Neighbours’ row which started over lawnmower spirals into excessive fences
- Grandmother from Northern Ireland is in a row with her neighbour
- Heather Maxwell claims she was once friendly with woman but relations soured
- Her neighbour erected a tall ‘ugly’ blue fence separating their properties
A dispute between neighbours over a lawnmower has escalated into a five-year spat as each has built their own fence to divide their properties.
Frustrated grandmother Heather Maxwell says she was originally friendly with her neighbour when she moved in eight years ago and would mow the women’s front lawn for her.
But the 61-year-old became angry when she said her neighbour borrowed it for a fourth time without asking first.
Relations soured further after Ms Maxwell asked to trim her neighbour’s 16-foot back hedge.
The grandmother-of-four was then appalled to discover her neighbour had erected a six-foot-high wooden fence between their front gardens.
And she hit back by building her own fence to run along it – painting it jet black.
Heather Maxwell, 61, has been embroiled in a dispute with her neighbour lasting five years
The grandmother-of-four was appalled to discover her neighbour had erected a six-foot-high wooden fence between their front gardens in June 2023
Ms Maxwell claims this ‘ugly and imposing’ blue fence is now all she can see from her window
Before the dispute: A picture of the two properties prior to the fence being erected
Ms Maxwell had already complained to the council about her neighbour’s fence, who responded by shortening it and then painting part of it blue.
Ms Maxwell posted on Facebook to brand the lady a ‘nightmare neighbour’ over the paint job.
Ms Maxwell, from Northern Ireland, said: ‘One day [in June last year] she started building a fence down the front garden. Before this, it was completely open other than a little chain[link] fence.
‘Right away I said ‘why are you doing this?’ and she said ‘I’m doing it for myself’ and she went and slammed the door and built the fence.
‘I contacted the council and I said ‘it’s a danger, I can’t see past a six-foot fence when I’m coming out of my drive.
‘I can’t see past it to look out for pedestrians and it was actually over the footpath. I said ‘it’s a risk, somebody’s going to get hurt’.’
The grandmother says her neighbour then made changes to the fence by making it not span the full length of the garden and dip lower towards the front so that drivers can see around that section.
Ms Maxwell believes things were made even worse when her neighbour painted it bright blue in August.
She said: ‘When I got home, she was painting the very bottom and I made it very clear saying ‘what are you doing?’.
The dispute began after the 61-year-old stopped offering to mow her neighbour’s lawn due to her rheumatoid arthritis and told her she could borrow her lawnmower instead – but claims she did so without asking first
Ms Maxwell caught her neighbour leaning over the barrier to paint her side of the fence in blue
The fence, before it was painted blue, has become a point of contention between the pair
‘It’s not in keeping with the park, which is well kept and tidy.
‘I can’t see anything from my living room window now but the blue fence. I’m quite minimalistic so everything in my house is black and white. It’s just a horrendous colour.
‘From the other side of the fence, as you’re coming up the park, all you can see is this big blue mass. It’s just so obvious.
‘It’s ugly and quite imposing. She has her PVC white windows painted a really dark green.
‘She can only reach to half of it [on my side]. If I look out my window, it’s quite badly painted. She hasn’t done a good job of it and the bottom half is completely wood. It’s a patched-up mess.’
Paint it black: Ms Maxwell said she would like to come to an agreement with her neighbour over the fence
Heather said: ‘She moved in [eight years ago] and I was mowing my front garden and her front garden.
‘She didn’t have a mower. After about three years, I have rheumatoid arthritis, so I thought ‘no, I’m not doing this any more’ so I stopped.
‘She took exception to that. No discussion. She asked me one day to borrow the mower and she used it maybe three times.
‘On the fourth occasion, she walked past my living room and went to help herself to my lawn mower to use it.
‘I came out of the front door and I said ‘where are you going with the lawnmower?’
She said ‘I’m just going to use it’. I said ‘no, you need to be asking’.
She said ‘well I thought I could just use it’.
‘In 2021, I went and asked her, could I get my two son-in-laws [who] would trim the top of her back hedge.
‘It’s about 16 ft high and she said ‘no’.
‘I said ‘it’s a south-facing back garden that I have and I’m not getting the sun’. She said ‘no, absolutely not’.
‘I ended up having to go to the local council about it.’
Ms Maxwell, who is also a mother-of two, hopes she and her neighbour will be able to agree to shorten the fence and paint it black, but warns others that neighbourly disputes ‘don’t get resolved overnight’.
Heather said: ‘I would like it to be painted in agreement to black. When I put a formal complaint in to the council, I asked for it to be just one metre high and 30 ft [in length].
Relations soured further after Ms Maxwell asked to trim her neighbour’s 16-foot back hedge, as she felt it was blocking her sunlight in 2021
‘I have grandchildren and they’re only four and five and I can’t even let them go beyond the grass now, because I can’t see any traffic or any cars. It’s just not safe now for them to be out.
‘My advice to others [dealing with a neighbour dispute] would just be to stay calm and be in it for the long haul as it doesn’t get resolved overnight.. Even if you’re turned down, keep going.’
The neighbour did not respond to a request for comment.
The local ouncil declined to comment.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed they attended a property in the area of on Friday 27th August.
Police said they spoke to both parties in relation to the matter and no offences were detected.
