Good fences may make good neighbors, but they also reveal which neighbors enjoyed having no boundaries.

This homeowner planned a small fence to protect her garden, future shed, and eventual adopted child.

Conveniently, the neighboring family left for a weekend, removing the only practical objection they had offered.

Surely that solved everything, right?

AITA for putting up a fence when my neighbors went away for the weekend?

I used to put up fences for a living. My wife and I (both women) recently bought my aunt and uncle’s old home.

The house has a large back garden with narrow paths along the sides of the house and this leads to a front garden that’s about 1/3 of the size of the back, and is half grass and half paving stones.

They have neighbors on both sides with the same setup.

The house is number 85. There is no fence between 85 and 83. 83 has 3 kids under 10 y/o.  My back garden has a lot of space to run around.

As there is no fence and my cousins are similar ages to 83’s kids, my aunt and uncle often let 83’s kids come over and play with my cousins, and 83’s kids have continued to use the garden after my aunt and uncle left.

I have nothing against kids, nor does my wife, but we have plans for the back garden.

They will need the space.

These include putting up a shed, maybe a few flowers, and we’re starting the adoption process soon, so we want our kid to have space to play outside.

I went out and measured the property lines a couple of weeks ago, and the husband of 83 came out and asked what I was doing.

I explained about the fence, said I would pay for it and put it up myself, told him about my former job doing exactly this, and asked when would be best for me to do it.

He said not to do it at all.

I asked why, and he said they have a baby and I can’t be bashing about with hammers and the like.

Her neighbor basically bossed her around.

I said I would try to keep it down, but I would like to do this.

He then asked why I needed to, because things were fine as is.

I said it’s nothing personal, but I’m putting up a shed, and I just don’t want his kids coming onto my property and getting hurt.

He then said I can’t put up the shed for the same reason as the fence, and I could see we weren’t getting anywhere and went back inside.

Then Thursday night I’m coming home from work and I see the dad loading bags into their car. Saturday morning and the car is still gone, and has not been seen since Thursday.

I figure they’ve gone away for the weekend and as the issue with me putting up the fence was the noise for the baby, now would be the time to do it.

She did everything right…

I bought the fence materials that day. I used wooden posts/panels and gravel to hold it in place. Whole thing was done by Sunday lunch.

The fence posts are 1.8m and half of that is underground.

These things aren’t moving until the end of time. It’s on my property and less than a meter tall so I didn’t need permission from council or 83.

They got back Monday night and this morning I’ve woken up to knocking.

The husband wants me to get rid of the fence.

Says it’s an eyesore and he’s worried his kids will get injured on it. I tell him it’s on my property and it’s staying.

He says he should have been consulted because it’s surrounding his property and his wife hates it and thinks it’s really ugly.

Legally I’m in the clear. Morally, AITA?

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Why does her neighbor think he can tell her what to do?

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this.

Exactly.

It is pretty clear.

Food for thought.

My thoughts exactly.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who steps in to stop illegal driveway construction for friends down the road.

Another reader chimes in.

This homeowner installed a lawful, professionally built fence while the neighbors were away, eliminating their stated concern about disturbing the baby.

Their new complaints about appearances and safety suggested they primarily resented losing free access to someone else’s garden.

They wanted an open relationship with her backyard.