummy calling them "entitled a*******."

10HailMarys agreed, writing: "You can't just wander into someone's garden whenever you feel like it, just because there happens to be some work going on there."

"Totally out of line to interrogate the builders on your time," posted GrumpyPanda.

BeastOfBodmas suggested the poster "go and set up in their yard, take a lawn chair and your work stuff. See how they like it."

However, some commenters felt the woman was "overreacting," with NippyWoowoo calling her "dramatic and exhausting."

"They weren't in your house!" said justagirlstandinginfrontofacake.

"God all that drama just coz the neighbours wandered over to have a look at the patio being laid," said FloweryFlora. "You couldn't make it up."

Newsweek has not been able to verify the details of this case.