Football playing on the street

KTRIC

I'm having a bit of a problem with youths playing ball on the street outside my house. One of which lives next door and is the son of one of the most ignorant men I've met. So there's no reasoning with him.

For the past few weeks they have been belting and I don't mean a kick around, a ball up and down the road as hard as possible and without fail it lands in my front garden or wallops off my windows. I don't know how it hasn't broken them yet. They've already managed to damage my flower bed and destroyed some nice lillys I had.

They were at this yesterday and after going out 5 times they eventually moved to the park which is literally around the corner.

Just noticed they're at it again today

Has anyone any suggestion on what I can do ??

fro9etb8j5qsl2

Is there a local residents committee? If there is, you could approach them about the problem and ask them to put a 'no ball playing' sign up.

When I was young I remember the neighbours used to ring the guards on ball players

edellc

I am in a similar situation as I live in a cul de sac of sorts except we dont have a front garden we do however have a communial grass area which is directly in front of my house, so not road or path seperating it, its is directly there so its like having the kids of the court yard all playing football in your front garden , didnt realise it was going to be such an issue when we moved in and at first it wasnt, however our own carla connor (by that I mean her annoying gob) moved in next door with her two angels one of which thinks he is wayne rooney and uses the brown bin (yes the bloody brown bin which never has anything in it) as his goal or a goal post and insists on hitting the leather ball at full force off it over and over again, to the point i want to go out and kill him

I have gone out and spoken to him as I have a 2year who's bedroom looks out on the courtyard and I am forever tearing my hair out trying to get him to sleep with them belting a ball off the bin making such a racket, and they always so oh yeah sorry but as soon as my back is turned they are at it again, I really dont want to say anything to the mother as she is a rough as sandpaper and very aggressive tbh

The only other option I see is turning into my nightmare neighbour when I was a kid who would come out and put a big kitchen knife in the ball in front of us or just take it into her house and it would never be seen again, but I really dont want to be that mean....and where I live there is nothing but bloody fields and these kids are old enough to go over to them but just dont, I have spoken to my LL who lives in the courtyard too but the other end where the cars park so no ball on her house and the neighbour rents from her too, but she wont do anything about it, she blames her memory I blame her laziness

Sorry OP that has been no help but just wanted you to see that others are in similar if not worse situations, so fingers crossed it rains all summer or else we may be hearing of either one of us in the papers

Zamboni

A good douse of a garden hose.

mikemac1

When, not if but when they break your window they'll all deny who broke it and it'll be you or your insurance paying for it

Get CCTV for outside your house.

Not to monitor the kids but to be there when your window gets smashed or your car gets a nasty dent or they maybe they damage your bike

Handy to have the CCTV anyway, burglaries are rife but that's a bit offtopic

mikemac1

Or else one of these who will take the ball and not give it back when it lands in your garden

djimi

edellc wrote: »

The only other option I see is turning into my nightmare neighbour when I was a kid who would come out and put a big kitchen knife in the ball in front of us or just take it into her house and it would never be seen again, but I really dont want to be that mean....

Why not? These little ****s dont care about you, so why do you care if you come across as being mean or not? Whatever it takes to sort out the problem and ensure that you can live in peace and quiet...

edellc

cause life is too short to be a bitch, and I know that they will grow out of it in a few years, I dont have a problem with them playing football its just the kicking the ball off the bin that is very annoying and noisy....will say it to landlady again and see if she can do something as she is head of residents committee and the sister of the landlady for next door, she owns most of the houses here anyway its just she is lazy but she calls it forgetful and im tired saying it to her again and again you get sick of hearing your own voice and sounding like a nag

djimi

Are you prepared to put up with it until they grow out of it? You have more patience than I have. Life is also too short to put up with that kind of nonsense.

I really dont see why you would care about coming across as being a bitch when this little brat are disrupting both you and more importantly your child. If he loses a couple of footballs quickly then he might get the message where he can and cant play football.

edellc

I dont care about coming across as a bitch tbh i dont care what these ppl think of me in general their nothing to me

however its a very small courtyard and everyone knows everyone and although my neighbour has her own front door we share an outer door so life would be very very uncomfortable, she is also very aggressive which I am not and very confrontational and my Landlady seems to be friends as such with her (she gets her hair done as neighbour is hairdresser) so I know that I would come across as being the one with the issue that they dont see as an issue

There are easily up to 15 kids in the courtyard and they all play football outside the door which is fine they have no garden front or back just this communal area so I understand, its just her kid kicking the ball off the bin which I find really irritating

So watching to see how this month goes and if he continues will say it again to LL as I have said this before to her and she told me she would hand out a list of what is and is not allowed in the courtyard and football was one of the things not allowed, we live surrounded by fields and this kid is old enough to go over to one of them and have a lot of space to run and play ball, but his mother doesn't allow him she wants him to stay outside.

I like where we live and dont want any trouble and her next door will definitely cause trouble if I say anything and I still have just under a year left on my lease so that would make for a very long 10mths

But I appreciate what your saying life is too short for this crap and no I am not prepared to put up with it until they grow up, as we had really wanted to stay here for a while as I had enrolled my child in the local school, but this kid next door is really starting to grate on me and its a shame to move from such a secure nice area because of one little knacker.

the_syco

edellc wrote: »

but his mother doesn't allow him she wants him to stay outside

Do you have any sort of a garden (however small) in front of your house? Fill the bin up, "accidently" place in front of her garden, and wait for it to be tipped over. See how quickly he stops when it's her lawn that gets ruined?

edellc

no garden the grass starts outside my window and finishes over at the window across the way one big open communal space with a BBQ in the middle at the back wall and a bench and at the other end of the courtyard the cars park with an archway into the place, so no chance of them knocking bins over as they are all left either side of the windows, and the lad takes the brown bin from my other neighbour puts it in front of my window but out a bit and uses it as his target, when its not at my window its over at the back wall still in the grass area and he lies it down and kicks the ball into it

so good suggestion but not workable at all as no gardens for any one

athtrasna

Sounds like you live in a development with a management company if you share a front door? If so use that route. There would potentially be common area insurance issues

edellc

yeah we do have a mgn company that come and look after the grass area and send letters to take down the ireland flags from the windows its all done through my landlady as she owns most of the place and i have said it to her over and over again but next door is owned by her sister and my LL gets her hair done by her so she wont say anything and next door know that my LL is head of the resident committee so any letter sent is on the request of my LL

Can I go over her head and just ring the people who come look after the grass, will I have to tell them my name and stuff as I dont want to piss off my LL

And sorry KTRIC for hijacking your thread.....can you ring the guards (wont work for me) but as your a street it may do, also are you in a council estate as they can also be rung if you are

trishasaffron

Guys - there is no way of dealing with this. Believe me - I've moved 3 times and through bad luck found myself each time adjacent to wayne rooney wannabees. The house I'm in now is a semi d in a small private development but outside the development I happen to have neighbours with football mad kids/cousins/friends whose balls come over the extremely high walls 3/4 times a day at this time of year. Kids then clamber over my walls to retrieve or come round the front climb over my side gate or ring my bell when I'm having a lie in early on a sat morning - lets face it - we live in a football mad country.............no amount of complaints are going to change things.

athtrasna

edellc wrote: »

yeah we do have a mgn company that come and look after the grass area and send letters to take down the ireland flags from the windows its all done through my landlady as she owns most of the place and i have said it to her over and over again but next door is owned by her sister and my LL gets her hair done by her so she wont say anything and next door know that my LL is head of the resident committee so any letter sent is on the request of my LL

Can I go over her head and just ring the people who come look after the grass, will I have to tell them my name and stuff as I dont want to piss off my LL

And sorry KTRIC for hijacking your thread.....can you ring the guards (wont work for me) but as your a street it may do, also are you in a council estate as they can also be rung if you are

You're mixing up management companies and agents. But it looks like you are referring to agents. You can approach them but most MAs won't deal with tenants, they will direct you to your landlady.

KTRIC

edellc wrote: »

And sorry KTRIC for hijacking your thread.....can you ring the guards (wont work for me) but as your a street it may do, also are you in a council estate as they can also be rung if you are

I had a meeting with the community liaison officer this evening and he paid them a visit. Hopefully this will sort it. If not then there are other steps I'm prepared to take like getting them done for trespassing.

Graces7

It is hard indeed to be confrontational but it gets easier with practice ... and if you do not stand up to these people, they will take advantage. Been there done that too many times and have stopped doing it now.

The results when you simply say and act NO can be startling and easy.

edellc; these lads should be in the fields. They are learning that they can do whatever they like and annoy who they like.

I once had this with a large ball coming over the fence again and again and I simply confiscated it. They stopped playing. Grudgingly and if looks could have killed.... But looks cannot kill. Nothing to fear except fear itself.

In a real sense we get the living conditions we accept.

Not an issue I have out here; just making sure the ll keeps his fences in a decent state so his cattle cannot get in. Came home last evening to find eight calves at the fence looking for mama!

Graces7

mikemac1 wrote: »

Or else one of these who will take the ball and not give it back when it lands in your garden

I love this!!

uberalles

I remember a neighbour cutting our ball into 20 pieces and throwing it over his wall back at us.

Once it went over his wall we knew that was the end of the ball.

His garden was right beside the park / play area.

Catweasel

You mention a landlady so you are a renting and not tied to the propoerty other than with a lease I presume?. Would you consider moving when your lease is up. I know it's hassle but if it's causing distress then it might be better.

piperh

Graces7 wrote: »

I once had this with a large ball coming over the fence again and again and I simply confiscated it. They stopped playing. Grudgingly and if looks could have killed.... But looks cannot kill. Nothing to fear except fear itself.

Surely if the people had decided funny they could have accused you of theft as you were eeping something that didn't belong to you? Not saying i would do it or agree with it but perhaps thats not the best of advice.

Personally i lived in an estate of 50 houses around a big green and the kids used to use our wall and the empty house next doors driveway as the drive pillars made perfect goalposts. Never bothered me i kinda expected that when i moved into an estate of 50 4 bedroomed houses there'd be kids around and when theres kids theres noise, footballs and broken plants.

Graces7

piperh wrote: »

Surely if the people had decided funny they could have accused you of theft as you were eeping something that didn't belong to you? Not saying i would do it or agree with it but perhaps thats not the best of advice.

Personally i lived in an estate of 50 houses around a big green and the kids used to use our wall and the empty house next doors driveway as the drive pillars made perfect goalposts. Never bothered me i kinda expected that when i moved into an estate of 50 4 bedroomed houses there'd be kids around and when theres kids theres noise, footballs and broken plants.

Bolded says it all...

They did damage more than the cost of a ball, and this was not a large estate like that where many of us would never live.

After trying to stop my garden being ruined, to no avail? It was a lesson that was needed and that worked as they never played with a ball in that place again. As with others, there were great places to play nearby for them.

piperh

Graces7 wrote: »

[/B]

Bolded says it all...

They did damage more than the cost of a ball, and this was not a large estate like that where many of us would never live.

After trying to stop my garden being ruined, to no avail? It was a lesson that was needed and that worked as they never played with a ball in that place again. As with others, there were great places to play nearby for them.

Hehe i suppose your right about the ball costing less and i can see how tempting it'd be, i just questioned the fact it could have got you into trouble.

Yes outside ours there was a big green they could have played but they prefered the driveway and road :rolleyes: I suppose we got up to the same when we were kids. I'm afraid our nuisances were more of the knock door run type, and if we knew we were annoying someone we only got more of a kick out of it

Del2005

edellc wrote: »

no garden the grass starts outside my window and finishes over at the window across the way one big open communal space with a BBQ in the middle at the back wall and a bench and at the other end of the courtyard the cars park with an archway into the place, so no chance of them knocking bins over as they are all left either side of the windows, and the lad takes the brown bin from my other neighbour puts it in front of my window but out a bit and uses it as his target, when its not at my window its over at the back wall still in the grass area and he lies it down and kicks the ball into it

so good suggestion but not workable at all as no gardens for any one

Some dark night could fairies drop a load of rocks or concrete into the unused bin(s)?

edellc

^^^^^

have thought of that one too my OH isnt keen as all the houses look into the courtyard so if its noisy then there will be twitching curtains and we will be caught red handed, but really liking your suggestion hehehehe

Graces7

piperh wrote: »

Hehe i suppose your right about the ball costing less and i can see how tempting it'd be, i just questioned the fact it could have got you into trouble.

Yes outside ours there was a big green they could have played but they prefered the driveway and road :rolleyes: I suppose we got up to the same when we were kids. I'm afraid our nuisances were more of the knock door run type, and if we knew we were annoying someone we only got more of a kick out of it

Children need to learn some respect and consideration for others. Never too young for this.

piperh

Graces7 wrote: »

[/B]


Children need to learn some respect and consideration for others. Never too young for this.

Ah we didn't turn out to bad in the respect and consideration department, we grew up to be a teacher, a police sargeant and steel welder. Not saying what we did wasn't mean and as adults we realise that but as kids it was fun. And unfortunatly kids throughout the years have got and still do get more of a kick out of annoying adults who they know respond.

Graces7

piperh wrote: »

Ah we didn't turn out to bad in the respect and consideration department, we grew up to be a teacher, a police sargeant and steel welder. Not saying what we did wasn't mean and as adults we realise that but as kids it was fun. And unfortunatly kids throughout the years have got and still do get more of a kick out of annoying adults who they know respond.

:rolleyes: