Odd Neighbours / Neighbour Problems

[DoctorWho]

My neighbours above me have 3 kids (I think). They seem to think it’s ok to let the kids constantly jump off the beds and onto the wooden floors, ride their bikes/scooters back and forth the apartment from 7am-8pm, and generally run riot 13 hours a day.
I’m at the end of my tether and close to tears most days. They’ve now started bouncing balls in whatever room is above my bedroom.

 

[Jojoo]

My neighbour is so nosey they’ve been poking the wood knots out the fence to peep through. I find them on the floor and pop them back in but they do it again. Saw her finger pop one out the other day, I just keep popping them back in. Don’t know what else to do

 

[KINGAA]

Our neighbour plays music in his garden so loud every night around 7pm I can’t hear my TV on the opposite side of the house - it’s like a club in my own home.

 

[Herefortheteabot123]

My neighbour has a strange adult son who sits outside all day petting cats, literally all the cats on the street go and sit with him... Ive come home to him sat outside with 10/15 cats at once..
My favourite which happens about once a month (im guessing parents have really put their foot down as hasn't happened in a while)
There has been a few times where the parents have come home which is quickly followed by shouting and screaming, the front door is flung open and cat boy runs out with a cat usually in his arm and 10 running out after him... it honestly gives me endless laughs

btw I'm a smoker not a stalker so witness this on my smoking trips outside

 

[peachhes]

Not really a neighbour problem but a bit weird.

Moved into our new house in October and a month or so later the neighbours opposite accosted me and accused me of setting their alarms off when I reversed onto my driveway - she said it sets off really loud alarms throughout the house and that there’s alarms on the fence at the front of their house. So I apologised and thought nothing of it albeit a bit odd... then I thought well if my car sets of these deafening alarms surely the postie would or a passerby? Anyway I looked and there are no alarms on the fence just reflectors.... and ever since they come and stand on their doorstep and watch me park most times I get home. Bizzare.

 

[GiggleBee]

Our neighbours across the road sunbath in their front garden, invite all their friends over and weve had them rolling around drunk out the front before! They also play Babmington out the front. Its all very odd, we tend to go out the back way if theyre out.

Oh and they wanted me to catsit once while they were away and I had to go and introduce myself to the cats a week before

 

[Practically Perfect]

I don't have any bad neighbour stories but in my old house, one of the neighbours used to wash the gravel on her drive. Not with a hose pipe. She would wash it like she was washing the dishes - very odd and would take her hours. Whatever floats your boat.

I currently have a wheelie bin inspector; I have know him my entire life and he is lovely but come bin day he turns into a squadron leader; he checks everyone's multiple bins and shouts at you if you have put anything in wrong. He collects anything he doesn't think appropriate and takes it to the tip. He wears a high viz jacket and directs the bin men (am sure they love it....ha).

God love him, he is annoying but he is retired and I suppose he is bored; on the plus side we have the cleanest, immaculate street.

He also paints everyone's window sills annually; even if you do not want him to and he decides the colour!

 

[MrsJones83]

My neighbour asked me to stop our cat from going into his garden. Am I supposed to be watching his every move and stop him from doing what cats do?
if you don’t like him in your garden, just shoo him away! something so small and trivial, but he’s a miserable arsehole and I’ve never liked him so this annoyed me even more. Bear in mind here that he is literally only wandering around sniffing things, just being a cat, not doing anything wrong.

Tbh, I’m with your neighbour! I’ve got 3 children, and I’m forever clearing up cat poo from their play areas, it’s dirty and it stinks. I hate it. We get 3 different cats wandering in from various neighbours and it drives me absolutely insane.

 

[Sailorontheseasea]

My MIL’s neighbours are terrible. So many stories but they make my poor in laws lives hell the majority of the time (all started over putting the bins slightly too much on their drive by about 1cm!). One particular occasion that springs to mind is when we took our newborn son over to meet his grandparents and aunties, he must have been about a week old. It was the really hot heat wave summer so we were all outside but that’s when they decided to start spray painting in the garden and by spray painting I mean literally just stood there with their fingers on the cans gassing up the garden and my in laws. The smell was horrific and choking. But what was worse is that my FIL went upstairs to look out the window and they were stood pointing and laughing at the fence just spraying all this shit into the air. Sick fucks doing that knowing there was a newborn next door. So many more stories from them but they really are vile.

 

[Facehugger]

My OAP neighbours opposite are lovely, but god the woman is so nosey. She's got to know your business & pass it round. I call her Hilda Ogden. I was decorating once & I decided for a laugh I'd tape the currant bun over my windows. She asked me one day why I'd put paper over my windows, and said she thought it was to stop my dog looking out and barking at people going past.

I said 'no, I'm decorating, and it's to stop nosey bastards looking in at what I'm doing'

 

[idk2]

I dont have any annoying neighbour stories which means.... I must be the annoying neighbour.

This thread is my guilty pleasure though!

 

[Itsallaboutmememe]

Oh god-just remembered the time my mates rabbit died (of natural causes!)
she didn’t have a garden so asked if she could bury ‘Bertie’ in mine
i had no problems with this at all so she came round clutching an old hat box
now both sides to my house had really evil neighbours-the only people in the street that had any issues with me-they where friends and would wind each other up something rotten
anyway I’m digging a hole,when my mate spotted both neighbours hanging out of ones bedroom window-watching us
my mate being a big gob shouted ‘you can stop watching us!we’re only burying a body!’
both heads disappeared and we thought nothing of it

until a cop car pulled up about 5 minutes later-they’d rang the police to report that we had murdered someone and where burying their body in board daylight!

I felt a right tit having to open this bloody hat box to show them a dead rabbit and try to explain that was what I was trying to bury

they did have words about ‘wasting police time’

we moved not long after

 

[purplepixie_3]

Not my neighbours, but my sister arranged for a magnolia tree to be cut down in her garden when she moved into the house, as it took up space and blocked sunlight. The old lady next door to her shouted over the fence to the tree surgeon telling him to stop as it was her favourite tree and was crying. Bearing in mind this tree is in my sister's garden and is nowhere near the old lady's garden or house. He chopped it down anyway. She cried again to my brother in law when they bumped into each other out the front. He apologised, but they haven't spoken to her since. I would've felt bad for her being elderly, but she's been awkward with them from the day they moved in over other things.

Something similar with my friend when she purchased her house. The front garden had a large bush of pampas grass and once I explained to her that it was associated with swingers she very swiftly wanted to remove it

When she did decide to remove it her neighbour opposite came running over shouting “I don’t think you know what you’re doing! This is a lovely plant and I like watching it sway in the breeze outside my kitchen window”
To which my friend said “oh sorry. Well you can take it if you like”
The neighbour then replied with “I want you to put it back”
With my friend responding “No, I’m removing it and replacing with lavender”

Her neighbour stormed off home effing and blinding! Why do people feel entitled?

 

[37BBL]

Bad neighbours can really destroy you living somewhere. We bight our first house about 11 years ago. The guy we bought from was a single mid 30s. On his forms to solicitors he declared there had been an issue with a previous neighbour regarding noise but since the new couple had moved in there had been no problems. It was a fairly new build semi, very thin walls.

We move in and all is fine. We never planned it to be our forever home, but we knew we would start a family there. The couple next door seemed fine, but one day they moved out and the house was empty. A few weeks later, a guy comes to the house and seems to be living there. We pop round to say hello and introduce ourselves. He seemed nice, military man and said he was away alot and tends to be home for a few weeks at a time and sometimes weekends. He has been renting the house out before but decided to use it himself again.

We had a few weeks where everything was fine. Then the music started. At first we weren't fussed, thought he would be winding down and it was a one off. It got louder and worse each day. Our walls would be shaking and it went on past midnight. We went round the next morning and politely said it wasn't really acceptable, he was great - really understanding and apologised.

I fell pregnant with our first baby and was struggling with pregnancy. I was trying to rest and the music was unbearable, this was about 11pm at night. Partner went round and invited the guy round, told him to sit in our lounge and listen how loud it was. He was apologetic again and we thought things would improve.

Had our baby and he went away for a while, assuming work related. It was bliss. Then he came back and it got worse. I went round one morning with the baby and explained that I really didn't want to be a moaner but if he could just turn it down a bit and that I know the walls are thin and he might hear our baby crying etc and I didnt want to be a hypocrite in that sense. He invited me in, had a chat with me and even showed me some renovation work he was doing on the house. I left thinking this it it, I've turned a corner with him. The next day, music was even louder. He even went out and left it on one day. It was horrendous and I would honestly say it ruined my maternity leave. I would find any excuse to go out and spent so much time away from the house. I spent days in tears to my mum because I hated where we lived because of him. My partner would get so cross because of how I was feeling. No word of a lie, if i hear certain songs now that he would play on repeat I get anxious or if I hear bassy music it takes me back, even 8 years on.

In the end we put the house up for sale. We had lived there for 3 years. We sold it within a month and bought a detached. I wouldn't even entertain viewing a semi. I bloody love our house now and that we have no chance of bassy music blaring through our walls. And when we had our second baby, i relished my maternity leave being able to stay at home and not be on edge.

 

[Kofi Annan]

We actually flitted from our privately owned home because of constant noise/crime issues with our council tenant neighbours. I genuinely suffer from PTSD due to their behaviour.

We put up with it for 5 years but when the ASB team of the local housing department response with "we never evict, why don't you just move?" we knew that nothing would ever be done.

Loud dance music 24/7, lifting fence panels so their vicious dogs could shit in our garden and chase our small children, birds of prey not secured being allowed to fly around, rat infestations due to waste not being disposed of, painting our windows black, pouring paint through the sunroof of our car, being physically violent if they saw you, verbally abusive all the time, letting their grandkids (yep they were in their 50s) run riot around the house all night.....I could go on.

I remember sitting on IKEA carpark in our people carrier, with my husband and 4 kids eating a packed picnic because we couldn't stay in our house but couldn't afford to go anywhere. We'd aimlessly walk around free places just to get out of the house. Horrific.

In my work I sometimes support victims of ASB and it is rife. The police are not interested and my best advice is log, report everything and visit ASB Help website. Local MPs and councillors can be informed and gather as much evidence as you can. I wish I knew more at the time.

 

[ClockworkDolly]

Bad neighbours can absolutely impact on your mental well-being. If only our houses were not so close to each other in Britain. I love those streets you see in America with the huge driveways, wide roads and a bit of distance from the ones next door.

 

[Kofi Annan]

That is just horrific! What did you do with the property afterwards? For some reason it's really hard to evict a council tenant. Especially if they have support needs such as being drug/alcohol dependant, which they get extra points for in the first place. A friend of mine had 7 years of hell from her neighbour who just terrorised the whole estate. Drugs, parties, threats, violence, dealers, prostitution, child neglect. They had meetings with officials, the police, had the noise ap. The people were being protected because they were on their 3rd and final house from being evicted! They threatened legal action against the housing association in the end to get anywhere. It is just crazy how many hoops you have to jump through with problem neighbours.

We let it become repossed. We couldn't afford rent and the mortgage and we could not sell it. We had tried a few times before we fled and they we all come out in the street, shouting obscenities, lobbing beer cans etc...even when we moved out they tried paying the removal firm to tell them where we were moving to.
That was 9 years ago now and they never came after the debt. As far as we're aware (through Experian) about 40k has been written off and the house was sold via auction.
It's affected me so badly that I can't look at pictures that show that house, my children were born there but all I can remember is the anxiety, stress and frustration. I can't even drive past it.

 

[Tui]

I live in a flat and am fortunate to have relatively quiet neighbours and don’t have a clue who any of them are. However my parents live next to some right whoppers. They live in a lovely small Yorkshire village, very middle class. The house next to my parents is the last remaining council house in the village, the rest have been sold off by the council. This would be fine except the people who live there are total oddballs. They have 3 adult children who all live at home, were homeschooled and barely leave the house. They come across as quite emotionally stunted, childlike and probably neglected. My parents largely ignore these neighbours but have been driven mad at times by their dogs barking all day long. Sometimes it’s clear they aren’t home and the dogs are left to bark for hours. I think they had 4 large dogs at this point (they also have a bunch of cats).
Eventually my mum contacted the council to report the dogs being left for long periods barking loudly which you can hear clearly through the walls. The next day, two fucking freshly dug GRAVES appeared in the neighbours back garden and it was quickly apparent that the man had killed two of the dogs.
The neighbours then proceeded to tell anyone who will listen, including some roofers who were doing my parents roof, that my parents killed their dog through stress. Obviously didn’t mention the fact he probably hit the dogs with a shovel as well. Nutters!!!

They’ve done other stuff too but my parents just ignore them now as they are going to move house and don’t want to have to declare any grievances.

 

[judsmum]

My neighbours cat comes into my garden and digs up around my flowers particularly the rose that my Nana bought me and it shits all over it - she’s dead now and it’s very special to me. They also came round to my house to shout at me when same cat appeared in my garden only to have my dog chase it which apparently according to them, he shouldn’t have done. So, YOUR cat comes into MY garden, shits all over, digs up my flowers, gets its comeuppance when my dog scares it (the same dog whose shit I actually pick up) and YOU come round to scream at me?! No, love - I shouldn’t have to just accept that you and your feral cat think it’s perfectly acceptable to do that. I felt like throwing bags of dog shit over her wall.

 

[Sam Wood]

I’ve got some fun neighbours!
We have quite a big garden, it’s about 35 meters long and the house out the back of us has only about a 10 meter garden. I used to get ready in the back bedroom in a morning, get a shower in the bathroom, get in my underwear and then go into that back bedroom to straighten my hair, get my clothes on and do my makeup. I then received a message from the woman out back that I may want to close my curtains when I was getting dressed as her elderly neighbours (who can’t even see in this room from the angle of their house) had made some comments about being able to “see my tits” which was ridiculous cause I didn’t put my underwear on in that room.
So it ended up with me sending some messages back winding her up cause I thought it was hilarious. To be fair after this i did it more just to piss them off.
A few weeks after she’s stood on her actual ladder at the fence with a video camera videoing me getting ready from my bedroom window so I got the police involved who cautioned the silly cow! ive since had 2 children and she’s always at her bedroom window looking in when the kids are in the garden. They also have no joke 7 cctv cameras just out the back. Maybe to record my “tits” in a morning