Tell me your bad neighbour stories

[ButteryKeith]

Particularly ones that got better/had a happy ending!

We moved last year partially because we had an unhinged neighbour. However, we've now got a nightmare at the new place and Police are involved.

Anyway, I won't go into details but I'm feeling pretty down and isolated so it would be nice to hear from others who have had issues...and if you decided to move in the end did you take any steps to check out who you'd be moving next to? My biggest fear is to keep house hopping into bad neighbour traps!

We had neighbours (when we rented) who were getting increasingly deaf and the noise from their tv and radio was unbearable. Think opera you could hear from the street outside. We moved as they were the caretakers for our building so weren’t going anywhere. Very happy in our new rented accommodation.

Now we’ve bought, we had trouble with a neighbour parking over our drive and their son making a lot of noise. They’ve stopped doing the parking and we’ve stopped complaining about the noise: a compromise.

The latest thing is their son puts our address on deliveries he doesn’t want them to see but we just put them outside his house!

I had a neighbour whose dog barked constantly for 8 hours throughout the day when they were out then kids screamed and banged for hours when they were in.

They were council tenants and I owed, I opened a noise complaint and we ended up in mediation and things did improve.

XH still lives in the hpuse and is having parking disputes with another neighbour, they keep parking across his dropped curb so preventing access to the drive. So glad I don't live there now, my neighbours are fine!

One of our neighbours uses a tea towel to dry his garage door whenever it rains. He’s been pretty busy since Christmas. This is the tip of the iceberg regarding his weird behaviour.
We’ve lived next door to him for over 30 yrs but it’s only since we’ve retired that we have become aware of the extent of his bizarre behaviour.

His garden is immaculate but we never see him in it, we’ve come to the conclusion he gardens in the middle of the night or only when we are out.

He recently summoned the police because my son had parked his car a couple of cm over the beginning of his dropped curb. The police were as nonplussed as us but asked my son to go outside with them so they could “ have a chat” with him in view of the neighbour. It was all rehearsed, I don’t think they wanted the calls to become a regular thing. DS has to park on the curb due to access to the rest of the road, it’s a dead end so no through traffic and no houses opposite. The police officer commended him for his common sense.

Allowing girlfriend to do sex work. Allowing girlfriend's friend to do sex work in house when on holiday. Sitting in garden with maggot penis out, girlfriend stripping naked in back garden and doing selfies for Only fans. Girlfriend simulating sex on him. Loud sex noises.
And with kids living in the same house.

My ndn had 3 dogs, made my life hell for years. They left them in for hours on end, never walked them. Went from kitchen to tiny back garden to toilet. The deep constant barking really affected my mh, esp as I was a shift worker.
The first dog died last year quickly followed by the others.
I could hardly keep the joy from my face when she tearfully told me the last one was pts.
I may sound heartless but I don't care, unless you have experienced the soul destroying constant deep barking you won't understand the toll it takes on your mh

Wow, I'm surprised they came out for that!

That's horrendous. What happened in the end?

Oh dear, that does sound horrid as good neighbours can be worth their weight in gold. I hope you don't mind me saying, but as this is a repeat occurrence you don't think the problem is with yourself? What with your username I thought perhaps you had rubbed them up the wrong way?
Please don't take offence

This sounds like my FIL. Apologies if it is my MIL is frequently mortified by his behaviour 🙈

It is still ongoing. There is nothing much we can do, tbh. It does affect your mental health having to listen to sex noises all the time or the constant sex obsession being in your face. Everything has to be sexual with them.I think they have some sort of sex addiction, or they are trying to prove that they are living some alternative lifestyle. I guess time will tell...

We moved into our forever house and did lots of work and I was expecting our first baby. Our nice attached neighbours split up and sold the house. A family moved in with the noisiest children. Every evening they banged against the party wall till 11pm. It sounded like they were kicking a football against it. The tv and radio were on ear-splittingly loud all the time. We spoke to them about it and they said they would keep the noise down, but they didn't. On the non-attached side, the man thought he was the boss of the road. He used to comment on everything we did and complained about everything. We gave up and moved and never regretted it! Some people are just awful neighbours.

My NDN is also my manager at work. While he no longer uses my garden as his personal car park due to obstacles (known by the neighbours as the beginning of the Great Wall of China), he also tries to be the manager of my out-of-work life. He likes to have too much control... which, OK, I admit to occasionally undermining when I'm at home, because it's my life and my house to do as I like with! He has been the same with other neighbours, to the point that he's tried to bully them out of their houses.

Fortunately, he has moved out on a part-time basis to his other house. Like me, our neighbours are also very pleased by his absence. We are hoping that he is inspired to move out permanently one day!

One neighbour set up a client business from home with between 20 to 25 clients per week who were there for up to 50 hours a week (our deeds strictly prohibited it).

She thought it was perfectly acceptable to scream, swear and shout in her "salon" with the door open which was 6ft from my backdoor (semi detached house) for hours every day often about her " fucking anxiety". She never did this when her dh came home though and suddenly went into professional quiet mode again. However when he wasnt there her language and behaviour was atrocious. It was literally like living next door to jekyll and Hyde. I used to feel relief when I saw her dhs car pull in as I knew the swearing and screaming would stop temporarily.

She also told her clients to park in "her" spare parking space. However she had no spare parking space as the deeds clearly stated she had one space which her car permanently parked in so the spare was also ours. She would often have 2 clients parked in residents spaces or parked so badly people couldn't reverse out properly.

My children couldn't play in the garden when she had clients in because her language was so vile. My children called her the shouty lady next door who says bad words. My autistic child wouldnt go out in the garden at all because of her noise.

Despite all this she slagged us off for years as being the "neighbours from hell". I am still not sure what we ever did to her but she had convinced herself "all the neighbours hated us". The reality was we actually get on really well with most of the neighbours as they are a fabulous bunch of people.

It all finally came to a head when I was cleaning my children's bedroom and all I heard was "what the fuck' screamed so loud half the area heard it whilst she was with 2 cliients so I reported her business to the appropriate authorities. They soon put restrictions on her and she was furious!

She then screamed a load of pofanities at me in my face in front of a sweet client and my 5 year old including stating other neighbours would have "no fucking problems" with her clients parking outside there house. I knew they would have as most were already fed up with her business but largely ignored it because it mainly only affected us negatively. After 7 years of being tortured by her business it lasted 3 months after I reported it and she had to park clients elsewhere.

The bit she will never get is we put up with her business ruining our lives for years to try keep the peace and she did nothing but slag us off and stir up as much trouble as she could do.

Unfortunately it became apparent the nicer we were the more entitled and horrible she became and we could either live with our kids never being able to use there own garden, never having a parking space for visitors and never being able to sit in our own garden because of her noise or report it. She hated us anyway so at least she has a reason to now!!

Apparently they are moving soon. We wont be sorry to see them go nor will any other neighbours by the sounds of it.

Silly cow next door is committing benefit fraud and thinks she owns the street

Shes called the police on us many times over non issues and screams at us that she wants us out and is going to 'phone your landlord to kick you out!' (We own but shes council)

They allow their dogs to bark endlessly,screams at us for daring to use our garden,gets her boyfriend to threaten us (he hides behind the hedge and squawks vague threats at us) and bad mouths us to anyone who will listen

She tried to tell us we where not allowed to park on our own drive,once threw a fit because wed bought paint to decorate our bedroom (tried to tell us that we where not allowed to use paint on the walls) plays 'nothing compares 2 u' for hours,dumps her rubbish in her garden (weve had rats because of it) and tries to steal our parcels (the delivery drivers dont leave anything with her)

We just laugh at her-shes a nothing and a nobody-shes best ignored

(I do report her to the council so they are building a case against her)

That must be such a relief for you, I wish our neighbours would move!! We have the same issue in that it's only really us who are badly affected, the other neighbours aren't so much so they just ignore it 😔

My only regret is I left it so long to report her business but I genuinely was trying to be neighbourly and not cause an issue but my life was hell for years.

Is it a business they are running? If so there are legal routes you can take.

I’ve posted about my neighbours a few times, and glad to say things are better now!
they were never bad in the sense that they were smoking weed, barking dogs, late night parties and banging etc. But as a young family in our mid 30’s we found them (late 70s) suffocating at first.
When we moved in they treated us like it was our first home, whatever my husband was doing in terms of DIY or garden the man would be shouting over to help him. My husband likes to work alone and is very capable because of his job as an engineer so he didn’t want help. The lady would knock out door twice a week offering vegetables and gifts for our kids. They treated our kids like they were their grandchildren, often to the point we were shunned and not acknowledged whilst they completely smothered our kids. The man would have his radio on in the garden 9 months a year, on a loud talking station which we could hear as a mumbling sound even with all windows and doors shut. Despite loving our kids, they would have their kitchen door wide open right near their bedrooms late into the evenings say 9:30/10pm, with a loud phone constantly going off, visitors coming and going and laughing, door bell going off loudly. Basically they were ultra (overly) friendly but equally inconsiderate and stuck in their ways. The other thing they’d do is appear out the front every time we came or left, asking where we were going and lots of personal questions. Over time they pulled back, we had to complain about the noise near our kids bedrooms and the garden radio. Now we don’t really see them. Sometimes I feel a bit bad because they were so invested in us, so it must’ve stung a little working out we weren’t up for the relationship they wanted to have. But we feel so much better now and less suffocated!

Now we really need to know what kind of business that is where you get to scream and curse at your clients constantly, I really feel like that at times, but I can't :)

We live semi detached. Our joint neighbour is unhinged.

Years ago we had a dinner party with 6 guests, 2 left early. I will admit we were drinking and chatting. The low music was still on but it was very much background. It was 1am

He came bursting into our living room in his underwear telling us to shut the fuck up.

It didnt go down too well. He was manhandled out the door by the men in the group. And we locked the front door.

Over the years they and their teenage children had had many parties. We never said a word.

We went round the next day to say WTF was that about. He said he was sick of us partying and making noise and last night was the last straw. We had been having according to him too many World Cup parties and late night BBQs every night in the summer.

We dont watch football and we had been away all summer at our caravan

Turns out it was his neighbour at the back.

He refused to apologise and hasnt talked to us in 15 years, except to shout about absolutely unreasonable things.

Eg I painted our fence. OUR fence as he took his side down to make his garden bigger.
He came round to threaten me as paint was running down his side. Id already been very careful as I knew he would be a dick about it.

The whole street hate him....but no sign of them ever moving. We live in hope!

Best thing is, after me complaining about him for years my BF saw him for the first time and went oh thats X, I work with him, he's the nicest guy in the office

How?????

We had a neighbour who played Islands in the Stream on loop for 6 to 8 hours a day.

A neighbour who played the trumpet constantly. And then bought their child drums.

and a neighbour who would just scream.

No, unfortunately it's antisocial behaviour. I think it's commendable that you lasted for so long!

Our old neighbour phoned the council noise complaint line to report us because we “allowed” our cat to make his dog bark and the barking was driving him mad.

Apparently allowing our cat to sit on the roof of our shed in our garden was anti-social and rude. the lady from the council was so confused initially that she phoned me to clarify if we also had a barky dog. She then laughed (without meaning to) and said “I thought I’d heard it all…”

He then complained that we had too many cars. Again complained to the council that 5 cars for one house was too many. (At the time - Me, DH, MIL, 2 cars between 4 teens). He was fuming when the council informed him that we’d be doing nothing wrong if we were parking in the street since there are no parking restrictions. However, since we all park on our drive there is really really nothing for them to say.

He doesn’t like big families and his random complaints started after a street party when he told me he didn’t like big families and I “didn’t apologise” 😂😂

We live in the next street over now and he’s unhappy another bigger family have moved into our old house - he lives in a street where most of the original houses have either 5 or 6 bedrooms so bound to attract big families.

I would be interested in knowing the legal routes or what I can do. My neighbour is definitely running a business that is causing a nuisance.

We've had an absolute nightmare with our neighbours, I could write reams on the things they've done, but I'll tell you about the funniest. One of the things they've done relentlessly is move their car (on road parking in front of our terraced houses) closer to 'our space' in the middle of the night, presumably to try and wake up our children/claim 'their space'/generally irritate us.

One time their car wouldn't start, I could hear them out there at 11pm trying to get it started so they could do the customary drive forward a few feet, but no luck. Just as I got out of bed to have a look, neighbour decided - no idea what was going through his head at this point- to manually push the car forward with the handbrake off, forgetting that our road is not flat..!

I watched in horror/disbelief as the car rolled back down towards their neighbours car on the other side, at which point he decided that the only sensible option was to put himself between both cars(!) He was knocked over but not hurt by some miracle, but he had to deal with the mortification of lady on their other side coming out to help him. It was the most batshit thing I've ever witnessed, and highly entertaining once I realised he wasn't injured.