Looking for your opinions, AIBU to want to talk this through further with next door neighbour?
We bought our new house in December, and spent January working on it. It's a semi detached. Next door has a drive, we don't. We moved in end of Jan.
On the day we got the keys, my Mum came round. It was pitch black, chucking it down and she had only been here once before. She accidentally parked in front of next door's drive. She was here for 10 mins or so and he knocked on the door and was pretty rude about it. She apologised said she hadn't realised and picked up her bag to move it straight away, he carried on being rude despite that it was clearly and accident and to be honest I was a bit upset that it was my first interaction with new neighbour, he didn't even introduce himself. Best of it was, he didn't need to go out.
A few weeks later, my husband was working later than he should have been on the house. Neighbour knocked on to ask him to be quiet. According to my husband, neighbour was really rude about it. Knowing my husband he was likely a bit rude back and not as reasonable as he made out.
Following that, we had an electrician round who parked his van with his wheels on the white line for next doors drive, not blocking the drive itself. He knocked and asked me to ask electrician to move. Fair enough. Again didn't actually go out though.
I took a parcel in for them not long after we moved in. He came round for it and we chatted for 20 mins or so. He told me that he'd fallen out with the couple who lived here for 30 odd years, and fallen out with their daughter who inherited it. Also told me that all the neighbours had been gossiping about the amount of work we were having done and asking him what was going on. Quite certain that's untrue on the basis that no one seems that bothered with what everyone else is up to. He also said that he was good friends with the boss of the electrician, and that if he parked in front of his drive again he'd be forced to tell him that he was picking up foreigners. In reality, the boss knew all about it and was coming to sign the work off as the lad was still an apprentice. The boss didn't even know the neighbour, said he knew of him but they certainly weren't on speaking terms.
One last incident where he asked my husband to get a car moved that was parked in front of his drive, apparently very rude again, but my husband told him it had nothing to do with us and he didn't know who it belonged to so he should 'wind his fucking neck in' not how I would have approached it but there you go.
The conversation i had with him led me to think he was just a bit of a busy body and full of his own self importance and someone I should pay no mind to, full of crap basically. Since then I've politely said hello to him, he blanks my husband.
Fast forward to today, husband comes home driving a much bigger works van than normal. Pulls up outside, wheels are on next doors white line (it overhangs the drive by several feet). He comes inside to get our car key to shift the car up so he can move the van, we're really cautious given how he is. Neighbour comes out of house and loses his shit, telling my husband he has no intention of moving the van, he's just lazy. Husband asks him what his problem is and why he's had a problem ever since we moved in, the very first day when he was rude to my Mum. Neighbour denies being rude and gets in an argument with me about whether he was or not, then said that my mum clearly didn't park there by accident and she was just too plain lazy to walk up the street. I told him he was absolutely wrong and if he knew my Mum he would realise that.
My Dad is retired and comes up to cut our grass and hedges every few weeks and neighbour said to husband " I'm not lazy like you, I don't get my parents to come and do my gardening" I told him that it was absolutely not his place to comment or pass judgement and he agreed that it wasn't.
I said we're not doing this because we are not the type of people who fall out with neighbours. We've never fallen out with a neighbour in our lives. He says that's not what he's heard. Obvious crap again as we moved from 200 miles away to the rented property, and only ever met our next door neighbours there and got on really well with them. He said he knew where we'd lived before, obviously as proof of his accusation, but I pointed out that it was me who told him that when he came to pick up his parcel.
Argument petered out when a visitor arrived for us, and because neighbour decided not to upset me as I'm six months pregnant.
Husband just wants to blank him forever. I want to approach him next time he's out in the garden and say that I don't like arguments hanging over us and want to clear the air. I specifically though want to pull him up on the fact that insulting us was completely unnecessary and completing untrue, and actually weakened the point he was trying to make. I want him to say sorry.
The whole thing today is so bizarre because actually, neither of the two of us have ever blocked his bloody drive and never would!
AIBU to want to chat with neighbour again and clear the air a bit? Husband says he's clearly an unreasonable man and it will only make it worse. I wouldn't want to do it with husband there as that would make it worse, but I'm all together calmer and more reasonable and would feel much better not leaving things as they are.
Sorry that's about ten times longer than I intended!