It's no fun having a crummy neighbor.
My wife and I fell in love with a home in the Desert Southwest several years ago. It was everything we wanted but for one thing... our rotten neighbor.
His house was in such a state of disrepair I was reluctant to walk on the east side of my home. I feared the neighbor's rusty swamp cooler would fall off its second floor perch and kill me. Then there were the four foot weeds, the storm drain in front of his house that would clog and flood the neighborhood during monsoon season, the trash, the cats, the overgrown trees. You get the picture.
Anyone else have stories to share?
11 Comments
Jim said:
I know the frustrations of having a difficult neighbor, but there is something you can do about it now. In a recent seattletimes or pi article rottenneighbor.com was discussed. Interesting site and a decent, although not 100% acurate way to take a look at the neighborhood and neighbors in an area before you move there. Best of luck.
Dan Rush said:
We had rotten neighbors, illegal aliens from Guatamala. Can you say "Illegal aliens" King5? As of late you've been covering up for them by calling them "imigrants" "Migrants" and refusing to report them as "Illegals" when they commit crimes, like burning a baby to death in a fire pit.
Must be that liberal law breaking mentality again.
unknown said:
You can always check the your local ordinances. In many areas, landowners can be warned, then fined for unsightly property.
friend said:
I know of a neighboor hood that has a certain individual that has done so much devisation to their property the State and the County have put a stop work order in. It looks like a tornado went through it. The natural path of water has been deverted and now sits 7ft below where it is suposed to exit the propery and is now a mosquito breeding ground. The health dept is also due to get involve from the exposed drain field. He has continuously pulled the stop work order signs and will not respond. Now is he vacated the state due to some serious recent accusations and since no one can get a hold of him, the property just sits.
Arlington woman said:
I have a neighbor that thinks he is above the law in many ways. He resently brought in a logging company to log huge trees that happen to be on wetlands. When the county posted stop work signs he just removed them. Now the county & the Department of Ecology cannot contact him because he has left the state. We are left with the mosquito farm that looks as if a tornado ripped through it, not to mention I can't remember the last time the lawn was mowed. I also read that he claimed he was a landscape designer for 10 years (I'm guessing that is not true). Since this guy has much bigger fish to fry I'm guessing his landscape is the last thing on his to do list.
a rotten neighbor said:
I guess I'm a rotten neighbor. 3 years ago my husband was diagnosed with cancer,and its been an uphill battle all the way. With 2 small children and a very sick husband to care for yardwork has become my last priority and the cost of hiring someone to do it is beyond our budget. I know our overgrown yard irritates my neighbors, it irritates me too, but I have more important things that I need to do. My neighbor has never asked if I need help or offered to help, he just shakes his head and gives me dirty looks whenever he sees me. Before you judge your neighbor find out why things have fallen in disrepair, and if the look of your neighbors house is so important to you offer to help.
Kari said:
horrible neighbors huh? I had some tweakers move in behind me and they would toss their garbage over the fence into our yard...my dog stepped on the glass and was gushing blood. The vet visit was a couple hundred...lovely. Their psycho pitbull broke through the fence we had just put up...ate my two pet rabbits and tried to attack my smaller lab that had just recently fell victim to a huge shard of glass. Cops did not a thing. Humane soceity did nothing. Their yard was too small for all the insane dogs they had. Never fed their kids..always came over asking for food. Then when they moved out they had torn out all the fixtures...cabinets...lighting...carpet..destroyed ahardwood...fridge...washer/dryer...gutted the place...Top that?...By the way we owned the property and could not legally kick them out til they didn't pay rent for so long....Looked for every loophole
peggy weeks said:
I have a nightmare neighbor that moved in over a year ago, took the old roof off and still has not replaced it, now it's covered with tarps. He stays up all night, so if he does work on it, it's after 6pm. His place looks like Katrina hit. He has not put out a garbage can in the time he has lived there. He has had to be told several times that he cannot run a band saw at 4 in the morning. What is a person to do?
Shelley said:
I have lived next two nigtmare neighbors for 5 years. It all started back in 2003. We bought the house on Nov. 1, 2002. My husband became deployed to Irag in Jan. 2003. He was gone for 6 months. When he returned he was finally able to clean up our yard. We have a lot of trees and so does our next door neighbors. All the trees were over grown. The neighbors tree limbs were hanging 30 feet into my yard. They are white pine trees. My husband asked the man next door if he would mind if we trimmed the branches off our property. He said we could cut anything hanging on our side. They also have a stockade fence inside the trees. My husband trimmed and actually made the trees healthy again. The woman who lives there saw the cut tree limbs that were still on the ground and came over to my house livid. She accused my husband of butchering her trees and destroying her fence. He did a great job and cleaned up everything afterwards. She went as far as to press charges against my husband for malicious damage to her fence and trees. The fence or trees were never damaged. We had to hire a lawyer and the case was dismissed. But ever since then these two "people" and I use the term "people" figurtively because they don't behave like decent human beings. They start bullying my children who are in my yard playing. I have 3 children, two girls, one boy. They especially targeted my son who was 11 at the time. The man would threaten to beat his ass. They would call him names. They tried to run him off the road when he was on his bike. I've called the police so many times but they never catch them in the act so they do nothing. They would harass me when I'm outside. I was called every filthy dirty name in the book. They bad mouth us to the other neighbors. I wanted to move but then my husband got redeployed for a second time. This time he was gone for a year. They stepped up their harassment and threats to me and my son. They told my son I hope your father gets shot in Iraq. My son's buddies were harassed too when they visited. Then their mothers wouldn't let their boys come over for fear of these pyschos. I ended up pressing charges for criminal harassment and threatening to commit a crime but they got off for lack of proof. My kids are teenagers now and they would move but the market is so bad. They don't want to leave their friends or school. So I would have to find somewhere to live in the same town. I just want to get out of this town and move as far away as possible from these rotten people. My family has been so emotionally damaged by these people. It has taken such a toll on my family. Your home is suppose to be the one place in this world where you can find peace and tranquility but I have never known this living in mine.
Fish Man said:
Add me to the list of people with rotten neighbors.
Our rotten neighbors rent the house they live in, two doors down. The list of complaints:
1. Illegally running a kennel out of their home. They had a "pet sitting" business and routinely brought animals to their home for days/weeks to care for them, leaving them confined in the backyard to bark incessantly, 24/7 - rain, snow or shine.
2. Packing their garage with trash. Literally. These people have never put a trash can out for delivery, EVER. Nor have they made a run to the dump with their trash. Oh, no. They stack it all up in the garage. Their next-door neighbor finally called code enforcement and the health department because of the growing rat problem in the area, and was told they could do nothing as long as the garage door was closed. Great. In the meantime, rats have eaten wires in the engine compartments of vehicles of every neighbor in the immediate area, costing us thousands of dollars.
3. Yard ugliness. These folks have never done a lick of yardwork. The front yard is bad enough, but the back yard is downright disgusting. All those dogs have to poop somewhere. And they do. And it's never cleaned up. Weeds at least 4 feet tall.
4. Mail theft. Witnessed. We no longer get mail delivered at our home because packages and other mail (most notably CHECKS) were disappearing. On a sick day home from work, my wife observed the neighbor removing mail from our mailbox. When she confronted him he threatened her. Reported to both the Post Office and Police. No proof, no charges.
There is not a neighbor in our neighborhood who doesn't wish these renters would get the hell out. But they manage to stay just under the legal radar and get away with all of their bad actions.
LFP Neighbor said:
We have a questionable neighbors next door too in LFP.
We have mexican (?) immigrants next door that don't have the decency to drape their windows any time of the day (so yes we can see them half undressed) and let their garbage cans spill over onto their lawn so the garbage rolls down the slope into our yard or into the street. Due to the snowy weather over the last couple of weeks that prevented the garbage man from collecting they decided to stack their overfilled garbage cans next to our property line such that when the wind knocked them over their garbage literally spilled onto our garden. It took repeated visits to get them to clean it up. The steep hill we live on is impassable in the snow and all the neighbor kids sled down it and these neighbors had the audacity to park their 4 wheel drive in the street duing the snow storm. It's amazing that no kid got injured from that vehicle. Also they park their huge SUV's (3 of them) every which way in their driveway including letting the rear ends hang way out into the public road causing other cars to swerve around them and not to mention all the racket they and their freinds cause at all hours of the night. Who has guests arriving at 11pm and 3am every night or other odd hours? Will repeated police calls encourage them to move? We hope so.
I know the frustrations of having a difficult neighbor, but there is something you can do about it now. In a recent seattletimes or pi article rottenneighbor.com was discussed. Interesting site and a decent, although not 100% acurate way to take a look at the neighborhood and neighbors in an area before you move there. Best of luck.
We had rotten neighbors, illegal aliens from Guatamala. Can you say "Illegal aliens" King5? As of late you've been covering up for them by calling them "imigrants" "Migrants" and refusing to report them as "Illegals" when they commit crimes, like burning a baby to death in a fire pit.
Must be that liberal law breaking mentality again.
You can always check the your local ordinances. In many areas, landowners can be warned, then fined for unsightly property.
I know of a neighboor hood that has a certain individual that has done so much devisation to their property the State and the County have put a stop work order in. It looks like a tornado went through it. The natural path of water has been deverted and now sits 7ft below where it is suposed to exit the propery and is now a mosquito breeding ground. The health dept is also due to get involve from the exposed drain field. He has continuously pulled the stop work order signs and will not respond. Now is he vacated the state due to some serious recent accusations and since no one can get a hold of him, the property just sits.
I have a neighbor that thinks he is above the law in many ways. He resently brought in a logging company to log huge trees that happen to be on wetlands. When the county posted stop work signs he just removed them. Now the county & the Department of Ecology cannot contact him because he has left the state. We are left with the mosquito farm that looks as if a tornado ripped through it, not to mention I can't remember the last time the lawn was mowed. I also read that he claimed he was a landscape designer for 10 years (I'm guessing that is not true). Since this guy has much bigger fish to fry I'm guessing his landscape is the last thing on his to do list.
I guess I'm a rotten neighbor. 3 years ago my husband was diagnosed with cancer,and its been an uphill battle all the way. With 2 small children and a very sick husband to care for yardwork has become my last priority and the cost of hiring someone to do it is beyond our budget. I know our overgrown yard irritates my neighbors, it irritates me too, but I have more important things that I need to do. My neighbor has never asked if I need help or offered to help, he just shakes his head and gives me dirty looks whenever he sees me. Before you judge your neighbor find out why things have fallen in disrepair, and if the look of your neighbors house is so important to you offer to help.
horrible neighbors huh? I had some tweakers move in behind me and they would toss their garbage over the fence into our yard...my dog stepped on the glass and was gushing blood. The vet visit was a couple hundred...lovely. Their psycho pitbull broke through the fence we had just put up...ate my two pet rabbits and tried to attack my smaller lab that had just recently fell victim to a huge shard of glass. Cops did not a thing. Humane soceity did nothing. Their yard was too small for all the insane dogs they had. Never fed their kids..always came over asking for food. Then when they moved out they had torn out all the fixtures...cabinets...lighting...carpet..destroyed ahardwood...fridge...washer/dryer...gutted the place...Top that?...By the way we owned the property and could not legally kick them out til they didn't pay rent for so long....Looked for every loophole
I have a nightmare neighbor that moved in over a year ago, took the old roof off and still has not replaced it, now it's covered with tarps. He stays up all night, so if he does work on it, it's after 6pm. His place looks like Katrina hit. He has not put out a garbage can in the time he has lived there. He has had to be told several times that he cannot run a band saw at 4 in the morning. What is a person to do?
I have lived next two nigtmare neighbors for 5 years. It all started back in 2003. We bought the house on Nov. 1, 2002. My husband became deployed to Irag in Jan. 2003. He was gone for 6 months. When he returned he was finally able to clean up our yard. We have a lot of trees and so does our next door neighbors. All the trees were over grown. The neighbors tree limbs were hanging 30 feet into my yard. They are white pine trees. My husband asked the man next door if he would mind if we trimmed the branches off our property. He said we could cut anything hanging on our side. They also have a stockade fence inside the trees. My husband trimmed and actually made the trees healthy again. The woman who lives there saw the cut tree limbs that were still on the ground and came over to my house livid. She accused my husband of butchering her trees and destroying her fence. He did a great job and cleaned up everything afterwards. She went as far as to press charges against my husband for malicious damage to her fence and trees. The fence or trees were never damaged. We had to hire a lawyer and the case was dismissed. But ever since then these two "people" and I use the term "people" figurtively because they don't behave like decent human beings. They start bullying my children who are in my yard playing. I have 3 children, two girls, one boy. They especially targeted my son who was 11 at the time. The man would threaten to beat his ass. They would call him names. They tried to run him off the road when he was on his bike. I've called the police so many times but they never catch them in the act so they do nothing. They would harass me when I'm outside. I was called every filthy dirty name in the book. They bad mouth us to the other neighbors. I wanted to move but then my husband got redeployed for a second time. This time he was gone for a year. They stepped up their harassment and threats to me and my son. They told my son I hope your father gets shot in Iraq. My son's buddies were harassed too when they visited. Then their mothers wouldn't let their boys come over for fear of these pyschos. I ended up pressing charges for criminal harassment and threatening to commit a crime but they got off for lack of proof. My kids are teenagers now and they would move but the market is so bad. They don't want to leave their friends or school. So I would have to find somewhere to live in the same town. I just want to get out of this town and move as far away as possible from these rotten people. My family has been so emotionally damaged by these people. It has taken such a toll on my family. Your home is suppose to be the one place in this world where you can find peace and tranquility but I have never known this living in mine.
Add me to the list of people with rotten neighbors.
Our rotten neighbors rent the house they live in, two doors down. The list of complaints:
1. Illegally running a kennel out of their home. They had a "pet sitting" business and routinely brought animals to their home for days/weeks to care for them, leaving them confined in the backyard to bark incessantly, 24/7 - rain, snow or shine.
2. Packing their garage with trash. Literally. These people have never put a trash can out for delivery, EVER. Nor have they made a run to the dump with their trash. Oh, no. They stack it all up in the garage. Their next-door neighbor finally called code enforcement and the health department because of the growing rat problem in the area, and was told they could do nothing as long as the garage door was closed. Great. In the meantime, rats have eaten wires in the engine compartments of vehicles of every neighbor in the immediate area, costing us thousands of dollars.
3. Yard ugliness. These folks have never done a lick of yardwork. The front yard is bad enough, but the back yard is downright disgusting. All those dogs have to poop somewhere. And they do. And it's never cleaned up. Weeds at least 4 feet tall.
4. Mail theft. Witnessed. We no longer get mail delivered at our home because packages and other mail (most notably CHECKS) were disappearing. On a sick day home from work, my wife observed the neighbor removing mail from our mailbox. When she confronted him he threatened her. Reported to both the Post Office and Police. No proof, no charges.
There is not a neighbor in our neighborhood who doesn't wish these renters would get the hell out. But they manage to stay just under the legal radar and get away with all of their bad actions.
We have a questionable neighbors next door too in LFP.
We have mexican (?) immigrants next door that don't have the decency to drape their windows any time of the day (so yes we can see them half undressed) and let their garbage cans spill over onto their lawn so the garbage rolls down the slope into our yard or into the street. Due to the snowy weather over the last couple of weeks that prevented the garbage man from collecting they decided to stack their overfilled garbage cans next to our property line such that when the wind knocked them over their garbage literally spilled onto our garden. It took repeated visits to get them to clean it up. The steep hill we live on is impassable in the snow and all the neighbor kids sled down it and these neighbors had the audacity to park their 4 wheel drive in the street duing the snow storm. It's amazing that no kid got injured from that vehicle. Also they park their huge SUV's (3 of them) every which way in their driveway including letting the rear ends hang way out into the public road causing other cars to swerve around them and not to mention all the racket they and their freinds cause at all hours of the night. Who has guests arriving at 11pm and 3am every night or other odd hours? Will repeated police calls encourage them to move? We hope so.