Please tell me your worst NDN stories??

[LittleBirdWeeps]

We have a neighbour who seems to constantly know our business without us telling him, for example last week we popped out and bought a new laptop as our old one was finished.

We haven't spoken about it to him or mentioned it in the garden but today he popped up (over the fence) to DH and said, "How is your new laptop?"

He must have seen us carrying it in! Despite it not being a big item. DH definitely hadn't mentioned it to him and neither had I. So he's either spying or watching via his Ring doorbell. (This isn't the first time he's suddenly known stuff about us without us telling him and I've caught him spying before now.)

So please, tell me your worst next door neighbour stories? Then maybe I can put this in perspective!

Nothing like some of those on here, but ours are unnecessarily petty about some things.
Our gardens only have a waist height wall between them (others in the row have full height fences) They invited the old owners round and they all stood looking into our garden, tutting at our lack of maintenance. We hadn't let it go wild, bit didn't keep it as neat as the old owners- old owners had laid lots of awkward patio/gravel areas (badly - DIY) which they maintained with industrial amounts of weedkiller (we know this because they left some of the empty back pack style tubs in the shed) We're not interested in using the same!

They clearly didn't like us using the garden, one would chat to us by pointing out things in our house that needed doing, the other would blank us. They are narrow gardens so we're close to each other and the blanking felt a bit weird - don't want a conversation but they ignore us if we say hi sort of thing.

We asked them when we first moved in about changing the height of the boundary (it's shared) and they seemed keen. Finally managed to get quotes for it (that we were planning to pay in full, which included much needed maintenance to existing wall) and neighbour got angry that it was 'their wall'
Asked them to check the deeds as it clearly isn't - all round here are shared/party. We put some plant pots on the wall (they have some on too) and I kept finding they had been removed and dropped into our garden. Tried knocking on a few times to speak to them about it and they didn't answer the door.
Eventually old owners visited and I heard them having a conversation about the wall and after that our plant pots stopped being moved, presumably old owners told them they don't own it and they believed them (over us and the deeds!)

They still blank us or act weird if we're in the garden at the same time. Why they wouldn't have been interested in a free, full height fence I have no idea!

Tried to steal a bit of our garden and have sent us numerous quasi legal letters about where they think the boundary should be.

My old neighbour was really passive aggressive and then a few times I caught her stood outside my bathroom window while I was having a shower (frosted glass and round the back of my old flat). I had strong words with her and invested in blinds.

Current neighbours. They moved in this year. Barking dogs, blocking our driveway, he threatened to "take me out" after I told him to pick up condoms(!) he'd thrown over into our garden, he called me a racist word (the p- one... not even close to my heritage, sorry dude!)He has a relevant criminal record. Chavvy children (girls under 15 wearing thongs) effing and jeffing. Boy kicking the football against the fence and zooming on pavements on his electric scooter (to their credit the local councillor got the police involved and the kid was told off). Abandoning their kids for weekends and children's services got involved. They've driven the lovely neighbours on their other side to move. Every else here is sweet and friendly and we've had no troubles for donkey's years we've lived here.I've gone from a chilled-out peaceable nerdy academic to a snarling defensive so and so (I yelled in the bloke's face after he was racist, I didn't know I could roar so loudly at someone), who is dreaming about feeding the dogs macademia nuts and the neighbour a double-barrel shotgun

Forgot, we had a terrace with an outrigger extension. Ndn had an extension built byba bankrupt builder, a Mr Murphy. He took off half of one side of out kitchen roof. First we knew was on getting home from work. We moved to thé house with the nude mower !

Lovely place, Knutsford !!

Ours asked about taking out our old & well-established hedge in order to put in a new fence, were told No - put the fence on your side, & then they grubbed it out while we were away.

The new fence is very nice, but that isn't the point!

Some of these are shocking!

Mine are pathetic in comparison.

Before I was married, I lived alone next to a series of pisstakers. In one house, I had selfish arses on each side.

One used to put their grass clippings in my wheely bin after I’d gone to work, so that my bin got sanctioned. They’d also put filthy nappies in there, so I’d have to put up with their kids’ stinky nappies for the week after the bin wasn’t emptied AND get rid of their grass! Words were exchanged. They denied everything of course!

One Sunday I got home to find that they had taken down the fence between our back gardens. I asked why. Response: “you weren’t there when I knocked to ask you”. He put it back up again, with a VERY ill grace. I suspect that he was hoping to nick some of my garden and thought that I wouldn’t dare challenge him.

On the other side, the neighbour claimed that my newly-built house was causing his garden wall to fall down. He wanted me to give him £4k or he’d take the wall down himself and my garden would collapse. Luckily he was too dim to have heard of the Party Wall Act. I actually think that it’s disgraceful that he tried to take advantage of a young woman living alone.

In another house, neighbours asked to buy half of my garden. I said no. The neighbour then chopped my tree down, which had marked the boundary, and put a fence 3m into my garden! What is it about women living alone that makes men think that they can do whatever they like?

Mine is an absolute cunt.

He spies on me from his 2nd floor side extension window (which I've told the council about but they don't appear to be bothered about him contravening building regs).

He's deliberately sprayed my garden with a chemical that killed 2 fully mature trees and my lovely clematis. Subsequently built a summerhouse directly adjacent to where the tree used to be.🤔

He nicked a bit of my driveway to install a charging point for his car (which is permanently on charge despite him never going further than Tesco).

I've seen him threaten another neighbour 20+ years older than him because they had the temerity to ask questions about his planning application for a side extension that has directly affected them.

Hes knocked at another neighbours and threatened them about a barking dog (not theirs but the adjoining house) and didn't apologise when told he'd got the wrong house.

He's had a lot of work done on his house and completely ignored the stipulation about the hours/days work was permitted.

The people fitting his bifold doors walked off site so it appears its not just me who thinks he's a cunt.

In another house, neighbours asked to buy half of my garden. I said no. The neighbour then chopped my tree down, which had marked the boundary, and put a fence 3m into my garden! What is it about women living alone that makes men think that they can do whatever they like?

Some awful people definitely see them as vulnerable or an easy target if they're on their own, with or without children. And going by the number of threads and posts on Mumsnet!

Oh I've got more from previous neighbours too 🥴

Our house was once part of a much larger historical building & as such we have one part of our house with a weird flying freehold with next door as both properties were once one. This means that a small stretch of their roof overhangs one of our bedrooms by a couple of feet. It's clearly marked in the bedroom by beams & a small eaves section to the ceiling. The outside tiled roof is part theirs & part ours, though they have responsibility for maintenance & we have responsibility for maintenance of shared gutters etc

New building contractor buys next door & submits plans to the council that includes adding another story & effectively building hideous new build offices on top of OUR house. Which resulted in a ton of stress, solicitors of which tge builders had contracts with all local ones & meeting's & counsellors just to get through it was actually our bit of the roof he wanted to build on top of & our wall he was trying to butt his new extension flat against our detatched wall. It turned out he'd not even properly looked at his property, plans or had any understanding of the flying freehold. So a ton of stress for nothing 🤦🏻‍♀️

NC for this as its very outing (everyone I know has heard this story)

On moving day, DP drove around to our new house early to get things set up for me and removals men arriving. When me and removals men arrived, there were four police cars at our house, DP was in handcuffs.

Our NDN had called the police because he'd seen, and I genuinely quote, a 'young black hoodie snooping around'. DP was not young (mid-30s), he is black, he's not a hoodie (he's a doctor, was wearing a T-shirt), he wasn't snooping around (he was reading the gas meter and just hanging around in his own home).

We cleared it up in the end and the police were very apologetic. The neighbour was not apologetic at at all and, in fact, told DP "I'll be keeping an eye on you". DP's placid and diplomatic (I, reader, am not) so just said "Okay, bredrin" in the deepest Caribbean accent he could muster.

Over the coming week DP's brother was back-and-forth to our house helping with DIY and also storing some of his stuff in our garage. DP and BIL went out of their way to make all their activities look as suspicious as possible knowing that NDN was always in the window at the slightest sign of movement at ours We later found out, from another neighbour, that NDN had a notebook of all our comings/goings.

A few months after we moved in, NDN's daughter pulled up on his drive just as me and DP were heading out. It turned out she was a nurse at the hospital where DP worked and they knew each other quite well. NDN was stood on the driveway and his jaw absolutely hit the floor when his daughter said to her dad "This is Mr Crawford, the consultant at work that I was telling you about". After that, NDN tried to be nice as pie to us but we weren't having any of it. He's moved out since.

Loud music within an hour of moving in....
14 months of loud music, banging doors at all hours of the day and night, horse shit packed round the T lock on the garage, smashed windows and scratched panels on one car, torched the other one, threatened to kill us.

I should've said that before racist NDN, many years ago, we lived next door to a lovely couple who continually tried to entice us into an orgy. It started off quite subtle, then went to less subtle hints, then one day they just came out with it.
We said no and carried on being friends but it was weird as hell.

Neighbours 30+ son lives in the garden shed (really, an ordinary garden shed)

He screams/whoops/laughs at full volume from late afternoon into the early hours (2am isn't unusual)

Isn't really a problem until summertime when no local resident can open their windows or even use their gardens without his cackling and screaming encroaching on them.

I wouldn't report him - if nothing else he'd have to move back into the house and i'd hear him all winter too!

@RangerCrawford I love it when people get their comeuppance 😅

@RangerCrawford that's horrible! I'm glad you and your DP have been able to see the humour in it, but wow! You must have had so much patience not to rise to it.

I had evil neighbours on both sides-who where best mates
the shit I took from them was unreal-death threats,both pissed up at 2am and banging on my door,bursting kids balls,screaming at me In the street,one punched me-it goes on and on

anyway,one side had two kids-the other had two kids and two grandchildren
the one with two kids (boy then a girl) her boy got a girl pregnant and somehow this was all my fault
i took the harassment for a while which ended up with her phoning the police on me for having loud sex in the afternoon (I wasn’t at home-I was at an antenatal appointment) and again for playing loud music-I wasnt

id had enough-and we moved to the other side of town
that’s when I found out her 13 year old dd had fallen pregnant and her 15 year old ds had got a girl pregnant around this time and the family went all round the houses telling everyone it was my fault-it’s a shame that the neighbours knew the truth but darent do anything as they didn’t want them to turn on them too

batshit crazy the lot of them-karma bit them in the end as the son doesn’t see his kid,the dd ended up losing her kid to ss and turned to drugs and the parents got married then broke up a year later-she’s bitter and alone now
the other side became an alcoholic and I’ve heard since that she died of liver failure

my crime?
I went to school with one of them

😯Wow she had more front that Brighton!

We came home to find NDN had moved the boundary fence at the front of our properties. She had set up cameras to film what our reaction would be. When we spoke to her, she insisted the strip of land was hers.

It took over two years of paying solicitors and court fees to get our piece of land back. We were awarded costs but it took it's toll on our mental and physical health.

Sweet Jesus! 😱Did you / they move?!

Where did you get a mole from? :)😁

Reading some of these is triggering my anxiety. We had no move because of an aggressive neighbour.

She saw my cat in our garden and shouted WHORE from the upstairs window. Another time, baby DS was toddling around the garden and she shouted CUNT out the window. When I looked at her (I was obviously upset!) she then threatened to call social services on me and have him taken away.

We moved and shortly after they moved too (annoying because I would have stayed if I had known they had plans to leave!!) - we knew the people who moved into her house and there were claw marks on all the internal doors (they didn’t have pets!) and childish scribblings on all the cupboard doors (they had no family nearby, certainly no kids!)

Turns out they do this with all their neighbours and buy/sell every 18 months or so. All within a 4 mile radius of our city.

🤔

That's awful! Hope you have better neighbours now.

In my old house both sides were a nightmare.

One side was a huge drug dealer with guns and the lot. Tried to shoot his ex. Police raids on the regular.

Otherside was just plain nuts. Tried to tell me I could only vacuum in a certain time on a certain day when she would be out. Her child was beyond feral. She maliciously reported me to the RSPCA, they found nothing wrong but I sent them to her and she got a citation thing for her dog. She refused to close my gate that she had row through leading to escaped pets. Her dog would constantly crap in my yard so I started posting it through her letter box. She used to fly tip down the side return too.

So glad I moved. My neighbors now are not always the best but far from as bad

We once had some neighbours who set the terrace alight with a drunkenly set off stray firework from a garden party 🙈

And the usual drug taking, loud music etc.