You Can't Choose Your Neighbours - We're On The Move Again

You can't choose your neighbours, but with a bit of luck you might at least be able to meet before you move in to a property, as we were able to with ours.

Our neighbours seemed very accommodating at first, even helping me with some of the concreting of the mast bases which are still on the garden. Then one day they changed, reporting us for petty things on a weekly basis. We are sure we hadn't upset them. They broke into our shed twice - we have the video evidence. They took advice from their Facebook friends on how to cause damage to our aerials, the print-outs of which were handed to the landlords. They cut the mains earth cable to our property, resulting in electric shocks, especially when taking a shower. I could go on. There is much worse than this, but I cannot say for legal reasons. We have it all on video. They report us, week in, week out, for anything they can find.

We typically get several complaints a week from neighbours. Our landlords (private housing association) are very understanding and usually laugh it off, as they did yesterday when they visited regarding a complaint about my Triax FM3 which sits very quietly by itself, behind a tree, below fence height, free-standing on a small tripod base, well out of sight from everybody but our immediate neighbours. Even they would not be able to see it unless they purposely stick their head over the fence and look for it.  It's ridiculous to think that it could possibly be a problem.

The landlords are aware of the written permission we have for the 9.2 on the roof, but were keen to see this new alleged 'fixture' on our garden. We showed them. They looked for it. They studied it. They laughed. They told us not to worry and left.

It is a well known fact that we have problem neighbours. They seem well-known in the area and we haven't heard anybody say a kind word about them. However, me in my very understanding nature sometimes sympathise as I don't think any aerial is a pretty sight and I know that large DX antennas are considered a blot on the landscape by many people, but we have always done our best to be polite and reasonable with the neighbours. The problem is, being nice doesn't get you anywhere with people like this, so we are now closing all ties with our neighbours.

To be fair, the neighbours are only a small part of our problem. Our real problems are the ever-increasing rental costs and additional charges (spare room tax) forced upon us by our evil government. These two things have forced us to start looking for a new and more affordable home. We don't know where we will go and we don't really have any money to move, but we have no choice. We are a high priority due to the fact that we live in the largest disabled property of its kind in the area, which is in high demand, so we have been told that this puts us virtually at the front of the queue. My wife is registered disabled (two forms of epilepsy), so we are limited by various factors surrounding that, but we are going to be as selective as reasonably possible, but we are not in any real position to choose.

Hopefully we will be able to find a nice quiet location for the radio and closer to the sea, with a bit of luck.