From the article: Landscaping Considerations When Buying a House
The more time you spend outside in your yard, the more you expose your life to your neighbors. While many of us seek a backyard oasis from our landscaping, a haven where we can commune with nature and experience a feeling of serenity, the reality is that bad neighbors can send serenity packing in a hurry!
Most all of us have a horror story to tell regarding bad neighbors. Maybe it's a mild annoyance you remember, such as a bad neighbor whose chronic complaining could make a sunny day seem gloomy. Or perhaps it's something worse you recall: e.g., has a bad neighbor ever threatened you with a frivolous law suit?
Share Your Stories
Bad Neighbor Experience After Move
- We moved from CA to St. Louis, Missouri in 2006. I started being stalked by a bad neighbor, who lives down the street, within two months of buying our home. The couple who lives right next door to us has threatened me, and the man tried to hit me one day, in my own drive way. They told the police they did all of this because they are afraid of me because I served in the Navy. One cop decided to become the new best friend of these people. I had to write the police chief to get some relief. Everyone leaves me alone now, but the damage has been done. I have been slandered so badly that no one will even try to get to know us. We only know these people by their actions. Everywhere I go I feel unwelcome and I have no friends. I don't try with people any longer as I've had many negative experiences here in St. Louis. All friends and family are back in California. No one has given my husband a hard time, just me.
- —Guest Susan
Bad Neighbor Irresponsible About Runoff
- My neighbor diverts all his rain water into my property, including his swimming pool drainage.
- —bad112
Bad Neighbor With Childcare Business
- I live in beautiful sunny San Diego, but i can't enjoy my backyard because of my bad neighbor who has a childcare home business. The problem is that they have those 12 kids outside all day long, sometimes from 8am to 6pm. The kids are screaming, crying, eating; they even change their diapers in the backyard. This has been going on for the past 10 years. Sometimes I think those kids are in danger because of the continuous screaming. They have a pool and a tree house in the back yard. And the kids go crazy outside. Even when it rains or gets cold those kids are outside. I remember during the fire season when the air was not clean, the kids were still outside. Those are neighbors from hell. And on the weekends the parties begin from 3am or 4am to after midnight.
- —Guest nona
Bad Neighbor Takes Squatter's Rights
- Steve and I have not been a couple for a long while now. After asking him to move out, nicely a year ago, more aggressively as time went on, he moved into the apartment upstairs. He has taken squatters rights to the shed and the garden, and has been piling up trash. He has allowed his 16 year old to cuss, swear, play basketball and football, and make loud noises. I have written the landlord and there is nothing they can do. The most disgusting things have been the teenagers hanging out on the porch, hocking loogies, smoking cigarettes, and, yes, urinating at my entrance. Last night took the cake, and please understand I have been aware of Steve's "friend" for months now, and good for him. They have a habit of hanging around in the foyer, making whispers, and whatever. Last night they decided to loudly do the deed. So I knocked on the wall and said, "come on, guys, get a room!"
- —AMSUNSHYNE
Stalking, Scary Neighbor
- I have a neighbor that is horrible. My children and I were selling girl scout cookies and he started following us around and blocking us from escaping. We had to call the cops for safety. He picks fights with my husband, who has a temper. He stalked me at 6 in the morning when I was watering my plants, in my backyard! When he cuts his grass he swerves onto our grass. I need help. If we don't do something soon he could end up hurting my family. Do anything you can. I need help badly. He could do something more terrifying than what he has done already. I'm scared to leave my husband alone because he always says that one day he will go off on him. I'm scared for my daughter to drive because when he sees her he ends up acting like he is going to hit her.
- —Guest Lillian
Bad Neighbor's Clients Park on Our Grass
- Our bad neighbor lives across the street and runs a day care business out of her home. She had one client that thought our front yard was her parking space. Every morning when she would drop off her kid -- and at night when she'd pick her up -- she would pull her car all the way up into our front yard. Several times we had to rake her tire marks out and re-seed our grass. I got sick of it and went across the street to ask my neighbor to tell her client to stop doing that. My neighbor was so ignorant that she refused to come out and speak with me (even though she was sitting right in her living room where I could see her from the front porch). She sent out her employee/relative instead. I explained why I was there. To this day that neighbor throws me dirty looks when she sees me, but at least the client stopped parking in my yard. Probably because I threatened to call the police. Hard to believe some people are so rude!
- —Guest Wanda
How to Stop Dogs From Barking
- My favorite Aunt lost her voice box to cancer. She lived in an area where people allowed their dogs to bark all night. Because she couldn't yell at the dogs, she recorded their barking and played it back loudly whenever they barked for longer than five minutes. It's amazing how fast people started controlling their dogs when they heard their own dog's barking amplified. Might work with kids and cursing neighbors too!!
- —Guest smart aunt marty
Bad Neighbors Thorns in Our Side
- It started with them complaining about a rooster crowing, it made them freak, scream, froth. We moved them to our acreage. Then it was our horses, we moved them. I brought our pony to the house one day to have her feet checked (better access for the ferrier), within a 1/2 hr the bylaw officer was there. Then they we're yelling and cursing at my 6 year old to get the F*@k off their property; she went into the ditch in front of their house because there was a car coming. When i went to the station the next day to make a complaint, they were there making another complain about us. Then we took down all our fences because we couldn't have animals. What do they do? They take legal action against us saying they owned the fence, that it was a line fence (not so). They've phoned the police on us about a million times, they would come and just tell me to have a good day, that they had to show up. They've phoned the bylaw officer at least 2 dozen times. His response was the same as the police.
- —farmerfifi
Bad Neighbor Deserves Toilet Fountain
- I have a neighbor that has 10 parking places between his house and his mother-in-law's house, there are 3 cars in both houses, We have 4 vehicles for our place, and have to park 2 in the street. Well because my bad neighbor next door does not want us parking in front of his mailbox at night, he puts his truck in the street, plus the 2 from across the circle leaving only 1 spot for us, and one for the house next door. To get even, i plan on painting my house a bright pink color with an eye painted over the garage because the old man has to stare at our place. We are unable to park in the yard as it is against the law here, and can not put a car in the back yard for the same reason. I doubt his stupid tricks are going to stop with the parking wars but will not break laws to get even; i just want him to be miserable at this point so a pink house with a toilet fountain in the front yard should go well, Where can I find 1000 pink flamingos?
- —Guest Sean
Bad Neighbor Locks Me Out
- My bad neighbor enjoys locking me on the roof. She did it 2 times so far - not to anyone else except for me. If she hears me or my boyfriend up there, she runs upstairs and quietly closes the latch on the roof door...leaving me to have to climb down my fire escape to get back into my building... dangerous! If she hears someone up there not knowing who it is, she first checks to see who it is... Obviously, if it's not me she makes herself known to the person that she was just checking on... We are not allowed to go on the roof, but many people in the building do, which the super is aware of, and he told us he is fine with it as long as we don't leave a mess... For some reason she is the roof police? God forbid something happens to me on the way down the fire escape!!!
- —Guest Upset!
Perennially Bad Neighbors
- For 24 years we've had bad neighbors harassing us. I am one of 3 kids. When we were lil we used to sit on our deck or play in our yard quiet and they would come out and curse at us and tell us to shut up and be quiet and would threaten us. We have had the cops come many a time but they keep doing it. They are always walking in our driveway and sometimes even parking or blocking it. We have a dead end alley behind us and there isn't much parking but when their grown kids come to visit they take every one of the alley's spaces. When I leave I have to pull my dads car out of the driveway and into my spot so that when I get home I can park somewhere. They have about 15 grandkids and they are always in and out of our yard. We put a chain on our gate and they still come in our yard and these bad neighbors say, "Go ahead, kids, we own that and if they tell you to get out tell them it's not their property its ours." They are hateful to the whole neighborhood and say they own the block.
- —76ers3
Bad Neighbor Offers Unsolicited Advice
- I still live next to my bad neighbor. Daily, he tells me how to take care of my yard, how to raise my kids, that I need to let my 11 year old walk alone places and go with him places alone and cook alone. I've asked other friends with kids older than my son what they did, and I'm doing just fine. This man has 2 children, but doesn't have custody or much visitation for that matter, shouldn't that raise a flag?
- —Guest Stuffy
Strange Bad Neighbor
- I've had a bad neighbor for about 9 months. Family next door is very disgusting. The father of the family harassed me by saying he wants take pictures of me, offered me birth control and to be a stripper. The rest of the family is very unsociable and they like to watch us thru the window. When I'm out front, they purposely close the door loud so I can hear it. They try taking the whole parking spot around my apt so I have no place to park. I thought to myself: maybe I am thinking too much; try to forget what is going on, But it started to become very obvious that they want to make it uncomfortable for me to live. Now every time I am out, they come out and see what I am doing, they do not let me use a shared yard with them and they purposely park their car in front of my garage even though my landlord wrote a letter to them not to park in my spot. and they watch how I react to it from inside the house thru the window. Why would someone live for bothering their neighbor? I don't get it.
- —Guest yuki
Bad Neighbor Terrorizing Us
- I have a bad neighbor who, every time I go outside to let my dogs out, comes out and screams at me for no reason. Now, my dogs have actually run on his yard only a total of 3 times in about a year, but, any time they go to the property line and come back, he comes outside and terrorizes them -- and me. And right now I'm 13 weeks pregnant and I have a 3 year old. He straight up scares me and he's called the cops on us twice. How do I get him to move cause I feel like he's going to do something worse while I'm here with my 3 year old alone. I'm scared for our safety.
- —Guest Jenny
Smoker Not Such a Bad Neighbor....
- These stories are horrible! Especially the ones with people spraying poison and cutting down trees and messing up peoples' gardens, that would drive me insane. I only have a smoking neighbor whose smoke blows in my open windows at least once a day. My mom, though, has a large property and lots of neighbors to war with. Barking dogs, dogs pooing on her lawn, and one guy who cut down all his trees and bulldozed the debris down the hill into her part of the forest. At least he didn't cross the property line, like she'd originally suspected. But if he lets that place he mowed bare grow back, it'll be a solid mass of impenetrable blackberry DEATH.
- —Guest bill
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