What's the worst thing a neighbor has ever done to you?

[Evianontoast]

What's the worst thing a neigbour has ever done to you?

I'll go first: he tried to block the sale of my home at the last minute. We were 50% freeholders, with him owning the other 50% (technically our homes were masisonettes but I always referred to it as our "house"). He didn't like the person we were selling the house to (based off a brief description) so attempted to block the sale and said that he was "sorry and good luck when you put your house back on the market". Our lawyer wrote him a letter to remind him that although he was 50% freeholder, he was not entitled to say who we sold our 50% share to based on personal preference (you can't hold auditions for neighbours!). He was shocked that we got lawyers involved (it's almost as if he didn't realise buying a house is actually quite a serious legal commitment!). Very nearly lost us our sale and caused us a LOT of stress. But all worked out in the end when our lawyer threatened to pursue a breach of contract on his part when he refused to sign some paper work over a personal preference on who would be buying the property. Then had the audacity to say we were ruining his life - you chose to buy a 50% freehold, mate, no-one forced you!

But I got my (very petty) revenge: Just before we moved out, he put up CCTV on his property looking into our (private!!!) garden and on to OUR drive - presumably, so he could keep an eye on the new neighbour once they moved in. It was one of those ones that activates and sends an alert to your phone if it detects movement. I am an early morning outdoor exerciser so would make sure to do all of my starjumps and lunges on MY drive at 6.30am right in front of the camera and was always very amused to see the little "activated" ring light up, followed by the lights coming on as he clearly checked for an intruder - I hope you enjoyed the 6.30am wake up alarm a few times a week, Mr!

Torched my car. Threatened to kill me.

We had a twice convicted paedo...rapes of 5 year old children...when released he would spend hours pretending to fix the roof on his extension so he could stare at the children when they were young and playing in the garden....he later moved back abroad and is now deceased...he was so creepy....offering to do the garden for free etc to perve....yuk....

Druggie a few doors down picked up 2 year old daughter when she was playing with a few of the neighbours children in the grassy bit outside our houses. All the parents were outside too.

He tried to take her into his house, I was heavily pregnant and had to wrestle her off him and threaten police before he would let go.
None of the other neighbours helped me, they just stood and watched.
We had been contemplating moving before it happened, the sign was up by the end of the week.

Some of these are horrendous. Mine are nothing in comparison, but it still stressed us out no end.

Nextdoor adjoined neighbour decided to self build an extension (pet project) with some of his buddies over the course of 3 years. It was horrendous in terms of noise and disruption. It would go on for months, stop for a couple of weeks and then restart with no warning...usually at 7am on a Saturday. This neighbour never said a single word to us about the works. No warnings, no apologies or timescales. We asked about 12 months into the build "how much longer?"...we were met with a shrug. About 6 months into the build he actually had the audacity to complain about us walking up the stairs at 11pm, which "woke him up"....poor lamb. Obviously we completely blanked him from then on.

In hindsight I don't think there was anything we could have done to resolve the situation. Complaining would have fallen on deaf ears or made it worse. He had some very dodgy friends and we suspected criminal connections. Got distinct "off" vibes off him, so we just kept quiet.

I lived below a batshit crazy guy. He complained about any noise to the point I stopped cooking, stopped watching TV etc. He would stamp on the floor and shout if I turned my bathroom light on in the night and he heard a click. He told the police I was a prostitute, that I played "drum n bass" all night and that he'd seen me drinking in my car, that I was a druggie. He would scream and stamp and shout if I so much as opened a drawer. If I coughed he would knock on the door and say I was making his life unbearable. He would have loud phone calls about "how everyone round here wants rid of her, she's a scuzzy fucking prossie" etc. I was actually a 21 year old student in my third year, working a full time placement for uni plus evenings most of the week, depressed and too miserable to have anyone round to visit. Neighbourhood officer got involved but said it was a case of he said she said. Eventually a PCSO got involved after I called them when he wouldn't stop banging on my door at 1am because I'd coughed. We had "mediation" which was me, him, neighbourhood officer and PCSO sitting in a room while he ranted and raved about my criminal activity, I sobbed and said nothing, and the two 'professionals' said nothing.

Eventually he phoned the PCSO and said I'd shouted and threatened to kill him and he was scared for his life. I was actually away the weekend he said it happened and could prove it, luckily, because she took it very seriously. She asked me to meet her at the station to discuss the mediation when actually she wanted to interview me about this allegation. I found a shared house elsewhere and moved out within a week.

It was awful. I was so anxious and upset all the time.

Some of these are so awful.

We owned a flat with a shared garden - I think something like 10 flats had access to that garden via communal doors.

New neighbour decided she was going to create an entry to the garden directly from her lounge, despite the wall being a party wall. She was also going to put in a small patio. In the shared garden.

Other neighbour who shared the wall took her to court to stop the work being done. Judge only granted an emergency injunction because I saw builders out in the garden measuring up.

Was a bloody nightmare for months until neighbour 2 won the court case, meaning new neighbour couldn't go ahead with annexing part of the shared garden for herself. Worst bit was that she planned to use it as a holiday let, so it would have been complete strangers having easy access to the garden my babies played in.

Jesus this is exactly what worries me about mine
If someone can make up a blatant like like that....

We have one of those NDNs with a pristine back garden (achieved with the help of a regular gardener). Ours is to be fair more relaxed, but it is not overgrown or unruly.

We have a run of various shrubs along the boundary (ours) which has created a mixed hedge over the years. We have been encouraging this to grow a little taller (only to 5' ish, not ridiculously tall) because every time we go in the garden she appears and starts watching us.

A few years ago she got her step son to chop the top off all the shrubs. They weren't overhanging her garden - I know she can trim those. I was really cross, and told the step son off over it - especially as a lot of the shrubs were just coming into bloom.

We thought we had sorted things, but a couple of years later, we were sat in the garden and kept hearing this funny noise. Realised it was coming from NDN garden and went to investigate. She was spraying weedkiller on all the shrubs! This obviously wasn't the first time as the back of many of the shrubs had died off. We told her it was criminal damage, reminded her about the previous 'pruning' event, and threatened the police if she did it again. So far it seems to have worked. But she will often start yelling at DH in the garden because a rose branch has dared to stray over into her garden or similar.

I lived in a first floor maisonette in London. The house next door was also split into two maisonettes, the one on the first floor next to us was temporary emergency council accommodation. Most people didn’t stay for longer than 6 weeks. One family stayed for months - all day the TV was blaring in the front room meaning we couldn’t have our windows open. The man of the household was nasty and aggressive- he frequently abused his wife and the police visited numerous times.

The people who owned the flat below them were worn out having such awful neighbours. The nightmare neighboured got a parking ticket but it ‘disappeared’ as did the reminders. He had no idea until someone came to recover his car - there was an almighty argument and the police yet again arrested him.

Amazingly the downstairs neighbours managed to sell their flat while the nightmare neighbours were still there as they just happened not to be in during a few of the viewings. Thankfully they moved out before I sold my flat so I didn’t have the stress of them putting people off!

This was nearly 20 years and I really hope the woman and children managed to escape from the awful man.

Wow, thanks for sharing your stories, they're very interesting - and very frustrating!

@Seeline

We have one of those NDNs with a pristine back garden (achieved with the help of a regular gardener). Ours is to be fair more relaxed, but it is not overgrown or unruly.

We have a run of various shrubs along the boundary (ours) which has created a mixed hedge over the years. We have been encouraging this to grow a little taller (only to 5' ish, not ridiculously tall) because every time we go in the garden she appears and starts watching us.

A few years ago she got her step son to chop the top off all the shrubs. They weren't overhanging her garden - I know she can trim those. I was really cross, and told the step son off over it - especially as a lot of the shrubs were just coming into bloom.

We thought we had sorted things, but a couple of years later, we were sat in the garden and kept hearing this funny noise. Realised it was coming from NDN garden and went to investigate. She was spraying weedkiller on all the shrubs! This obviously wasn't the first time as the back of many of the shrubs had died off. We told her it was criminal damage, reminded her about the previous 'pruning' event, and threatened the police if she did it again. So far it seems to have worked. But she will often start yelling at DH in the garden because a rose branch has dared to stray over into her garden or similar.

Stick a 6 foot fence up and be done with her. Have the hedge your side so she can't do anything anymore.

When I still lived at home dad was putting in a new fence.

Offered to the NDN that he could do theirs too (on other side of house) as was knackered and he'd do it if they paid for materials.

They agreed but then refused to pay. After three months of chasing them DDad got fed up and took a chainsaw to their half.

Had a leaking down pipe in their bath.
Water came through our ceiling. Told them and they promised to fix.
Happened the next week. Complained and was told it wasn't a problem as they didn't have many baths.

They then did a midnight flit just as their flat was repossessed.

Oh and three of the owners of the block of six flats turning their properties into air BnBs. The flats are near the centre of a popular tourist/stag/hen city and it was a nightmare of loud music, loud people and rubbish left at the rear of the building instead of in the big communal street bins (this was never cleaned regularly and attracted rats until the building factor stepped in, cleaned it up and added the cost to everyone's bills rather than the three party flats).
The party landlords put key safes on the building without the consent of the other owners (against terms of the deeds) and as the ground floor property we were forever having folk knocking at our windows thinking we were building managers.

I actually have one to add!

Started when he was a young teen, continued into adulthood.
Started with throwing wads of wet toilet paper against our house.
Then stones and rocks at the dog.
Then nails in the air intake valves of my tyres.
A firework into my garden.
Finally 1am I hear the letterbox. Go out in the hall (where the cats were). He put a firework through the letterbox. Blew up, taking the flaps clean off, scaring the cats and increasing my deafness.

Fun times!!

My arsehole NDN threatened on my doorstep when I wasn't prepared to be bullied into having an original flagstone wall removed so he could straighten his fence up. He was drunk at the time. I told him what a charmer he was and never spoke to him again.

Refused to pay half of agreed work (minimal costs as actually done by DH). Had a massive doorstep row and threw the money at us. Told neighbours we had ripped her off. They were all distant with us for a bit before realising she was the issue.

Did it to try and get her absent sons attention. Didn’t work (he’s still not interested). We had spent 20 years helping her out and supporting her previously, getting shopping, looking after her after operations. She spent lockdown totally alone as guess what, absent child didn’t care. DH had once approached her after the ‘falling out’ and she was utterly vile to him. Stupid sad old woman.
I think if it hadn’t happened we would have looked after her in old age. Whenever I see her son he is super nice to me.

@Goatjumpers

Made a false accusation which led to one of us being arrested and charged with a potentially life-altering crime. It was blatantly a load of crap, but the police for whatever reason decided to run with it.

The police were also at fault for a variety of reasons, including choosing to ignore a huge number of red flags pointing to the fact the neighbours were lying cunts.

It cost us thousands of pounds to defend and it was not guilty, with the judge heavily criticising the CPS, the police and the fact that they tried to push on when the cunt neighbours didn’t turn up to court. The really terrifying thing is that if we hadn’t had enough money to get a good defence, we would have been utterly fucked.

If one of them appeared on our doorstep needing urgent medical attention, I’d shut the door and hope they died.

This is another thread entirely really, but this system is fucking diabolical. It wasn’t a false accusation, but a police mistake that ruined 6 years of our lives because my oh couldn’t afford a solicitor to defend himself.

Wow, these are quite disturbing. Nothing to add personally thankfully, but a friends NDN absolutely hounded her and screamed abuse over the garden fence when he was drunk because he presumed that as a single mother with small DC, she must be a benefit scrounger. Nice as pie to her know he knows she's actually quite a high flyer with a 6 figure income. Books and covers

I had a terrible neighbor whilst at university, the first girl seemed very pleasant and would engage in conversation we occasionally went to the pub or shopping etc, however she started using and overflowing my bins to the point of me not being able to use them (we had two flats in the same house). I didn't want to directly accuse her (even though the rubbish was evidently hers) and break down an overall positive friendship, so I put a lock on my bin in the hopes it would stop, however I came back one day to find she had pulled the lid off my bin and forced rubbish into it, when I asked her to stop she only got worse from there, having loud parties, shouting nasty things at me through my flat door, having constant deliveries I had to sign for but she would never be in, using drugs and leaving the wrappers everywhere. We had a shared rooftop garden and steps I would try to make sure they were safe in cold weather putting down salt getting, rid of ice and snow and cleaning up after what could only have been her rubbish but she remained foul to me. Because the letting agent was so terrible at intervening I left at the end of that year and moved on.

at first the girl*

F

@Bagelsandbrie

My Mums neighbour reported her to the police for opening a letter addressed to her that my Mum had opened by accident (she was very elderly and just assumed it was hers as it had come into her house). Mum immediately realised what she’d done and took it round next door and gave it to the neighbour and apologised. Neighbour seemed okay about it but that evening Mum had police knocking on the door because the neighbour had reported her for opening her post! Mum said she wished she had just put the letter in the bin!

How long ago was this? Surely police wouldn't come out for this?

Oooh where to start, actual nightmare neighbors territory! We bought the flat which was sandwiched between council tenants upstairs and downstairs. No disrespect to council tenants in general honestly! However the lady upstairs proceeded to make our life hell by jumping up and down on the ceiling with stilettos on, sad state of affairs, absolutely minging she was. Used to throw used cotton buds out of the windows! Had the delightful grandkids in that jumped off furniture off every opportunity. When we complained to them we had guys at our front door threatening to stab us! Absolute psyco! Anyhoo we managed to complain enough to the council to get her evicted, the same week we sold the flat. The satisfaction of seeing her move out before us will never compensate for the sheer hell she put us through. We went to court, they were in the local paper. I think I've been traumatised I really do.

I can relate to the picky garden ones. We lived next door to a guy who had an extremely regimented, neat garden. He had manipulated or wheedled any neighbour bordering his garden into removing plants he didn’t like, which we found quite funny until he started on us. We had a small ornamental cherry on the border, which he zealously cut back to the fence line (as was his right), and which had a bough overhanging a shared right of way (not obstructing anything or blocking light other than perhaps to our own wheelie bins). Things were fine for several years until he started hinting that he could get someone to prune it back. He wasn’t at all clear, and we assumed he was trying to be helpful so declined as we liked the tree as it was and it didn’t need pruning. In particular, it made the right of way, which was visible from our house and garden nice and green rather than a desolate bin store.

It all came out when I told him we were going to be moving house. His immediate reaction was to say that if we didn’t cut the tree back (reduce it in half, not ‘prune’) he would ring our estate agent and tell them there was a neighbour dispute. He had to do this as he hadn’t managed to get another neighbour - who lived a few houses away! - to change their gate before they moved. He got very agitated, asking incredulously why I even wanted the tree as it was a weird shape. Other than being cut back on his side, it was a tree shape...

I’ve lived in a lot of different places and had some classic bad neighbours that caused far more stress, but the way this guy turned so quickly and nastily after years of good relations was really shocking, as was the total lack of self awareness about how controlling, manipulative and obsessive he was being.