Keeping up good relations with the neighbours can be tricky - and you might expect respecting each other's personal space to be a decent starting point.
Gardens, in particular, can be a safe haven from the hustle and bustle of the world and a place to recline and reflect with a spot of me time.
But one resident has told how the tranquility of her home has been broken by neighbours who persistently pop round without permission, reports the Mirror.
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The exasperated woman shared her experiences on Mumsnet - and how the neighbours keep letting their kids climb over the fence into her garden.
She says they clamber in whenever they need to retrieve a ball they were playing with - instead of knocking on her door to ask for it back.
In her post, the woman explained she recently replaced her fence with a taller one but still suspects her neighbours are climbing over - and has even heard them talking about their plan to sneak onto her property.
She said: "I don't particularly like my neighbours. They have a lot of unruly children, and the family as a whole are generally quite loud and irritating. That said I'm happy to keep myself to myself, and accept noise is a fact of life when you live in a built-up area and houses are only a few feet apart.
"What I do object to is them intruding (for want of a better term), into my property. The children used to ride bikes on my driveway, I now keep my front gate locked. They also used to frequently climb over the 4ft fence between our properties into my back garden. I replaced it with a 6ft fence last year but have had suspicions they still enter my garden as things would be moved, or I'd hear a ball being kicked over but when I'd go outside to look there wasn't one there.
"Today I was in the garden and found 4 of their balls that must've been kicked over earlier today which I threw back. I always do throw the balls back, although sometimes it might be a day or two as I don't go out in the garden every day, am at work, can't be bothered going out there if it's raining etc.
"They very rarely knock to ask for the balls back and rely on me throwing them over but if they do ask I give them back straight away."
The woman later heard the family next door talking to each other about how there were still two balls in her garden - and the children asked their dad to "lift the fence panel again" so they could sneak in themselves.
She added: "So about half an hour later I hear all the kids in the garden (it's warm and sunny here today so I've got windows and doors open) whining to the parents about how their balls are in my garden, and can't dad just lift the fence panel again so they can retrieve them.
"Their dad kind of fobs them off ineffectually but it's clear this is what they've done more than once for them to even suggest it. They're still going on about it an hour later and saying they'll climb over my gate then and get them that way."
The woman insisted she finds the neighbours' actions "intrusive", and asked fellow Mumsnet posters for advice on what she should do next.
She said: "This isn't on, is it? I wouldn't have dared go in someone's garden when I was a child and there's no way my parents would have allowed it either. I'm now trying to work out how I can stop them lifting the panel because clearly although they didn't do it today they have and I'm sure will again. It feels really intrusive and unpleasant."
Commenters were quick to respond with their own tips, including getting security brackets for her fence to limit the ability to lift up the panels.
One person said: "Use fence panel security brackets or clips, either to secure the panel to the post or to the next panel along."
While another added: "It might be a good idea to put another fence on your side, without removable panels. I know you shouldn’t have to do that, but it would certainly stop them from getting in by lifting panels."
