r/neighborsfromhell

So my family (me 28F, niece 21F, mom 65F, dad 68M) bought & moved to the Southwest suburbs back in February. The houses are close, but we have tall 6ftish concrete block privacy walls. We have a pool and our neighbor doesn't. He’s an elderly guy in his 70s or 80s who lives next door with his wife, his granddaughter, 2 dogs and another couple who rents the other half of the house. He comes and goes all day and we always give him a polite wave out front, at first I thought he was just lonely and being neighborly but now it's just getting annoying, rude and borderline weird.

He has made a habit of dragging a Home Depot bucket or overturned flower pot to the wall to peek directly over into our yard. It’s gotten ridiculously uncomfortable. Twice now when my niece, my mom and I were swimming in our pool, his head popped over the wall asking questions about who we were and where my dad was, does he like to swim etc. and my mom unfortunately and stupidly blurted out my name, that my dad swims, and even where my dad works and that he was working that exact day. Other times, I’ll just be laying on our outdoor couch trying to close my eyes and relax, and suddenly a head pops up staring at me. Once when I was outside on an important phone call, I accidentally made eye contact with him hovering over the wall and looked away to keep talking, and he actually went to my mom later to COMPLAIN that "he SAW that your daughter saw me," like I'm obligated to entertain him. Most recently, my mom and I were sitting on the patio decompressing, and his head popped up to interrupt us and ask her, "who is this fine little lady 😏" about me, even though I've been introduced to him multiple times and my mom just said oh that's " my name " and I didn't even turn around because I didn't feel like talking to him and do not want to, I was literally in the middle of a conversation. I've never spoken to him before and literally just ignore him, if someone else is outside with me they'll speak to him but I don't.

Now I find myself tip toeing around my own patio so he doesn't hear me outside, opening and closing the door very quietly so he doesn't hear it and come running outside, and it makes me sick and second guess if I want to go out, that I can't even close my eyes by my own pool without waiting for his head to pop up over the wall and someone start asking me questions or even looking at everything in my yard!

Unsure if there's any privacy things/shades that can be done?

Edited to add, I don't own the house, it's my parents, I just live here, I'm physically disabled, as a very petite female, NO I'm not keen on confrontation, yes I'm 28 but I'm more vulnerable, being only 4 feet tall and 75 lbs ( rare form of dwarfism ) means yeah I don't want to piss off a neighbor?! If I was 40, would that still be okay for him to do that? If I was 6 ft tall, would it still be okay? If I was a man would it still be okay? Weather he has dementia or not, when is it okay for a man or ANYBODY of any gender to stand on something to look into their neighbors yard? This post isn't weather or not he's a creep, it's just " what would you do "

I just got my sidewalk redone in front of my house. It cost $4000. My next door neighbor, a twenty-something, wrote his name in it. Do you think that’s cool or unneighborly?

For context, I’m a 22-year-old woman and I live alone. These kids had been doing this basically every day during the summer, but once school started, they stopped—or at least I thought they had.

I was honestly trying to give them some grace because they’re kids. It really wasn’t that long ago that I was their age, and I understand that kids are going to play outside, be loud, run around, scream, etc. I genuinely don’t care about any of that. I was a kid once too. Although, for the record, I never once thought about terrorizing my neighbors for fun.

What I do care about is when they decide it’s funny to bang on my door so hard that it sounds like they’re trying to knock it off its hinges.

This has happened multiple times, and I’ve mostly ignored it. Sometimes I’ve gone outside to see who it was, but they always run away before I can actually see them.

Today, though, a kid wearing a bright neon orange shirt banged on my door so freaking loud that I genuinely thought a man was trying to break into my house. Since I live alone, I was actually shaking for a little while because I was scared. I saw him run away, but by that point I was already having an absolutely awful day, and this was the final straw.

I called the police and made a report.

Their parents are apparently nowhere to be seen, and unfortunately for this kid, he decided to mess with me on the wrong day.

Hopefully this scares him off enough to stop doing it, and maybe his parents will keep a better eye on him.
I really don’t want to be that neighbor who calls the police on kids for simply playing outside. I’ve been deliberately ignoring a lot because I know they’re children. But there’s a difference between kids being kids and repeatedly slamming on someone’s door so hard that it sounds like someone is trying to break in.

I gave them plenty of grace. Today I just ran out of it.

Update: They did it again 30 minutes after I posted this so I called the police again. They’re sending out a couple of deputies. It’s dark outside and they are still running around terrorizing neighbors. It’s insane.

My wife and I live in semi rural Ohio. We have lived next door to our neighbors for almost 9 years. Last year they bought a pig for one of their relative kids to show at the county fair. The pig stunk all summer such that we could often smell it in the house. We asked them to please control odors a couple times and told them”we’re doing everything we can”, with some attitude about the situation. The fair came and went and the pig was gone.

This year, they got two pigs. Odor was twice as bad and unrelenting. One pig went to the fair and did not return. The second pig stayed and is still there and is now a huge smelly hog that you cannot escape the odor of anywhere on our 7 acres.

For 7 years we had no problems. I even assisted the guy with free disposal of over 300 scrap tires he had stockpiled on his property and were causing awful mosquito issues. I arranged the free disposal, helped with loading and unloading, and provided a truck for transportation. I think we have been pretty good neighbors. The odors from the past two years are becoming unbearable, though.

Does anyone have experience and advice they can offer on how we may be able to get this resolved legally? Would the county health department do anything when our lots are zoned agricultural but are clearly residential properties? Any other ideas?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

My NFH recently installed signs along a section of road in front of his house claiming it is private and a few days ago I was driving on it as I have to in order to access my house/I live on that road he stopped me and said it was a private road and that I was not allowed to use it and then physically blocked my vehicle with his.

I told him the police said to call them if he ever tried to verbally or physically block my access to the road after the signs were installed and he said “I don’t give a fuck call the police!” So I did but as far as I know, they didn’t do anything because he eventually let me pass through.

What do I do? I was terrified when it was all happening as he is a felon and registered child sex offender.

I've lived in my house for 22 years and never really had problems with neighborhood noise until the past two years.

About two years ago, new neighbors moved in a street over. Suddenly, we started dealing with bloodhounds and other large dogs barking constantly, including throughout the night.

Several neighbors, myself included, tried talking to them civilly. We asked what could be done to minimize the noise and even offered to work with them on the issue. Unfortunately, we were met with insults and arguments, so eventually most of us just walked away. One neighbor even called the police during one of the disputes, but was told it was a civil matter.

Our local quiet hours are from 10 PM to 7 AM, and the ordinance basically prohibits loud voices and other excessive noises from being audible within 50 feet of neighboring residences. After numerous complaints and eventually keeping barking logs for Animal Control, the documentation finally made its way through the courts after about a year, and fines started being issued.

The frustrating part is that the problem was affecting a lot of people. You'd constantly hear neighbors talking to each other about the dogs: "What's wrong with those dogs? I've been up all night listening to them." It became a common topic in the neighborhood.

After all of that, with Animal Control involved and multiple neighbors yelling at the owners to quiet their dogs, my next-door neighbor decided to get two dogs of their own.

The dogs are outside for hours and regularly bark, whine, and yelp late into the night, sometimes until midnight. There is also now a lot of debris and miscellaneous items scattered around their yard, including aluminum pipes leaning against the fence. The dogs knock things over, creating even more noise.

I eventually went over and talked to my neighbor about it. The conversation actually went well initially, but the situation continued getting worse.

Now I'm dealing with constant banging, pounding, and other excessive noises, sometimes as late as 1 AM. I've talked to my neighbor directly and explained that nobody should be pounding and banging on things at that hour. He was eventually cited one night and obviously wasn't happy about it.

Things have become even more complicated because his father, who doesn't live there, now comes over almost every day and frequently makes excessive noise as well, when I talked with my next door neighbor, he said his father only started coming over when people were yelling at the dogs. And no, not as in "Coming over to assist with dog barking" So now I know what's going on.

On top of that, whenever I'm in my own backyard, his father will sometimes yell and swear at me even when I'm not interacting with him or even looking in their direction. Even with video evidence of him throwing dog feces into my backyard the LAW would not do anything, i also have video of him making threats and all the cops did was "Talk" with him. I don't talk to them, never gave them problems and still haven't to this day, yelling to shut dogs up after being asked almost a dozen times by 3-4 different neighbors is pretty normal when people are annoyed.

I've contacted the police about the situation, but I'm repeatedly told that it's a civil issue. I understand that people have freedom of speech, and I'm not trying to prevent anyone from saying whatever they want. The problem is that it feels intentional at this point. I've politely asked about the noise, and instead of resolving it, the situation seems to escalate. Even simply being in my own backyard can result in being yelled at.

I'm not posting this just to vent. I'm genuinely curious if anyone else has dealt with a situation like this, especially when neighbors seem to intentionally create excessive noise or harassment after you've already tried handling things civilly.

For those who have dealt with something similar, what was the correct way to handle it? Did you go through code enforcement, civil court, mediation, an attorney, or something else?

What are my options apart from complaining to apartment agency?
These two kids cant stop running jumping around. Shouting on the weekend is extra plus. They recently moved in, previous there were 4 people living in the same apartment I never heard any noise or floor vibration when they walked or move.
The parents also needs some discipline as I see bcoz their mother speaks loudly at the balcony as if all of us are eager to hear here and enjoy.
What can I do?
I have done writing to them as well as to leasing company. No luck so far.
We are going through wonderful metal health and problems because of these lovely and innocent kids and parents.!!

I posted in this group a year ago, nearing two, about my neighbor being an absolute lunatic with accusing me and my significant other of vandalism, installing 5 cameras, and other peculiar erratic behavior. I’ve known this man my whole life and this only started recently. Now it’s gotten progressively worse. Now it’s that I’ve poured acid on his car, hacked his cameras, placed RIP signs on his lawn on Halloween, and I can’t even recall what else. He stands outside and said hateful things over the fence not directly at us but it is implied. We’ve called the cops numerous times and nothing has been done.

Then tonight…

It’s midnight and he’s out back singing. He’s done this a few nights in a row now and my mom’s fed up. She calls in a noise complaint, cops show up and ask him if he could just reel it in. The second they leave he not only ramps it up but then takes it upon himself to walk out front back and forth in front of our house yelling that we are criminals BY NAME btw. That we are cowards and bitches (couldn’t help but laugh at that part) and so my mom called the cops again, what did they do? Nothing.

Two cars came up, spoke with him for 30 minutes where he yelled about how evil we were and how no one ever took his claims seriously etc etc etc, then they just told him to calm down and THEY LEFT!

I’m not sure what to expect going forward. I’m fearful of my life at this point. I do think he might just be all talk but this is getting out of hand and law enforcement isn’t doing anything about it.

Any advice?

UPDATE: 

Unit underneath kept banging on the cieling from 6am and now at 3pm.  I had texted and got a call from the landlord.  LL says that my husband needs to approve the LL to reach out to the unit downstairs in order to figure out the situation and for us to talk it out (again) about the constant banging day and night when were asleep. Were both on the unit.

I told her I have video proof when we are in the living room and kitchen when the banging begins and in bedroom (facing towards me of course) i told her that we kept ignoring it for too long since last year of October and that its getting to a point of harassment. But as again she insists that we still talk to the neighbor to "Work it out just like her other units did" im sorry but another neighbor had issues with the same unit underneath me... i feel like he is not an understanding person and I have tried to work it out for them when I added rugs in my Livingroom and kitchen. And we go to bed early. Guess what? He still bangs on the ceiling.

So... I will update again this monday.  I have a feeling its not going to workout... 

Never in my life I have dealt with a neighbor who constantly does this. We hear noises and loud thuds all the time and snoring. 

Yet we ignore it cusse were in a apartment not a house.... he has a house in Mexico with his big family that tends to come over for 2-3 weeks making noise til 4am abmgs on the cieling when his wife comes over and 3 kids. They will do it too like its a game.

I have one kid, they have 3 older kids that play basketball downstairs at night and morning in the unit. Yet my 6 year old cant play toys in the living room.l because we're upstairs...

I literally have bought indoor cameras to show proof that we are not being loud in the daytime and night.

This is a private owned apartment...

I feel discouraged by the situation. We had also had two other units (that are family members using our garage space for 6 years without asking us until we found out because we needed to put stuff away finally had to use it and they got mad. Also the owners didnt get mad at them. It just feels like favoritism at this point. No one here in the apartments are not Held accountable...

I feel like if we had done something to piss off other units it would be considered a warning...

Anyways.... i wanted to to vent... and maybe hear what everyone thinks I need to do?

We cant move out its the only place we are able to afford for 7 years now. If it was affordable where we live in los Angeles I would have moved ASAP. But we can't...

I Never had issues with other tenants but this is Awful. It stresses me out... its too much. Taking a shower, using the toilet, SLEEPING.

Even if my 6 year old is coughing in his sleep he would bang on the ceiling. Yet he lets his wife and kids slam the main entrance apartment ​at night and run through their backyard door and slam it too when everyone is asleep. I had told them this and when his wife complaind about us for daytime noise (she and rhe kids dont live here at all) they had taken her and his side. Yet she's not on the lease?! Im on the lease method my husband but they need his Approval first in order to talk with downstairs unit. When we first moved in we kept to ourselves. I added rugs I tried to not let my kid play toys if it was too loud and they still bang on the floor.

I feel hopeless at this point.

We live in an apartment facing the street. Our complex has about 150 units. The neighbor in question has a Honda Civic with a car alarm which goes off at virtually any tremor. We live downtown so there is loud motorcycles and cars at all hours using our street and this sets off the Honda's car alarm. The Honda never moves off the street. In our city if you have a handicap permit you do not have to feed the meter or move it from the street and the Honda seldom gets moved. The neighbor with the Honda lives in an inner unit so they are shielded from their own car alarm. People have complained to the owner who appears pretty belligerent and unwilling to do anything about it as this has been going on for years. I think the owner believes the world owes them something. It is torture for us neighbors. Apartment staff is uninterested in intervening given it is technically off their property. Almost 5 nights a week I am waking up in the middle of the night to the alarm going off on the street below. It is loud because we are only a few stories tall so the car must be 50 feet away. One obnoxious car with a loud stereo, or aftermarket muffler, sets off a alarm which seems to go on forever. As if the annoyance of the car which set it off was annoying, add in the 2 minute alarm to rub salt on the wound. Sometimes their is a chain reaction, and you get two or three alarms going off from different cars. The only time she moves her Honda is when she goes to church on Sunday. I am a Christian and ask myself every Sunday, how the owner rationalizes not helping her fellow neighbors out. I do not get the rationale of using the alarm for safety sake. It is configured to be too sensitive. It goes off for too long at a time. No one is going to come and stop a thief ransacking her car especially after how she is not trying to win favor with anybody. All I can think of it to start recording the dates and times of the alarm and suing her in small claims. I do not think I can win such a case however. If anyone can speak that inquiry please let me know. If you are a mechanic or have experience with car alarms let me know, maybe I can convince her to adjust the sensitivity of the alarm if that is possible and if that is something anyone can do or if we have to have a technician adjust it.

Thanks

posting this here since I originally had it in the wrong sub

We have this neighbor that moved in around April 2026, apparently they're just renting the house. They have consistently been loud every day since then and we've confronted them to just turn it down and have made multiple police calls and reports. Is there really nothing we can do to get them to stop?

They have 4-6 vehicles including a motorcycle that come and go from the house every day so I'm not even sure how many people actually live here. The trucks are so loud we can hear AND FEEL the motor running very roughly through our house. They also blast music and videos from the speaker in the truck. I'm not joking when I say this happens every single day. It's now October 2026 and I don't know how we can get them to stop. Since it's not a life threat we can only make reports not 911 calls.

Follow up to this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/neighborsfromhell/s/X55Wz4MrCW

About 3 1/2 weeks ago I made a post regarding my neighbor banging on the ceiling, as well as an outburst where the girlfriend of the couple confronted my wife and I outside in the parking lot. We took advice and reported it to the apartment complex. We haven’t been able to get a camera for indoors because we’re pretty broke at the moment. Unfortunately, the apartment complex chose to ignore our email. I went in person, and they directed me to email the leasing manager (who was indeed in office at the time but the girl didn’t direct me to them). I did so, and 24 days later I have no response.

They have continued to bang on the ceiling when we do things like go to the bathroom, when we clean, so on. Tonight, we had 2 guests over! Came home around 9:30 (wife and i work late usually), instructed friends to take shoes off immediately, so on. We all get settled in, sit on couch, all the fun stuff. My wife cooked for our guests so we were in the kitchen. We made sure not to let the TV go loud at all, and other than conversation, we were pretty tame. We haven’t felt comfortable really having anyone over too often since this started, so we were feeling good. Only heard one hit on the ceiling, and it’s when our guest stood up for the bathroom. Annoying, whatever. We were all intently watching Project Hail Mary, so we were pretty quiet and locked in.

Around 11:30, about 30 minutes after the bathroom-ceiling-knock, we get a knock from our local police department?? I step out and talk to the officer, and she looked quiet solemn to even be there. She said they’d gotten a call that we were screaming and stomping. I was truly baffled. I started to talk to her about how they’ve been bothering us constantly, and she apologized. She explained it was a landlord dispute anyways and there was nothing they could do regardless to us and that we weren’t in trouble. Just a simple “keep it down” but that she was sorry about the situation.

It was quite embarrassing to say the least that we can’t do anything without something going on. I emailed my apartment fairly plainly stating that this needed to be addressed. If this continues, what do I do? Of course the police have it on record now, so is there any circumstance where the leasing office is liable for anything that happens going forward? This feels like harassment. We’ve loved our apartment for over 2 years here and in the past 2 months we’ve had this looming endlessly over us.

Looking for advice, I suppose.

When my new neighbor moved in —super friendly..
then all the favors started. Drive me here, can you pick me up, my car won’t start, will you buy me beer?
Of course i said yes. Because she was nice to me.

I have never asked for anything.

Now for no known reason to me she no longer speaks to me. doesn’t wave. Makes mean mug faces when I’m outside. Stopped asking me for favors.

Now when I hear her mowing and she right up against my fence and the noise vibrates right into my soul. Then the trimmer cutting into my fence. The sound sets me on edge.

I just want credit for not running out like a lunatic screaming “WTF are you doing to my fence”
leave my fence alone! Geez my poor fence.

I don’t want to go to war.

How the fuck do I deal with crazy neighbors when the cops won't help me?

Recently my uncle gotten into a fight at my parents house, next thing you know our nosy ass neighbors came down to watch the fight happen. We told them to leave multiple times but more of them came over and started shit talking to us, next thing you know my uncle gets mad at them, and then those fuckers pull a gun on us (mind you we didn't have no guns out at all we don't even own them) luckily I intervened and pushed my uncle back inside, how the fuck do I deal with those fuckers cause we already called the cops twice now I'm considered on getting a gun cause I know a few people.