Respect thy neighbour: We've talked about nuisance neighbours before - now Paul Thompson has advice on how to avoid becoming one yourself

摘要

We all know that catchy theme song about "when good neighbours become good friends", but unfortunately not many of us are on such happy terms with whoever's over-the-fence. A friend of mine recently arrived home to find half the trees along his eastern boundary had been cut down - a fact communicated to him by a triumphant, smiling neighbour standing on a pile of freshly sawn logs. While we can't be responsible for the actions of our neighbours, we can do our part to prevent hackles from rising unnecessarily. Communication is often enough to save things from getting out of hand - even if what you are planning to do isn't totally to their liking, the fact you have informed them first somehow makes it easier to live with.