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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Strange neighbours

127 replies

Whenthingsgobumpinthenight · 02/04/2021 21:25

Ok, please tell me if you think the house next to us sounds weird or am I just being ridiculous.

We’ve lived in our house for almost 5 months now but never seen our neighbours, not properly. They are very rarely home during the day but home late at night. So far I’ve seen a van half a dozen times pull up at the house with a man in it. He’s never in the house very long 5 -30 mins. DH thought he might be doing work on the house but he’s not there long enough. I have seen a few different cars pulling in and out with a woman driving but I’ve never got a good look at her, once I think there was someone in the passenger side. Again the cars don’t stay long. There seem to be the same 2 cars that tend to park overnight. I only know this because my bedroom over looks their driveway so when I’m closing my blinds at night I can see them, but only ever one at a time. Otherwise I never see them pulling up. The car is always gone before we get up in the mornings. Who ever turns up to the house dosnt until usually 10-11 o’clock at night. There is lots of moving around and banging which goes on quite late sometimes.

Today we saw a different car pull up, for the first time we were stood outside our front door, I was so bloody curious that a walked into the car door my DCs had left open🤦‍♀️ But it’s like they are magic as you never seen anyone going in or out of the actual house.

The other day the windows were open for the first time during the day. Not thrown open like ours and everyone else’s in the street, just slightly open and the curtains were pulled almost closed. At the front of the house I’d get as we have to close ours to block sunlight sometimes but the back of the house was the same. My DH was stood outside talking to our DC the same day and glanced up to see a woman watching them but she shot behind the curtains when she saw him look up. He didn’t get a good look at her.

Last week I was woken up by what appeared to be shouting or screaming coming from the house. At the time I dismissed it as the other side of us, not adjoining, is a student house. They aren’t usually loud but do occasionally like to have a few. When I got up I saw a couple of the students in the front garden and the music from their house was travelling through our open upstairs windows so I put it down to that but now I’m not certain it was the students as they were laughing and loudly chatting, what woke me sounded different.

For some reason my DH seemed to think older kids, high school age lived in the house, he dosnt know why he thought this and can’t remember seeing any, he viewed the house with the landlord and agent so he thinks he may have been told this.

We’ve got quite a good view of a lot of houses all around us from the upstairs of our house and with the nice weather there are lots of people out spending time in gardens, open windows chatting over hedges etc but not with the house right next door. There has been no one in their garden, front or back.

I don’t think I’m a nosy neighbour but I am observant of my surroundings and I like to know faces, I think it’s just natural to recognise movements of people where you live.

So Do you think this is weird, maybe vampires or wizards live there???? Or am I being ridiculous and stop being nosy.

OP posts:
AdoptedBumpkin · 02/04/2021 23:12

It does sound like a cannabis farm or something dodgy. (However, may be perfectly innocent)

Meatshake · 02/04/2021 23:19

Cannabis farm, human trafficking or both.

We used to live a few doors down from one. Clues would be extra cables running on external walls, dodgy electrics, CCTV, doors nailed shut from the outside, when it snows look at the roof- does it melt faster than the rest of the street, condensation in windows, lots of gardening stuff like compost and a shitty garden.

stayathomer · 02/04/2021 23:21

People can say you're being nosy but they're obviously people with easy neighbours!

Sweettea1 · 02/04/2021 23:22

My neighbours were like this few years bk once the smell hit me I realised why they were growing a crop they only went there when checking it I assume. Police raided them house was then sold to a lovely family.

noblegreenk · 02/04/2021 23:24

I think it's weird and I don't think you're nosey at all.
I live in a semi and know so much about our adjoining neighbours despite barely speaking to them as they're not very sociable. I don't deliberately spy on them or anything, like you I just notice things. I know their jobs because they're often in the garden and talk loudly, I know they have a healthy sex life and like to talk dirty because I hear it through the thin walls 😳🤢, they don't like to cook because they have takeaway deliveries every day, he's having issues with the mother of his son/son because he hasn't stayed over for weeks and the mom keeps driving the son over to have chats with his dad at the end of the driveway. I don't go out of my way to find this stuff out, it's just stuff I notice when I'm going about my own business.

noblegreenk · 02/04/2021 23:25

Previous post should read, i DON'T think it's weird.

Ideasplease322 · 02/04/2021 23:30

I remember a poster once commented that she had never seen the baby that lived nest door - she had sen the parent lots but never once had seen their baby I think in about 18 months.

Mumsnet was vicious. Tore the poor woman to shreds. Nosey neighbour, judgemental, contributing to post natal depression. Every insult was hurled at this lady.

Never show an interest in your neighbours on this site.

katy1213 · 02/04/2021 23:36

Thank god my neighbours appear to be as uninterested in me as I am in them.

Avocadoadvantage · 02/04/2021 23:39

Ideasplease322 what was the outcome to the story? Was she proved right about the baby?

badacorn · 02/04/2021 23:44

Knock on their door to say hi. It’s awkward being stared at.

Ps You are nosy. Well meaning but nonetheless nosy. Smile

Mittens030869 · 02/04/2021 23:52

Could be trafficking. Ring 101 if you're concerned.

I have to admit, this did occur to me when I read the OP. It might be worth calling 101. If it’s all innocent then it will come to nothing.

I know that this sounds melodramatic, but trafficking and modern slavery do happen in this country and continue to happen because no one likes poking their noses in.

I admit, though, that I probably wouldn’t notice anything untoward I’m your scenario, as I’m really not a nosey person.

Thighdentitycrisis · 02/04/2021 23:57

The people dropping infor short periods sounds like it could be carers, do they also make a morning visit?
it could also be a farm though.

Just go round and say hello?

Magnificentmug12 · 02/04/2021 23:59

I would call 101 and have it logged.

My first thought is always someone being held captive, or cannabis farm.

vodkaredbullgirl · 03/04/2021 00:00

Step away from the window lol

Lou98 · 03/04/2021 00:09

Not as if op is stating she stands at the window all day and night watching for them

I mean it sounds like she does to know exactly which cars are coming and when, how long they stay for etc.

I can't believe the amount of people that think it's normal to be this nosey.

We always have our blinds shut pretty much, so people don't look in when they're walking past (which happens a lot) and can't have a nosey! Doesn't mean we are growing cannabis 😂
We also rarely sit out in our front/back garden - we're usually at work during the day so miss the sun and even when we're home neither of us deal overly well with the heat or we're out, again doesn't make it weird or interesting for neighbours that we're not out just because they all are.

I can't imagine knowing this much about my neighbours daily routines, I know if they're home from their cars being there but that's about it, I don't know who visits them, why or how long they stay for and I can't imagine ever being this invested in knowing.

stayathomer · 03/04/2021 00:12

I can't imagine knowing this much about my neighbours daily routines, I know if they're home from their cars being there but that's about it, I don't know who visits them, why or how long they stay for and I can't imagine ever being this invested in knowing.
Depends on your house though, if you're in a certain area you might not have a lot of cars pass or it might nearly sound like they're coming in your driveway. In the middle of the night of course you'll look out! Plus banging at night?

Lou98 · 03/04/2021 00:18

@stayathomer I currently live in a quiet area with very few cars coming and going but have also previously lived in a busy are. I've never once looked out in the middle of the night to see why a car was pulling up, or checked how long they'd been there

toocold54 · 03/04/2021 00:20

I had a neighbour saying yesterday that my dog has been barking and it’s because my dog hasn’t seen me in days (she was being quite bitchy about it) - but I’ve not left the house because I was waiting for a Covid result (she’s seen me in the garden) and my dog hadn’t barked once so god knows where she’s got that from. She also said that i keep getting new cars but I’ve had the same car ever since I’ve lived here and my mum has only visited a couple of times in 2 years and has been my only visitor so this could be a similar situation where the reality is different to what you see.

MiddleClassMother · 03/04/2021 00:22

I'm going for drug den too...

greenfrogs1 · 03/04/2021 00:23

OP, ignore everyone who is calling you nosey. I think it's important to be a bit vigilant with your immediate surroundings and if something seems off or you sense somebody in that house could be in danger then keep maintaining a look out! Definitely does not sound normal.

crimsonclover · 03/04/2021 00:27

Trafficking comes to my mind too - closed curtains, night-time activity, someone seen at the window who quickly moved away. I'd definitely make a call - you could save someones life - and if not you've only mildly pissed someone off.

baffledcoconut · 03/04/2021 00:27

We’ve lived in our house for TEN years and never seen the people opposite us.

Come to think of it, that’s a bit odd....

Nat6999 · 03/04/2021 00:28

Check your electric bill, it's not unusual for cannabis farmers to piggyback the electric from other properties. I would definitely put money on it being a cannabis farm, like someone said they are now moving to properties in middle class areas to avoid detection, there have been two found in the area my mum lives in, nice middle class low crime area, the last place you would expect.

ViviPru · 03/04/2021 00:28

Definitely not nosey OP. I’d be very concerned too.

Mamanyt · 03/04/2021 00:31

Well, I thought perhaps you were just very observant, until the remark about the windows at the back of the house being just like those at the front of the house. Evidently, you're "nosey" enough to walk around the house to look.

I know a lot about what my neighbors are up to in the middle of the night, but only because I am a day sleeper, and spend a lot of time during decent weather sitting on my front porch. But I'd never dream of going out back to see what was going on in the rear windows!

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