Mother threatened with legal action over toy unicorn

Stuffed mythical creature at centre of neighbour row labelled a ‘nuisance and an eyesore’

A mother has been threatened with legal action for storing a toy unicorn on her shed roof.
Anna Smith was contacted by a neighbour complaining about her keeping the toy, as well as a children’s tricycle and a stepladder, on top of her garden shed.
The neighbour said they could see the items from their home and called them a “major eyesore and nuisance”. They also claimed to have contacted a lawyer, in a letter sent to Ms Smith.
Ms Smith said in a post on social media: “My neighbours across from us are re-letting their property and are saying that the items are a major eyesore nuisance and saying they will take legal action.
“Are my items actually legally an issue?”
She added: “They sent a similar letter the other day and I just responded saying that my children use the items and they said they were discarded and that I have tidied them up as much as possible.”
Ms Smith, who lives in London, said she covered the toys in winter but had still received two letters from the neighbour saying they did not want any items touching their fence.
She posted a picture of one letter that said: “As neighbours and a Christian community, we are anxious to resolve this matter amicably, but given our property is currently taking viewings on a re-let and this is a real concern of our agent, it has to be sorted out quickly.
“You’ll understand, therefore, that we have been obliged to run the matter past our lawyer informally at this stage…He confirms that this is an actionable private law nuisance and that he will be able to act swiftly if all items on the shed roof are not now removed by Thursday of this week at 4pm.
“We are also advised that such a failure, further to this final request from us directly, would make this ongoing nuisance clearly deliberate.”
People on social media said the neighbours’ complaint was “utterly ridiculous” and they needed to “get a grip”.
One poster said: “Does the unicorn face them? If it doesn’t I’d turn it around and paint its eyes with glow in the dark paint.”
Another said: “I’d ask them to kindly stop looking in my garden as this was concerning me, due to my children playing there.”