Pain in the bum neighbors

[nogooddeed]

The thread about who owns the tree made me want to start a thread on neighbors who are a pain to deal with. Me first.

I live in a nice middle class neighborhood full of your typical 3 bedroom, 2 - 3 bath houses. For the most part, people take care of their homes and yards. Neighbor couple, both in their 60s. He doesn't wear a shirt all summer. Sigh, not good. I've lived next to them for several years and it's been a revolving door of relatives living with them. One of their mothers, their adult children, adult grandchildren and at one time, a former son-in-law. The highest occupancy was 12 - in a 3 bedroom house. Yikes. I also think one or both of them have a hoarding instinct given how full of crap their house is.

We live on a short cul-de-sac, meaning that there are 5 houses, each on city lots, so the cul-de-sac doesn't have a lot of street parking. My neighbors have no street parking, the curbs are just too small in front of their house. Parking has always been a problem with them, but tolerable. This winter, they parked a beat up small pickup in front of my house. It stayed there and stayed there and stayed there. Ends up it didn't run. I reported it to code enforcement and they were told to move it. It ended up in their driveway. Next came an old SUV parked in front of my house. Expired tags, broken window covered in plastic that came loose in the wind and a bullet hole in the windshield. It stayed and stayed. It too was reported and they were told to move it. It's also now in their driveway. The shirtless 60 year old guy says I'm a scumbag for reporting them. Garage is full of crap, including an old car that doesn't run. They now have a grandson, with car, living with them and a son, with pickup, living with them. So, 7 cars for 4 people and 2 of the cars park overnight, every night in front of my house. At this point, as long as the cars move, I'm happy. Oh, and there's a stack of cardboard boxes in front of one of their garage doors. Been there a week. Classy. No HOA to take care of the situation. Might be another call to code enforcement.

[tloonya]

You know after those olds will die - their reltives will still be there.
Why don't you start planing escape? No rush. But nessesity...

[reader79]

We are up to eleven cars at our house now, but the majority of them fit in the driveway and garage, lol. I did have my next door neighbor knock on my door once when I had left my car parked in front of his house for two days straight. He politely asked me to move it, and between him, my dad, and my across the street neighbor, we decided on 'my spot.' Now, if only my BIL wouldn't park there......sigh.

We have a pretty good group of neighbors right now, I particularly love having sanitation workers living here. Streets get plowed first in the winter

[kittensaver]

My pain in the bum neighbor is a major university. One day about 10 years ago, on a Saturday afternoon without a permit and without informing the neighborhood, they tore out a deep line of trees that separated the university from the rear yards of the neighbors, paved it over and moved in a 27,000 square foot recycling center and maintenance yard complete with industrial equipment. For several years we all had to live with industrial shredders, plastic bottle popper/crushers, screeching metal binders/banders, crashing glass conveyer belts, open bins, etc - complete with vermin - 12 feet behind our back fences. But long story short they moved it after a very nasty and very public fight that smirched the good name of the school. Turns out it was a personal vendetta between one of the neighbors and the university president (she complained "too publicly", he had a huge ego and dug in his heels, and the standoff escalated over several years). The same day the old president resigned the conversation changed completely. After millions in lawyer fees and relocation costs were paid (to a location on campus that was actually BUILT for recycling, fancy that!), we now have a new line of trees and limited faculty-only parking behind us. Who says the little guy never wins?

[Deleted]

When your neighbors move the car, start parking there. We did this for a while and they found alternative options for parking their junkers. We would leave our own driveway empty. They won't park there like they would on your curb area.

I live in a subdivision where everyone owns a few acres. Until this year there have been very few of us who live here due to the water issues in the area, and the costs of putting in utilities. You can only camp here on your property for 30 days at a time. The HOA used to enforce that via the local health department. They no longer have staffing and so it is no longer enforced.

For the people who build an illegal shack without a building permit there is no longer enforcement for that either so the HOA can't do anything about it.

Unfortunately, the news spread and we now have a lot of permanent encampments in our area. People are buying a cheap parcel and them and their 20 friends move in, cut down all the trees, and plant their legal medicinal pot. Then as they get the cash, they drag in broken trailers, campers, or build a shack.

These encampments have no utilities or legal sanitation practices and typically cook with open fires. Since "ceremonial and camp fires" are legal here, they use that to be able to cook and boil water. We are in a designated "extreme fire danger area" and home owners insurance here is expensive for this very reason. At some point, one of these idiots is going to burn down our house... It was recently 105 here and we had neighbors with fires going.

I think it is a sign of the times that we are becoming an annex of Humboldt County here. Land is cheap and there is so much area that law enforcement can't really do much about those growing because there just isn't the budget for it and it is everywhere you go.

While I prefer they go after the cartels in the forested lands, I do worry now about outside people coming into our area and a war over the crops... Growing your own 6 plants is entirely different than having 3 farms growing 200+ plants in your immediate vicinity.

I moved here to get away from people. I now have them walking my fence line and now get to hear dogs and music at all hours of the day and night. I am planning on moving in the next few years. I will have to list my house outside of the growing season...

[milee]

nogooddeed, Loony is right on this one. Time to go. That neighbor isn't going to get better and will probably continue to get worse as you've been seeing. List the house and move on before it gets worse.

If you have to, pay them a small amount (say $250) with the agreement that they'll use that to get a storage space to park their cars off-site and tell them you'll give them a $200 bonus when you sell your house. This will get them on your side and maybe get them to keep things marginally neater since they will want you to sell. Yes, it's unfair and totally sucks to essentially have to bribe them to act human, but trust me, that will be a couple hundred $$$ well spent if it helps you sell your house.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Jul 16, 2012 16:46:38 GMT -5 @goldpanninggirl said:

When your neighbors move the car, start parking there. We did this for a while and they found alternative options for parking their junkers. We would leave our own driveway empty. They won't park there like they would on your curb area.

I did this once. It's a bit passive-agressive, but it worked for me! ;D

[Deleted]

I live in a nice middle class neighborhood full of your typical 3 bedroom, 2 - 3 bath houses. For the most part, people take care of their homes and yards. Neighbor couple, both in their 60s. He doesn't wear a shirt all summer. Sigh, not good. I've lived next to them for several years and it's been a revolving door of relatives living with them. One of their mothers, their adult children, adult grandchildren and at one time, a former son-in-law. The highest occupancy was 12 - in a 3 bedroom house. Yikes. I also think one or both of them have a hoarding instinct given how full of crap their house is.

Please tell me that you aren't our neighbor. Cars aren't the problem, though. Ours isn't a cul-de-sac, but a one-lane paved road that serves our five families. The houses vary in value. Ours is worth about $140,000. Our next-door-neighbor's is on the market for almost $600,000.

The real estate agent's son lives in her house. They apparently have custody of several of their grandchildren, who range in age from 2-20. I'd say there are easily 10-12 people living there.

They are actually nice people, but they have two toilets propped up against the back of their house, which you can see from the road. There is a ton of broken-down crap, an old rusting car, and so on.

It "bothers" me, but if I was the family with the house for sale, I would be livid . . . particularly, as the real estate agent does have control over the situation. Has she never heard of curb appeal? I know we live in the country, but people still don't like looking at that stuff.

[Abby Normal]

Jul 16, 2012 15:45:25 GMT -5 nogooddeed said:

The thread about who owns the tree made me want to start a thread on neighbors who are a pain to deal with. Me first.

I live in a nice middle class neighborhood full of your typical 3 bedroom, 2 - 3 bath houses. For the most part, people take care of their homes and yards.

Oh goodness, I can so relate to your story. We had one guy buy three houses to use as rentals. He ended up getting sick and had to the houses. We had people buy them WAY under market and who could have never afforded it other wise. One couple is great. One family- questionable but other than their screaming in the street at their son- have been ok.

The third house (directly across the street) has been a nightmare. Single women bought it and moved in with her two teenage boys. All was tolerable- but we suspected that the older boy was dealing drugs and were keeping a close eye on the house. Mom ends up OD'ing on heroin. Sister 1 takes possession of the house and keeps two boys. She on parole for drug charges (surprise surprise). And now we are sure that one of the boys is dealing. Cops were there at least once a week because of the neighbors complaining about the crap in their yard. Including the POS trailer that is stored in the front yard that houses the rats she uses to feed her snakes.

Sister 1 ends up going back to jail and boys go to live with their father. Sister 2 buys the home and the parade of people starts. At one time there were at least 11 living there. (you're 12 has me beat) She had a family living in the garage. Cops called again and again. She finally kicked everyone out and it's just her and her daughter ( most of the time). But I still cringe. I'm hoping they end up getting foreclosed on- because otherwise I really like the neighborhood.

[Deleted]

I really try to ignore what the neighbors do. Anything that isn't on my property isn't something i can control. I guess i learned that it simply isn't worth the knot in your stomach and the aggravation to let that kind of stuff bother you. It is what it is. You can just ignore it or make plans to move. And, certainly , if they encroach on your property in any way, then you can call authorities. But, other than that, they really have a right to live how they please on their own space as do you. Don't let it get to you.

[whoami]

Other than the tree drama next door, our neighborhood is pretty quiet. Nobody lets their dog bark incessantly. We've had the occasional parking issue, mainly because the dumb girls across the street cant parallel park. I had kids leaving there crap in my yard but that quit when I started picking it up (after returning it to their yard many times) and throwing it out. Other than the occasional party where people jam up the road with parking, its usually pretty uneventful around here.

[Deleted]

I have had some neighbor issues along the way. And, most of the time, i just decided i could let it bother me and get under my skin or let it go. People in general are annoying and do stupid stuff. Familiarity breeds contempt!

[weltschmerz]

Jul 16, 2012 15:45:25 GMT -5 nogooddeed said:

The thread about who owns the tree made me want to start a thread on neighbors who are a pain to deal with. Me first.

I live in a nice middle class neighborhood full of your typical 3 bedroom, 2 - 3 bath houses. For the most part, people take care of their homes and yards. Neighbor couple, both in their 60s. He doesn't wear a shirt all summer. Sigh, not good. I've lived next to them for several years and it's been a revolving door of relatives living with them. One of their mothers, their adult children, adult grandchildren and at one time, a former son-in-law. The highest occupancy was 12 - in a 3 bedroom house. Yikes. I also think one or both of them have a hoarding instinct given how full of crap their house is.

We live on a short cul-de-sac, meaning that there are 5 houses, each on city lots, so the cul-de-sac doesn't have a lot of street parking. My neighbors have no street parking, the curbs are just too small in front of their house. Parking has always been a problem with them, but tolerable. This winter, they parked a beat up small pickup in front of my house. It stayed there and stayed there and stayed there. Ends up it didn't run. I reported it to code enforcement and they were told to move it. It ended up in their driveway. Next came an old SUV parked in front of my house. Expired tags, broken window covered in plastic that came loose in the wind and a bullet hole in the windshield. It stayed and stayed. It too was reported and they were told to move it. It's also now in their driveway. The shirtless 60 year old guy says I'm a scumbag for reporting them. Garage is full of crap, including an old car that doesn't run. They now have a grandson, with car, living with them and a son, with pickup, living with them. So, 7 cars for 4 people and 2 of the cars park overnight, every night in front of my house. At this point, as long as the cars move, I'm happy. Oh, and there's a stack of cardboard boxes in front of one of their garage doors. Been there a week. Classy. No HOA to take care of the situation. Might be another call to code enforcement.

Ummm, so what's the problem? The fact that he wears no shirt in the summer? The fact there are a lot of people in that family? The fact of the junker cars? The cardboard boxes? The stuff in the garage?
Frankly, you sound like a complainer. Did you ever actually go over there to talk to them, or do you constantly report them?
I think I'd prefer to have them as neighbours.

[midjd]

We live out in the county on 6 acres, but have several fairly close neighbors. Our house is set back - there are 2 houses on quarter-acre plots between ours and the road, and another house through the woods to the left. The last house is a rental, with new tenants, but no problems yet <<knock on wood>>. I would like to plant some trees... there is a straight beeline view from our upstairs bathroom (which conveniently has a giant window next to the toilet) to the neighbor's window.

Our worst neighbor so far has been the church across the street (parking). But they keep the tenants in line

[chiver78]

Jul 16, 2012 16:56:23 GMT -5 milee said:

If you have to, pay them a small amount (say $250) with the agreement that they'll use that to get a storage space to park their cars off-site and tell them you'll give them a $200 bonus when you sell your house. This will get them on your side and maybe get them to keep things marginally neater since they will want you to sell. Yes, it's unfair and totally sucks to essentially have to bribe them to act human, but trust me, that will be a couple hundred $$$ well spent if it helps you sell your house.

sadly, I see myself having to do something like this when I can list.

I've pissed and moaned enough about Mr Congeniality around the boards, so I'll refrain from sharing my own story here. overall, I'm with shooby as far as "live and let live" but in my particular case, I'm in a townhouse. Mr Congeniality does actually encroach on my home when he does whatever the hell he pleases. between literally shaking things on my walls because he likes things LOUD (thankfully, not in awhile now...) and polluting my air space, I've been totally done with it all since not long after he moved in.

okay, I said I wasn't getting into it here. continue with your own complaints.

[whoami]

Jul 16, 2012 19:01:42 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Jul 16, 2012 15:45:25 GMT -5 nogooddeed said:

Ummm, so what's the problem? The fact that he wears no shirt in the summer? The fact there are a lot of people in that family? The fact of the junker cars? The cardboard boxes? The stuff in the garage?
Frankly, you sound like a complainer. Did you ever actually go over there to talk to them, or do you constantly report them?
I think I'd prefer to have them as neighbours.

She sounds like she's living next to a junkyard...Id be irritated too.

[susanb]

Jul 16, 2012 19:01:42 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Ummm, so what's the problem? The fact that he wears no shirt in the summer? The fact there are a lot of people in that family? The fact of the junker cars? The cardboard boxes? The stuff in the garage?
Frankly, you sound like a complainer. Did you ever actually go over there to talk to them, or do you constantly report them?
I think I'd prefer to have them as neighbours.

We all can't display the kind of patience, tolerance and calm you did in this post.

Some of us are human and get irritated by things that impact us every day and we can't avoid, in particular when they impact our property value.

[Deleted]

;D

[TheOtherMe]

Right now I'm very happy with the neighborhood where I live. Everybody takes care of their homes. On my street there is no parking problem because it's a busy street and parking is not allowed. We do have long driveways. Mine is double width and 3 cars can park there for 6 vehicles unless they are all pickups, then it's 4 vehicles.

No noise problems to speak of.

[weltschmerz]

We all can't display the kind of patience, tolerance and calm you did in this post.

Some of us are human and get irritated by things that impact us every day and we can't avoid, in particular when they impact our property value.
-------------------
Really? Read the OP again. Does she even once say she went over there to talk to them, like a decent neighbour would? No. Bam! Report them! Bam! Report them again! Bitch about everything!
She reminds me of Gladys Kravitz.
"Abner! Abner! The old man is walking around without a shirt on! On his own property! Abner! It looks like one of their elderly parents is staying with them! Abner! There's cardboard boxes in front of their garage!"

[susanb]

Jul 16, 2012 22:02:40 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

We all can't display the kind of patience, tolerance and calm you did in this post.

Some of us are human and get irritated by things that impact us every day and we can't avoid, in particular when they impact our property value.
-------------------
Really? Read the OP again. Does she even once say she went over there to talk to them, like a decent neighbour would? No. Bam! Report them! Bam! Report them again! Bitch about everything!
She reminds me of Gladys Kravitz.
"Abner! Abner! The old man is walking around without a shirt on! On his own property! Abner! It looks like one of their elderly parents is staying with them! Abner! There's cardboard boxes in front of their garage!"

Yeah, really. Bitching about having non-moving vehicles parked in front of your house for a long period of time seems like a legitimate complaint. Bitching about someone else bitching about having non moving vehicles parked in front of their house seems like bitching about everything.

[weltschmerz]

Being nice, tactful and diplomatic usually works a lot better than immediately reporting people to the authorities. Now they're probably just getting even because you wouldn't just go over there and talk to them. Can't say I blame them.

[happyhoix]

All my immediate neighbors homes blew away in the tornado, so it's been waaay too quiet for the last 18 months. I put up a bird feeder so we would have some company. They're cheerful but they crap on the back porch, something my real neighbors never did.

I do wish some of the property owners would address their tornado debris. The neighbor to our right has a giant dead tree that is about 20 feet from our bedroom, about 5 feet from our property line. Chances of it falling over and hitting our bedroom are slim but not 0. I wish they would take it down.

Then there is the neighbor that bulldozed all their debris into two giant piles - house debris and tree debris. The tree debris pile has been rotting at a much faster rate than I would have expected, so that may be gone within a couple years. The house debris pile isn't going anywhere, and he put it right at the end of his driveway, right at the street, so it's a constant reminder of what happened 18 months ago. I heard the county is trying to get him to remove it, but so far, no luck.

[skubikky]

Jul 16, 2012 19:04:52 GMT -5 midjd said:

We live out in the county on 6 acres, but have several fairly close neighbors. Our house is set back - there are 2 houses on quarter-acre plots between ours and the road, and another house through the woods to the left. The last house is a rental, with new tenants, but no problems yet <<knock on wood>>. I would like to plant some trees... there is a straight beeline view from our upstairs bathroom (which conveniently has a giant window next to the toilet) to the neighbor's window.

Our worst neighbor so far has been the church across the street (parking). But they keep the tenants in line

Plant arborvitaes to create a natural privacy fence.

We planted a line of 40 and they create a great hedge(about 15 ft high after 10 years). We didn't need to do it for privacy but as a snow hedge to lessen the drifts. It's worked very well.

[nogooddeed]

Jul 16, 2012 19:01:42 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Jul 16, 2012 15:45:25 GMT -5 nogooddeed said:

The thread about who owns the tree made me want to start a thread on neighbors who are a pain to deal with. Me first.

I live in a nice middle class neighborhood full of your typical 3 bedroom, 2 - 3 bath houses. For the most part, people take care of their homes and yards. Neighbor couple, both in their 60s. He doesn't wear a shirt all summer. Sigh, not good. I've lived next to them for several years and it's been a revolving door of relatives living with them. One of their mothers, their adult children, adult grandchildren and at one time, a former son-in-law. The highest occupancy was 12 - in a 3 bedroom house. Yikes. I also think one or both of them have a hoarding instinct given how full of crap their house is.

We live on a short cul-de-sac, meaning that there are 5 houses, each on city lots, so the cul-de-sac doesn't have a lot of street parking. My neighbors have no street parking, the curbs are just too small in front of their house. Parking has always been a problem with them, but tolerable. This winter, they parked a beat up small pickup in front of my house. It stayed there and stayed there and stayed there. Ends up it didn't run. I reported it to code enforcement and they were told to move it. It ended up in their driveway. Next came an old SUV parked in front of my house. Expired tags, broken window covered in plastic that came loose in the wind and a bullet hole in the windshield. It stayed and stayed. It too was reported and they were told to move it. It's also now in their driveway. The shirtless 60 year old guy says I'm a scumbag for reporting them. Garage is full of crap, including an old car that doesn't run. They now have a grandson, with car, living with them and a son, with pickup, living with them. So, 7 cars for 4 people and 2 of the cars park overnight, every night in front of my house. At this point, as long as the cars move, I'm happy. Oh, and there's a stack of cardboard boxes in front of one of their garage doors. Been there a week. Classy. No HOA to take care of the situation. Might be another call to code enforcement.

Ummm, so what's the problem? The fact that he wears no shirt in the summer? The fact there are a lot of people in that family? The fact of the junker cars? The cardboard boxes? The stuff in the garage?
Frankly, you sound like a complainer. Did you ever actually go over there to talk to them, or do you constantly report them?
I think I'd prefer to have them as neighbours.

Jump to conclusions much?? After 15 years of talking to them, asking them to move cars that block my driveway, having their dogs burst through the fence into my yard - I returned the dogs and repaired the fence, cutting back a tree at their request, ignoring the numerous police visits to arrest the various family members dealing drugs, I'm done. Being nice hasn't worked.

[zibazinski]

Don't you love people who move into a nice neighborhood and proceed to trash it? Kind of like moving into a neighborhood of nice lawns then not taking care of yours except to mow it.

[whoami]

Jul 17, 2012 7:38:15 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Don't you love people who move into a nice neighborhood and proceed to trash it? Kind of like moving into a neighborhood of nice lawns then not taking care of yours except to mow it.

My guess is if they are too stupid to realize the assorted riff raff half naked relatives coming and going, dead ass broke vehicles parked all over the place and piles of crap all over the yard are irritating to the neighbors, its pretty pointless to bother having a chat with them.

[zibazinski]

What floors me is why not move to an area where this is okay? Why move to where it isn't and then act like that?

[Wisconsin Beth]

I suspect we're one of the neighborhood pests, to be honest. ;D

We've got awesome neighbors and we do our best to keep up with stuff but it's hard. DH is finally feeling better, the kids are getting older (which is both good and bad) and I'm also doing better since I started my meds. We're polite, friendly and try to be good neighbors but our lawn is mostly weeds and overgrown, our houses needs some TLC and the garage certainly does. In our favor, we no longer have pets, we park in our garage mostly and we don't have loud parties. ;D

And I suspect we'll become the neighborhood hangout once we get a swingset and sandbox installed in the back yard.

[zibazinski]