sucky neighbor

[Yfandes]

I think we are the sucky neighbors here, but its not our fault!!!

I live in a beach community in So Cal, where prices have soared quite a bit in the last 10 years. So you end up with people who paid $1.4 million dollars for their nasty POS McMansion living next to someone in an original, modest 1927 2 bedroom house that they paid only $230K for 10 years ago (or much less even longer ago). I'm sure you can imagine the potential for suckiness, but for the most part people generally behave themselves.

I do feel bad for my neighbors though. They aren't in a McMansion, but they make probably twice what we do, bought fairly high, have done extensive (and beautiful) remodeling and landscaping, and they are stuck next to me and my husband, who bought low earlier and try to save up cash to fix things before they break. The wife is, well, odd sometimes. Shes always been great to me, but goes through phases where she doesn't speak to random people in the neighborhood - completely ignoring them. Often its my husband who gets this treatment.

A few years ago these neighbors planted a bougainvillea on my property (a strip of land on the side of my house that faces their driveway) to grow over our shared wall and up their garage. I don't remember them asking, and I don't much care for bougainvilleas, but whatever. It grew and expanded and was lush and flowery over the front of their garage. They were very pleased with the way it looked from the street. Unfortunately it was also growing up into my roof and dribbling leaves and flowers into my fish pond. So hubby went to trim it. And accidentally cut the one branch that led to the garage. We showed up with bottles of wine and apologies, and she stopped speaking to my hubby again

Then there was the cat incident. While I was away at sea for a few weeks, hubby heard them out the window talking about a cat, and later he saw a live trap on the rear side of our house that faces them. There is a crawl space vent there for under the house that I thought was secure, but it turns out it wasn't. They had spotted a stray cat that looked unwell going through that vent, called the humane society, and got a live trap in the hopes of catching it. But they never told my husband anything of this. I come home about 10 days after all of this, and theres this, uh, smell coming from the crawlspace vent up by the front of the house

While I am marveling at the sheer stench emanating from the front of my house, our neighbors wander up and we hear the story of the sick cat for the first time. I ask the neighbor wife "why on earth didn't you say something?" She replies "you were at sea". With my husband standing right there

Now, our crawl spaces are *small*. Some areas under there get down to less than 12 inches and you really have to crawl on your belly. Hubby or I will go under there for a live cat that needs rescuing. We would even go under there for a freshly dead cat. We are NOT crawling under there for a cat thats been dead for 10 days and smells like that And I discovered later that nobody will even take money to do this. So we took the cowards way out and decided to just let the cat decompose where it lay. As a biologist, I figured the smell would be gone in about 2 weeks.

We don't really use our front door - everybody comes in around the back. Only strangers knock on the front door (like salespeople and such). We don't hang around in the front yard - we hang out in the back. This corner of the house is actually closer to where our neighbors hang out (their driveway, their lovely front patio, their dining room windows are all very close to this ground zero of stench).

Sigh, they complained about the smell, and again we were relegated to the ignominy of not being spoken to by her highness. But I'd rather that then going under the house!!

geez, I wrote a book, Im sorry

[Shangri-laschild]

I think we are the sucky neighbors here, but its not our fault!!!

Not seeing how you two are being sucky. With the trimming, it was an accident and you did what you could to fix things. The cat bit was confusing, but still sounds like it wasn't your fault it ended up down there as far as I could understand. And the whole McMansion thing doesn't make you two sucky for having a smaller house at all.

[Hello Kitty]

Oh I forgot about pink haired girl, she's a neighbor down the street. One memorable Christmas, we're having a family party. Aunt B parks across the small street. Uncle S parks in front of her, but leaving a car's length between. Well, pink haired girl comes tearing down the main road, taking the curve into our dead end street way too quickly and crashes into Aunt B's car, pushing it into Uncle S's car. She then decides to drive home and cry to mommy. We are completely unaware of this, we only find out after brother in law goes outside for a smoke and sees the damage. We all walk over to survey the damage to pink haired girl's car, hood is pretty crushed (Aunt B's car is not safe to drive, but Uncle S's car has very minor damage). Anyway, pink haired girl's mommy takes care of exchanging insurance and contact info. Uncle S hands pink haired girl's mommy his business card and she has a look on her face - the card says 'Attorney at law'. Needless to say, Uncle S and Aunt B didn't have any push back from pink haired girl or her family about their insurance paying for all damages. I hope pink haired girl got a good talking to - "did you have to crash a lawyer's car?!?!".

[Igorina]

My parent's house is in rural Wisconsin, it's about 4 miles out of town on top of a forested hill. We have neighbors, but the forest and undergrowth are thick enough where we couldn't see anyone's houses from our porch (this was nice growing up when I wanted to sunbathe).

Unfortuantely, the previous owners decided to use their property stakes to make their compost heap instead of using them to mark the property lines. So some of our neighbors got some skewed ideas as to where the boundaries were.

One of the first things we did when we moved in was to have the land surveyed and the stakes placed. It turns out that about a dozen of the black walnuts our neighbor planted 20 years ago were on our land. He was not happy about this as that grove (he had planted around 50 black walnuts), was to be his retirement nest egg.

This same neighbor has filched logs from our land as well. My mom had dropped a very nice straight black cherry and was going to get it milled. When she went out into the woods, she found that the neighbor had chopped it up for firewood.

On a different occasion, there was an ash tree that had fallen in a storm. The tree had broken off about 8 feet above the ground and was making a right triangle with the ground. The best way to clean up a tree toppled like this is to start but cutting up the hypotenuse of the triangle, this takes pressure off the still standing trunk of the tree so that it won't pinch to saw blade when you finally get around to cutting it. The neighbor saw this tree downed on our property, and started cutting the upright. His saw blade got pinched about half way through the upright so he stopped and left the tree. My parents were livid! The neighbor had now made a widomaker situation with this tree, and we had to wait for years before nature took its course and toppled it further. They documented with photos what happened and sent him a letter saying that if these activities persisted the authorities would be notified, and up went the 'No Tresspassing' signs.

The neighbors on the other side are, by comparison rather untroublesome. The only time our family has had an issue is when their sons-in-law have gone skeet shooting at the back of their property, and they didn't call to inform us. We tramp out in woods all the time, and would rather not get hit by bullets or bits of skeet. As well, Dad was in the military for over 20 years and did a few tours of duty in Vietnam...unexpected gun blasts tend to make for bad reactions.

However, once these two facts were explained, they have been very good about letting us know when they're going to be out shooting.

[XCashier]

This same neighbor has filched logs from our land as well. My mom had dropped a very nice straight black cherry and was going to get it milled. When she went out into the woods, she found that the neighbor had chopped it up for firewood.

That lowlife thief should've paid for it! Just think of the lovely things that could've been made with that beautiful cherry wood...

[Igorina]

That lowlife thief should've paid for it! Just think of the lovely things that could've been made with that beautiful cherry wood...

It is one of the few times I have seen my father *hold* my mother back.

After mom went into semi-retirement, she took up wood working, and has made some beautiful things.

[Reyneth]

A neighbor when I was growing up and living at my mom's...

The family was special. Real special.

The mom would let her TWO year old out wandering around. Just wherever. You know, boys will be boys. One time he came to play at the neighbors on the other side of our house (they had twin boys about 1-1.5 years younger) and was there all day. Finally the twin's mom called Sucky Neighbor mom and told her "I have things to do, when were you going to pick up WanderingBoy?" SNMom said Oh! I wondered where he went. This was ALL day. He was barely 3.

One night apparently WanderingBoy was in bed and bragged to his mom that he "shaved like daddy" - she turned on the light and his whole chin was cut open and bleeding. There was blood all over the bathroom sink that SNMom had just been in. "Umm, didn't you notice that and wonder what the heck it was?" She just "thought it was red marker or something!" How can you confuse blood with red marker, why would you not be mad at your kid for drawing all over everything if it *was* marker, and WHAT are you thinking leaving out razors where a 4 year old (or younger) can get it that easy?

The dad hunted a lot. Had an energetic hunting dog - don't remember what kind she was, but maybe a little like a greyhound and a dalmation mix in shape and the size of a dalmation - or bigger. She would be let loose to run the neighborhood (sense a theme?). One time my sister and I caught her and brought her back and SNMom said "Oh, thanks, I couldn't get her because of the baby" - she was like 4 months pregnant. My sister and I were about 10 and 7, and the dog was bigger than my sister. We got tired of the humongous piles of poop in the yard, so started throwing it back in theirs.

They had a back entry into the house that had a little mudroom and then the main house for the door. They kept the dog food back there so it attracted other animals. SNDad once shot a raccoon. On the porch. And left it there.

The house was in such bad shape - cheap flooring tiles on the counters, holes in the walls, the carpet all torn up and ratty. NASTY. When they inherited a "nicer" house (go figure, it wasn't falling down because it had been kept up!) they moved there and a flipper bought their house for a song because nobody else wanted it. I got a quick tour when he was done and it was a 1000x improvement - this was about 12 years ago or more, before flipping became big. I'm glad, can't imagine who else would have bought that trashy sh1thole.



My neighbor now

Last fall, my apartment was broken into and Mac laptop stolen. No, my neighbor didn't do it - but the reason I mention this in this thread is my neighbor did contribute.

He's from a bad neighborhood and befriended a family there. The one son (early 20s) would come around here and ask him for money, borrow his car, get rides, etc. OldManNeighbor doesn't have much money, but would try to help him out and rehabilitate him or something. Apparently the afternoon in question, OMN didn't have any money so Thief was pissed off and broke into my apartment which is next door. Thief apparently had gotten into OMN's apartment in the past. Luckily he left fingerprints so they arrested him a month or two later and he just took a plea bargain and will be sentenced next month. He had a prior criminal record so the judge is likely to be strict with him. I should get full restitution but seeing as he has no job, no skills, no money, it will be a LONG time coming.

Not the end of the story, of course! OMN is helping Thief's brother. I've seen him in the car a few times, walking out of our building - apparently he's staying with OMN often. I'm pissed. PISSED. I still can't afford to replace my laptop, had my car broken into last month (no evidence but seeing as Thief got out on bail that week, I have my suspicions), and have to deal with Brother (also with a criminal record) hanging around? And I haven't seen either enough to know who is who, so it could even be Thief!

There were rumors that OMN would have to move b/c his wife died in Jan or Feb and without her SSI check, he can't afford to live here. But my apartment office can't tell me anything at this point. Ok, privacy laws and all of that but I DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE knowing that he's encouraging these low-lifes to come around and providing them reason to and shelter! I'm out more than a month's salary in items and costs because of his little buddies be he gets off scott-free?

He's late 70s-80s, so confronting him about it? I don't know. But none of the other neighbors in my 6-plex apartment like it much either. Maybe I'll see if we can all "talk" to him together and tell him this needs to stop. This is OUR neighborhood and building and he has no right for any of that family to be here, especially given the situation.

[wagegoth]

To set the scene, we live in a six-unit complex, blue collar neighborhood. Most of the neighbors are hard working types. We go to work and then come home and want to kick back and have a quiet evening. We do not want hassles.

Happily They're Now Ex-Neighbors

A Latino couple in their fifties moved in a few years ago. We have six units around a little parking area. The landlord had had a hard time filling the unit. They seemed nice, at first. Then the kids and grandkids started showing up all the time and basically taking over the small parking area and lawn area. The daughter was over almost every day and was just ignoring her kids, including her toddler daughter, and leaving them outside. We're on a fairly busy street that the cops use as a quick shortcut, so they sometimes blow down the street at double the speed limit. We don't have a gate or a fence between our complex and the street. We kept finding the kids, literally, in the street. My husband told the wife that he had found the toddler in the street and she did the "no speak English" thing. Finally he made it clear that the next time it happened the police would be called, after which they quit showing up because I think they didn't like keeping the kids inside all the time.

The husband at first would get drunk maybe once a week. Gradually it became daily. And he was a loud, belligerant drunk. It took all the rest of the men in the complex basically standing over him one day to make it clear that his behavior would not be tolerated.

They had two SUVs. We have storage garages. You're not supposed to park in them. Our unit is one of two that sits on top of the garages, but they insisted on parking in the garage. They were banging in and out at all hours. First, my husband asked them nicely to, please, not bang in and out of the garage. Again, "sorry, no speak English." Then, my husband loomed over her (he was at least a foot taller), looked down at her, and said, very quietly and clearly, "Be quiet," at which point the neighbors decided he was serious and started becoming a lot more quiet or they would park on the street.

The husband was doing some kind of plant/floral wholesale work. So he was storing plants and flowers in the garage. Apparently, some of those plants contained rats, because one day my husband discovered a rat while cleaning out our garage. There had never been a rat in our neighborhood before, ever. We put out rat poison and that took care of the problem.

Happily, shortly thereafter those neighbors finally moved. Since they'd managed to piss off everyone with their behavior, we all celebrated.


The Councilwoman's Son

M was a tweak. Apparently, he had been living at home, but Mom got tired of M being up for three days straight and the stereo turned up to 11, so she got the apartment for him. He worked for his brother's business, and I'm sure he spent every penny he made on crank and junk food.

M was used to getting away with his behavior because his mom was a city councilwoman and had been in local politics for quite a while. However, he did not grasp that he was no longer living in the city limits; we're in the county.

It wasn't long before we were having to call the sheriff's department about the stereo. It was insane. I talked to him. My husband talked to him. The neighbors talked to him. Sometimes he'd turn it down. Other times he'd pull the "my mom's a councilwoman" attitude.

The deputies would come out. There wasn't a lot they could do. Often, he'd turn it down when he'd see the sheriff's car pull up. This dragged on.

Then, he started having problems with someone who'd apparently been one of his suppliers who started showing up. Now, everyone is getting really angry, because we don't want this kind of crap around.

One day, M decides to turn the stereo to 12, because he's going to take a shower, and the stereo's in the living room and he wants to be able to hear it while he's in scrubbing the latest scabs off the pasty flesh barely covering his bony frame. We call the sheriff's department. It's the middle of the day. They're not busy, so they show up. This time, he's left the front door open, so when they stand there and call his name and he doesn't answer, they have an excuse to go in. They step in and M suddenly runs into the living room and attempts to shove the deputies out of the door, screaming, "My mom's a councilwoman, you're in a lot of trouble." The deputies are unimpressed. They are also not thrilled by the physical attempt made by M to push them out of his apartment. There is yelling by M. There is quiet talk by the deputies. The deputies make it quiet clear that M does not have a leg to stand on and that if he doesn't drop things now, he will be going out the door with them. M finally shuts up and turns off the stereo.

Things are quiet for a while.

Then M tweaks hard again. The stereo is rattling houses a block away. We call again. The deputy comes walking up the stairs about 20 minutes later. M had turned down the stereo about five minutes before. I step outside and say, "It was much louder."

The deputy says, "I know. I've been sitting out on the street listening to it. For ten minutes. With my windows up." I smile and go back outside.

I do not know what happened, but M's stereo was never more than background noise after that. And he moved out about a month later.

[Boochan]

And another note..
Used to live in a smallish country town in the early part of my childhood. Our neighbour their, a single woman probably in her 40s or 50s (unmarried) resided next to us.. I can pretty much credit her for introducing me to computers and the like back around 1994/1995/1996 when the internet was first starting to emerge (From memory she was the second household to get an internet connection in our little town).. she was an IRC addict at the time.

I'd guess without her influence, I probably would have never got interested in computers and been quite a bit different from the person I am today..

[KellyHabersham]

I've been in the same apartment complex for nearly seven years, and fortunately have only had one really sucky neighbor. When I'd relocated to an upstairs apartment, two women lived in the apartment directly below me, and one afternoon one of them knocked on my door and said something along the lines of "we just wanted you to know that we can hear you walking around....", and something about she was woken at 2 am by loud stomping and the dishes in her kitchen cupboards were rattling. Now, the neighbor was very nice and calm about it, but I'd been asleep at that time, was the only one in my apartment, and it was awkward because I had no way to prove that it wasn't me making that noise. I do know that the college-age girls who lived in the apartment next to me at the time could be kind of noisy with visitors outside, so I figure the downstairs neighbor must have mistaken me for them.
Anyhow, whenever I'd run into this woman or her girlfriend around the apartment complex, they always seemed to give me a really mean, unfriendly look......fortunately they moved out a few months after this "incident".

[Andara Bledin]

I'm in an apartment complex right now, and except for the rampant dope smoking that goes on all the time, I don't really have many complaints. (I wouldn't care about the smoking, either, except that they use flavored wraps, and those things not only smell nasty but give both of us here raging headaches)

I do wish the neighborhood parents would get a clue that 11pm on a schoolnight is not the best time for their kids to be out playing, however. Especially when you consider that there was a gang-related shooting one night during our first month here. (the gangers were good: they only shot their targets and no innocents were hurt)

However, several of the neighbors have excessively loud stereos. I know at one point during the summer, two of them had some sort of stereo war going on. It only lasted a day, and I'm pretty sure it won't be happening much again since we have a different security crew that actually patrols rather than some lazy bum who spent his entire shift leaning against his car in the middle street and did almost nothing.

^-.-^

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

I've had the smokers on the balcony upstairs neighbors. They wouldn't have been sucky if they hadn't tossed all their butts down onto the ground, in front of our 'porch.'

I've had the next door neighbors who tested their amp. This did not make them sucky, in fact they were not sucky to us at all. As soon as we knocked on their door they apologized, explained that they were testing a new amp & would be done in 5 minutes. And they were. However, they apparently liked to play darts & were either very bad shots or drunk. Maintenance had to replace that entire section of drywall.

Most of our neighbors have been fine, even in the drug-infested, violent prone apartment complex that I used to live in. So take heart new homeowners, most neighbors aren't that bad.

[myswtghst]

Oh, I'd forgotten this one, which I think might beat a lot of the rampant stereo abuse stories.

I had a neighbor, who thankfully does not do this often - I'm thinking that she had the night off from caring for her kids, or had the place to herself, or something - but she lives across the hall from me, and not only had the stereo on so loud I could understand every lyric of the bad late 80's/early 90's dance music she had on, I could hear her singing along over it. And she was tone deaf. And did I mention loud?

Granted, it was on a Saturday night, but I work on Sundays, and needed to be sleeping. And we have kids in the building, who certainly should not have still been up (it happened after midnight). I made a complaint to the office, just asking if they could let the resident know, as I had to leave a VM (after hours). I also was thinking about calling the cops, but thankfully, after a neighbor repeatedly and loudly slammed their door, she caught the hint and quieted down.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Years ago, my family's neighbors were a Hispanic family. Every weekend, like clockwork, they would have huge parties with every one of their relatives and friends that lived in the area, with loud talking and shouting and swearing and music I would best describe as Spanish polkas blasting until the wee hours of the morning.

They also used to pile their trash behind their garage, right next to our driveway. The stench, flies, and wasps made the front yard almost unusable.

Their driveway and the street in front of their house also became home to an impressive collection of cars, motorcycles, and other vehicles. They had a boat parked close to our yard that started on fire (This actually wasn't their fault; some punks roaming the neighborhood thought it would be cool to toss a bunch of paper and other debris inside the boat and set it ablaze) and my dad had to go move his truck right away because the flames were getting awful close to it. But then they left the burned out boat on their property for several weeks until all the neighbors banded together and told them to get rid of it, because that was stinking up the neighborhood too.

Nobody was too sad to see them go.

[blas]

That's nasty, IPF.

The crackwhore elephant was so lazy, she used to leave her garbage outside of her apartment door for days. Sometimes even as much as a week would pass until either her baby daddy or one of her friends took it out for her. And the worst part was last spring was VERY warm, and inside her garbage was ALWAYS dirty diapers and other smelly kid stuff. It would sit and permeate rotten stench for days and days. She'd pile the bags by her door and I'd have to tactfully walk around it to get to my door.