r/BadNeighbors

After 2 years of trying what I can (including use of a lawyer), my dickhead of a neighbor build his shitty shadowbox style fence right up on the property line... which happens to be the side of my driveway.

This is after hes threatened to remove parts of my existing driveway (which is covered via adverse posession laws, since it was installed sometime in the 70s).

Dude didnt want to give the courtesy of even a foot of spacing, which would have lined up with every other neighbor and former owner of both my property and the current neighbors property. Not an unreasonable ask, given that the current placement now interferes with my usage of the driveway.

His fence is unfinished, barely treated wood. It looks ugly as shit. Its that store bought sectional crap from hime depot.

Given that he has zero permission to trespass onto my property (verbal, written signage, and security camera now), he cannot maintain the side that faces me. Theres less than 4 inches of space between where he installed the fence and my driveway at spots.

I dont really know what to do... im probably going to get a survey done as a first step, but beyond that, I dont know..

I fail to see how refusing to give up my property and standing up for some kind of minimal ability to use my driveway normally is a bad thing or how it makes me a bad neighbor.

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I (40F) live on the bottom floor of a two story apartment, with an upstairs neighbor who does whatever the hell he wants, including subletting his extra room. Please try to be kind to me on this one, this is my first post (and I'm very sleep deprived) and I just really need advice on what to do with this situation.

Now, the original neighbor is likely illegally subletting, and I really don't care about that (except for how his actions affect me and others). Life is extremely expensive for all of us and I completely understand that. What I do care about is that these new "tenants" who stay up at all hours of the night making random slamming noises, stomping around, and even sometimes cleaning (which I realize sounds like a small thing, but I assure you it's quite loud). What's worse is most of the noises are often random, so once I fall asleep , they end up waking me in a panic because it's abrupt and alarming. I tap on the ceiling to let them know they are being loud, but they do not give a s***. I was so angry one morning because they kept me awake from midnight to three in the morning, so I reported it to the office through our app. I did this mostly bc of the time of day and to prevent myself from waking of their whole household in that moment.

This resulted in the original neighbor coming to my roommate , to tell them he was sorry. My roommate told them we would come talk to them about it in the future, though I personally hate confrontation so its admittedly not something I want to do. Of course since then, there has been a little less noise , but overall , it hasn't stopped.

Today they were slamming around more than usual and is about 2 in the morning. I was so angry that I ripped out of my room, charged through my front door and was getting ready to have some loud words with my upstairs neighbor, when one of the people who reside in that room happened to be walking up - thank God.

This Small thing prevented me from blowing up, because he wasn't in the room , and I could genuinely ask him to talk to the other person about making noise, which in turn would tell him the same thing. I was shaking at this point because I was so angry, I asked if I could talk to him, and if he could please speak to the guy in the room about the noise. I paused realizing I'm asking him to do this for me , without knowing his name, so I paused apologizing and asked for his name. We'll call him G. Nice to meet you, I'm the p***** off neighbor (aka, my name). I apologize for the way I was acting again, and probably looked a little nuts with my hair all over the place from attempting to sleep, and honestly trying not to cry (since my sleep schedule is now all over the place and I haven't been getting normal sleep over the past few weeks).

I continue speaking, as he polietly listens, and at some point we had were holding each other's hand (likely from when I asked his name). It was comforting, like he was unintentionally trying calm me down, rubbing his thumb on the back of my fingers and listening intently. Not releasing my hand until I was done and went back inside. I pleaded that I'm typically up late, so I don't care what you do up until midnight ( I said this in all honesty since I'm a night owl and used to work really late), but after that I need to sleep. And again , trying to hold back tears, I repeated "I just need to sleep". I continued, saying I would rather be friends, and to please talk to him. I apologized again for my erratic behavior, though I'm sure he could feel how bad I was shaking. He did genuinely seemed empathetic to my situation and saw a look on his face like he was sorry for me. So we thanked him and went back inside.

At that point I decided to walk around my complex at 2:30am bc I had so much tension in my chest from every bump and slam the dude made upstairs tonight, just to be able to get back to sleep. As it is, I slept in till noon today, as a consequence to all of this. Plus, I'm still walking around my complex right now, it's almost 3am, and the tension is still hanging on (though less intense).

So assuming my complex doesn't give a s*** (they don't) and they're gonna do the bare minimum to resolve this (they will), redditers, what should I do in the event this continues? I am at my wit's end not being able to sleep, and the stress is pushing me over the edge so much that every sound pissing me off. Please share your collective wisdom with this sleep deprived human because at this point I'm not making good decisions, and I need some logic inserted.... here.

I live in an apartment with a gated indoor garage that everyone has assigned spot.

I went out early and came back very soon found out my spot was taken by someone. It’s not people close to my spot that I know. I was also not feeling well due to my period and very grumpy. Someone taking my space meaning I need to go outdoor (hot) find a spot.

So I went to the front desk and they said they can’t do anything since only leasing office has access to the license plates info. There’s nothing they can do unless I wait for another 3 hours until leasing people are here. I told them I need someone to get that car moved or towed people need to be responsible for wasting other people’s time.
Then I went back to my spot, waited for like 10 more mins, a family came behind me while I was waiting (remember this!!) and they went back to the apartment without going to their car.
I left that person a note: f..ker don’t take my spot and left. (If that’s one of the cars close to me I wouldn’t be that angry since it happens sometime I get it).
Couple mins later front desk lady knocked my door said they somehow found the person and that person let their relative parked in their assigned spot, they just took my spot (wtf?)

A day after I drove back home a man was waiting for me by my spot, asked me whether I left the note. I said yes. Then he goes I’m not a good neighbor that note is very inappropriate and he has a kid (a toddler I saw) I’m now 100% sure it’s the same family I saw the other day. They definitely saw me and didn’t want me caught them on spot and left. Then he demanded for an apology since that was an honest mistake his relative made. (His spot is actually far away from mine ). He did not apologize for that “honest mistake”.
He said”we have that note documented” (Sir I also have your car parked at my spot documented”)

Every time I drive I will pass his spot so I know if that’s his car there or not. Yesterday and today I actually noticed that there were two different cars in that spot. I found his car was parked in another spot. 200% confirmed he knows what he’s doing - park his car at other people’s spot, let his relatives park at his assigned spot so when leasing office checks he will just say it’s an honest mistake nothing will happen no fine or any consequences.

I just don’t understand why he has the audacity to confront me when he clearly knows he is doing something wrong???

Should I report him to the apartment?

I live in a demi-detached home and even though our yards are close we always enjoyed the privacy of 20ft tall hedges on all sides! On the right side of the yard we have a small chain link fence and the neighbour side has a strip or the 20ft hedges, the back and left side are our hedges! We always enjoyed the privacy, couldn’t see any neighbours and even if we are in the city we could pretend we were not! I come home, only to find that the neighbour trimmed at least 5 feet from bottoms of the hedges. Now do I not only have full view of their yard (and them into ours) I can see at least three others yards surrounding us! I am so discouraged. Should I move or become the crazy (maybe naked) neighbour!?

We have a semi abandoned home diagonal from us on our street that is getting attention from squatters and police. The house has been empty for 10-15 years and the family of the estate of the home do not live in the area or bother to upkeep the house. There’s broken down cars, a rotting couch sitting outside, and a tree growing into the power lines above the house. It will likely become a tear down or a complete gut when someone gets around to it.

Next door to us on our side of the street is a house with a junkyard full of cars and the neighbors have questionable friends stopping by or staying with them for periods of time. Directly across from us is also an empty house, but the owners use it as a storage unit and check on it periodically. They have had break ins and theft issues on their property. We are on the corner and have normal/nice neighbors who are on the other corner (next to the storage unit property.)

Both us and the nice neighbors frequently call the local PD because of abandoned cars and homeless squatting in the empty houses. The PD assure us that the owners of the semi abandoned house are planning to clean it up and sell it or do something about it, but we have seen zero improvements so far.

Times are tough and we honestly could call the cops and be Karens way more on the cars. We’ve let broken cars sit on the street for up to 2 weeks. I haven’t had issues with the junkyard neighbors until recently (besides the fact that their property is an eyesore.) One of the squatters at the abandoned house apparently told police that he’s related to my next door neighbor and he said he could stay there (it’s not his house to offer??) As far as I know, the junkyard neighbors were possibly friendly with the abandoned house owners but the abandoned house owners have opened a case with the police about the squatting so maybe not anymore. Another car got left on our street this week and we just saw the owner and one of my junkyard neighbors going through it because it’s marked to get towed. We didn’t even call that one in, the PD stopped and wrote up her car because they recognized her car and he didn’t want her feeling comfortable setting up shop on our street because “she’s bad juju.”

Besides continuing to talk with the police is there anything we can do to keep this from getting worse? Anything we can do to make the block unappealing to sketchy types? Anything that screams tweaker repellent? Will putting up obvious cameras and signs scare them off or make them think we have valuables? Is there anything to motivate the abandoned home owners to just sell the property so someone can fix it up??

The other annoying aspect of all this is that all these homes are technically in county jurisdiction and we are in city jurisdiction. It’s very annoying getting fined for having noxious weeds by the city, meanwhile we live next to the noxious weed factory!

My house has 3 parking spots directly in front; a big reason we bought it. HOA rules ban overnight parking (that’s what garages are for), but for almost 2 years my next-door neighbor and his girlfriend have “claimed” these spots with their two big SUVs, leaving no room for guests, my elderly in-laws, my disabled sister (needs handicap access), or landscapers.

It came to a head when I had a 2-day rental car and couldn’t fit in my own driveway spots. I parked across two spaces to make it work, and the girlfriend left an angry note threatening to have my car towed. I confronted them, pointed out their own overnight parking violated HOA rules, and we agreed on a compromise: only one of their cars parked out front at a time.

A month later, they’ve now let 3 friends leave vehicles in all 3 spots for 6+ days during a holiday weekend, DESPITE 23 open spots just steps away. Feels like retaliation for our argument.

We’re hesitant to report them to the HOA because:

**1.**	We occasionally let family leave a car out front for a few days (never more than one car) to save on airport parking, so we’re not blameless either.  
**2.**	My husband wants to stay on good terms since we need their cooperation on a shared backyard wall project.

Looking for advice on how to handle this before it escalates further.

Hey everyone, I do apologise in advance if this sounds like an angry rant.

So me and my partner moved into our first house almost 3 years ago. It’s a 1920’s semi-detached house with a double drive. It’s had some work put into it and needs more work but that’s for another day. Not too long after we moved in this family across from us 3 doors down moved in, it’s a rented property I believe.

Everything was alright for months but then they started to get worse and worse and recently it’s getting on my wick! To the point it makes me feel so down and it makes me want to move away. Me and my partner do like the house but it’s this one family that ruins it. The parents look young; late 20’s or early 30’s I’d say, they have 3 young children, one seems to be about 7-9 I’d say and the other two are much younger.

The parents do not work at all, they are in all day and everyday, the kids goto school/nursery by being dropped off by the mum. The dad doesn’t drive. It’s just problems after problems with them, the dad rides around on 125cc motorbikes with no number plates and a balaclava’s, the mum likes to shout rather than talk so you can hear her all the time when she walks onto the street. She likes to swear quite abit also. The oldest kid likes to kick footballs in the street despite being a field about 2 minutes away at the end of the street, he hits cars and my next door neighbour’s wall and also likes to trample her flowers she plants. Our next door neighbour is lovely and even she is getting fed up with it. She said it’s the worst it’s been in 13 years she’s rented. She’s even put a ring doorbell up for security. The babies run out into the street and road completely naked and the mum thinks it’s funny shouting ‘catch the naked baby’ like what?

The litter is awful and my biggest annoyance tbh, the kids think it’s ok just to throw anything on the ground. Coming home from work and seeing litter all over the places makes me angry cause we worked damn hard for this house and yet they just don’t care. They’ve had some work done in the house and all the junk that’s been taken out has been dumped on the pavement outside their house for months just getting bigger. Nobody is going to come move it for you! The fact she drives and they are both in all day and they haven’t taken it to the skip about 3 minutes away blows my mind.

When the weather gets nice I dread it as I know all these problems will occur more than usual. They’ve had police outside the house as well numerous times including drones flying over the house and a massive police van outside for hours but nothing seemed to happen. I don’t understand how people can live like this, in a bubble completely oblivious to their actions and being tramps!
I have no problem with people that rent or live in social housing, I do have a problem when they are disrespectful to others and show no respect for the place they live.

Geez that was a lot to get off my chest haha. Does anyone else experience this or has done? Is our only real options to either move away or wait till they move on? Doesn’t seem fair that we have to spend even more money and time to move away to a ‘nicer’ area just to have normal and respectful neighbours!

Thank you for reading.

My downstairs neighbour wakes me up almost every morning by screaming at her 6 and 3 year old children for something. I’ve heard quite a few of their ‘battles’ and often it’s just irritation they’ve left something somewhere or they’re where they shouldn’t be. It’s is normally aimed at the 6 year old - who I’ve met a few times and seems sweet enough. My neighbour also lives with her husband, who is very quiet so I never really hear him. When I speak to him he seems passive but nice enough.

I’m not a parent so can’t imagine the chaos of a 6 and 3 year old - but surely the constant anxiety of her voice raising so frequently can’t be good for the kids. And surely it can’t be effective? It certainly isn’t good for me to wake up to every morning.

My neighbour is otherwise really lovely and nice to chat to and not violent or aggressive in the slightest. Should I mention anything to her? What would I even say? Or do I just put up with the screaming?

Good morning users of reddit,

I need some help. I moved in to the rental I'm in last September. A lady i know had moved out and warned me about the neighbors dogs. And my landlady (who I've known for 10+ years) had also warned me of my neighbors dogs.

Just a little context about me. I am an animal lover. Our family has 5 cats, 3 dogs, chickens, and ducks. And i would have more animals if I had to money and space.

Anyhoo, I honestly thought how bad can it really be. I introduced myself to the neighbor, met some of the dogs, and asked that they please be kept on their property as I allowed my chickens to free range during the day. He seemed agreeable (but a bit odd) and we went along out merry ways.

Well few months go by, his dogs are constantly in my driveway barking at us. Chasing my kids to the bus stop. Chasing and biting my car as I come and go. And then the day came. 3 of his dogs (he has 8) came charging up the driveway and attacked my yellow lab. Good thing I didn't have a pew pew as he probably would have dogs gone missing. Dog fight is over, im nursing my pup (who was literally under 1 year old) and I was told my dog started it because he wasnt neutered (He was literally neutered 4 weeks prior) but it was my fault this happened.

1 month goes by, my chickens are doing their thing in the backyard. Just enjoying some sun and dirt and all the things. And I hear my dog lose his sh*t at the livingroom window, and my chickens are screaming. SAME 3 F**KING dogs are in my backyard and have killed 4 chickens.

I collect the still twitching corpses and hightail it down to their house. He literally told me it wasnt his dogs (except I seen them and so did my oldest). I almost lost my mind. And then he told me at least I can eat the chickens. Excuse me? I beg your finest f**king pardon? 1) these are my babies, that i literally raised from chicks. 2) their bodies are so decimated there isn't anything worth eating on them 3) who says that!?

Again wishing I had a pew pew. Instead of relieving him of some dogs. We do the neighborly thing and gave him collars and the perimeter dog fence (these things are NOT cheap) to use to keep his dogs at home. He has NOT yet used it once. There are 2 of his dogs constantly in my driveway chasing my car. Barking at my cats. And Barking at my house.

I don't know what to do next, I've been sitting on this for a while, trying to decide if I should report them again (which doesn't really do anything)

Ideas please and thank you for taking the time to read

My neighbors live in the back portion of a flag lot almost right across the street from me. A regular residential street. For the last 5 years since they moved in they have a herd of people over on 4th of July and come out to the street and set off fireworks for 3 fucking hours. I could deal with 30 minutes but 3 hours is ridiculous. How can I discourage this? Any ideas besides piss disks are greatly appreciated.

Hello, I just need someone to tell me I'm not doing the wrong thing. I've lived in my home for 7 years. I actually just updated it. I've had the worst luck with neighbors. For the first 3 years, I had bad children & a bad mom as a neighbor who would constantly destroy my stuff, key my cars, make fun of us all because we didn't want anyone in the front yard because of our garden getting destroyed. They would throw footballs at my cars and just literally try to make it bad. Then they moved, so I thought everything would calm down. I got chickens because every other neighbor I was cool with or neutral. Well, because of parking issues, I got a nasty text from my other neighbor's daughter who threatened to call the police on my stepchild because he parked too close to her bumper. I told her I would tell him to not do that and he hasn't. The mother of that home has a handicap and parks right on my bumper past her handicap line to make sure her husband has a spot so she can park him. Then, just today, I got a call from animal control because they complained and me, not knowing I needed a permit for my chickens, now I have to do all this paperwork and zoning because of the complaint or remove my chickens which I raised. Then my husband let animal control in & they're saying I have too many cats (4)and need to remove them. Which I will not do. I will deny her access to my home, especially because I'm moving. They have a loud dog that barks 24/7. I've never called on them because animals are innocent. Am I valid? I can't even sleep because I'm so stressed... I love my animals & they don't deserve this. 

Has anyone ever gotten non threatening revenge on their neighbors? Such as letting their job know how they really are or leaving a note on their door step before you move. Or just simply blasting them on social media?