AIBU to ask what your silliest complaints from neighbours are

[Brockaslass]

We have had a load of complaints from one neighbour, her issue was originally boundary issues with our social housing landlord but then she started with us. But here is a few of the silliest.

1. That our rabbit is making her dog bark 24 hours a day. Even though he comes inside part of the day. Supposingly he stamps and makes her jack russel bark. Who is left outsdie all day.
2. That despite having a 3 bed property with room to expand and only 1 child, we had baby clothes on our washing line indicating I was pregnant and she rang the landlord to demand they move us if we are having a baby. "They were actually my DS' dolls clothes". Our housing officer supposingly offended her by telling her we could have 3 or 4 more in that property before we run short of room and didn't clarify that I wasn't pregnant.
3. That we watered her garden one hot summer while she was in hospital
4. That my then 2 year old had walked on the snow on her driveway as we walked him around the cul de sac stamping in fresh snow. (He was about a cm over the boundary, which couldnt be seen because of the snow)
5. That when we are away we allow workmen who work for landlord to park their van on our drive depot is too far away and workmen lives down road with no parking suitable.
6. That her cat likes to sit under the shelter our sons play house creates and wont come in when it rains if he is comfortable, she thinks we should go out and chase him.
7. That the mushrooms growing in her wooden bark border, must be coming off our concrete patch adjoining her garden. Despite the obvious lack of growing medium.
8. That in a meeting we has with housing officer about her complaints, we used sign language because my husband is deaf, she claimed we could be insulting her, despite our housing officer explaining that wasnt the case as he also signs, and us speaking at same time for her benefit. She then decided housing officer was in on it all too.
9. That her 32 year old son is always singing kids songs all day and annoys her because his bedroom is next to my 6 year olds who plays them on his xbox and they get stuck in his head. (Not sure why she can't just tell him to shut up)

10. Funniest of them all is todays, she has rang our emergency repairs line even though hers is private to complain that at dinner time we were cooking meat and she could smell it, and as she is a vegetarian (which I didn't know till now) we must be doing it delibrate. She then complained that the call handler wasn't taking her seriously when she was told that the repairs line is only open on a Sunday for valid emergencies. An inspector rang us shortley after to let us know another complaint had been made, and struggled to tell us for laughing about it.

So come on what's your funniest and silliest or prettiest complaints from neighbours or anyone in fact.

We were having a new boiler installed at 3pm. We were once told that it was too late in the day to have that done.

I also had him knock on the door when I was mashing potato at 7pm saying that it was too late to be having dinner and I shouldn't be cooking at that time.

We live in a converted flat. We can hear them and they can hear us however that is ridiculous.

Our neighbour knocked to tell me one of our cats lies sunbathing on our shed roof and looks down at her Westie which makes him cross and he barks. She suggested our cat sunbathed on the roof of the utility room at the other side of the garden where her Westie would not be able to see her. I said I would speak to the cat but could not promise she would take any notice.

She then knocked to tell me the same cat was taking mice and voles she caught to their patio to eat during the night and they were finding a paw or a tail left on the patio. I asked what she would like me to do and she said if the cat did not leave bits it would be helpful.

The same cat was crossing their garden at a point where the Westie was able to see her and it made him bark. If she crossed at another place, he would not be able to see her as he is blind in one eye.

She also complained that our beautiful pink rose which blossoms from June to November had drooped some flowers on their side of the fence.

DS sings too loudly in the playroom- he was 18 months at the time.

Would we mind parking our cars on our drive and not infront of our house as her daughter likes to park infront of our house- which is a private road.

She is always terribly polite and serious. We respond in the same way.

Our old neighbour accused us of failing to pick up dog mess in our garden (unfairly, it was done daily) and making his garden smell. The truth was that the smell came from the enormous pile of dog mess that collected just the other side of his back fence, as that's where he threw it. They cleaned their garden with bleach 5 times a year, spraying it from a back pack hose thing, often over our wall, into the veg patch/our children etc... They got a mouse infestation and as they had decided we were "dirty" on the basis of the dog mess issue blamed us. Refused to deal with mice until his house was nearly overrun, got shitty with us, called Environmental Health. EH officer was bemused, but popped in to visit and check if there were any signs of infestation at our house. There weren't, amd he checked all around the house for potential entry points. Neighbour livid that we hadn't "allowed his inspector in". Seemed to believe we were recruiting mice and posting them in through his letterbox or something. Allowed his dog to worry cattle in the nature reserve at the back of the house, then when my partner (volunteer cattle carer) asked him to get it under control, proceeded to chase the dog around like a ridiculous Benny Hill sketch, while his wife harangued my partner about what terrible neighbours we were and how dare he speak to her husband like that, "we've lived here for thirty years". Bought every bit of solar light up tat from ths garden centre and stuck it up in their joyless concrete "garden" so that it looked like Blackpool illuminations....

And more, but that's probably said enough

My father in laws wife is a little bit barmy. She once told me about how she had to phone her upstairs neighbour, they live in a basement flat, to complain about how the child in the family was up and walking/running around at 7am and it was bothering her and would happen all the time. This, it turned out, was on a school day when he was getting up and ready for school! I pointed out that if you have neighbours you have to expect a little bit of noise, she was a bit put out by this as she expected me to take her side, me who has two children 🤔

Years ago I had a neighbour who complained we'd been drilling holes through the party wall, and that she could smell us cooking fish and chips, with the smell wafting through the alleged holes. There were no holes, and we'd been out that day so definitely not cooking fish and chips. Sadly it was the start of dementia and she moved to a care home some time later

A downstairs neighbour subjected us to weeks of noisy building works, so noisy he didn't move in until they were completed. After he moved in, he complained that I like to listen to the R4 Today programme in the mornings. It was being played really very quietly - at the sort of volume you might have a conversation at, in a quiet room with the person sat next to you. I can only imagine he could hear every word my then partner and I said to each other, and presumably us shagging too.

I also once had a neighbour who firmly believed I never walked my dog. In reality, he had a short walk every morning, and a 2 or 3 hour walk in the evenings. She just didn't look out of her window at the exact moment when I was leaving the house or returning with him

Had my neighbour complain (lightheartedly) that my cat was harassing his dog.

It was completely true though. My kitty is a little witch who liked to bug the terrier next door by strolling and rubbing on the chicken wired fence between them knowing he couldn't get her, she'd sit on his own window sill looking in and making him bark and her favourite? Sitting on their shed roof peeking over the edge til he totally lost it.

She almost got her just desserts though when he got her by jumping his back fence and running round the house then pinning her to our front door. She's lucky the neighbour managed to get him off and the terrier hadn't managed to get a proper grip of her. She stopped bugging him after that and we replaced the faulty spring on our garden gate so she had a safe garden.

Totally valid neighbour complaint though. My cat is mean to dogs.

My hubby overheard a conversation between two neighbours as they walked past our window after we had a bought a car. One of them had commented in disgust, "they are always out in that, now they have it. " my other neighbour seemed bewildered but stayed friendly saying " surely that's the point of having a car tho?".
They were very much 'keeping up with the Jones' kind of neighbours and without realising we'd upped them in the 'doing better' stakes. In reality, we were just restarting our lives after a horrid time with my husband health wise.

Anymore :)my neighbour is a Saint, I'm probably a nuisance to her, so far she has helped me get out of my own bedroom after my door knob fell off and I was trapped, she also helped me get a bird that was stunned out of my garden, my dogs had got hold of it, it was only a baby and she grabbed it with a tea towel, I couldn't stand to touch it myself, birds and flapping wings freak me out, it was ok and flew back in it's tree and I can only presume the mummy bird was telling it off with lot chirps

I had a nasty neighbour whose garden backed onto mine. High fences so can't see anything. She had a reputation for sending anonymous complaints letters, police were aware of her. She compared two young girls to the poor Soham girls as they made too much noise. Started on me with complaints about my DC trampoline with a picture of what she thought it looked like and saying it was too big for our garden. Sent letters complaining that the children laughing in the garden was too noisy. She said the dog was barking too loudly and threatened to get the noise team involved. ( dog was indoors most of the day and if outside was with us and any barking was directed at her cat. My dog only barked at her bloody cat and I am very quick to take him indoors if he started. Was sent information about how to manage dogs during fireworks- my dog isn't bothered by them. She complained about 'machine' noise, that was my DH mowing the lawn, she sprayed the neighbours with a hose because they dared have a BBQ during the summer. She sprayed my DC over the fence when they were playing boules. When I confronted her after receiving 15 different letters some with posters saying love thy neighbour and a complaint when we weren't even in the house as we were on holiday- she denied it and then suggested that my neighbours were all lying as I had told her that I had spoken to my neighbours to ensure I wasn't going mad and it was them that told me about her, I also told her I had spoken to neighbours in her street and she was renowned for sending letters. She tried to befriend me then the letters stopped. I believe she moved onto someone else....

My neighbour complained that my cat was looking in her window and encouraging all the other cats in the area to do the same, I didn’t realise he was some kind of feline gang leader

Not a next door neighbour but a woman who lived across the road from the shop I worked in at the time.

There's a patch of grass along the side of the shop, council owned and maintained. This woman phoned our shop and complained that the dandelion seeds were blowing across from this grass into her garden, and dandelions were now growing in there.