Can I complain about my neighbors?

[RoxMonster]

I'll try to make a long story short. The guy next door is acting like a jerk. We are putting up a privacy fence mainly because of them (their little girl purposely hangs over our fence taunting our dog when she is out, and they have 2 small dogs that just sit and bark at our fence when Roxie is out, but they'll just let them sit out there doing that for hours without bringing them in, when we are actively out with Rox and bring her in if she barks for longer than a minute or so).

They (it's him and a woman with two kids who live there, but I don't think they're married, so I'll call her his g/f) were sitting out on their deck once when we were out with Rox (who was not barking at all) and g/f made a comment to him like "Let's just go in. Their dog is scary and barks all the time." Um, she wasn't even barking. The guy will even sit out smoking on the deck while the dogs are in the backyard barking at neighbors and do NOTHING. So yeah, they are annoying for many reasons.

We initially told the woman a few months ago (she was home alone) that we were putting in a privacy fence. She was like, "Fine, whatever" (they are renting, so it's not *technically* their property anyway). In May we had a survey done, so markers were put up, and our property actually extends a few inches past the fence that is currently up and into their yard, so the marker is in their yard (which is truly our yard). Guy is out once when H is out and asks what the markers are for. He tells him we're doing a privacy fence and guy is snarky and says, "Just make sure it's on YOUR property."

So we are FINALLY getting it done tomorrow after being rain-delayed. Because they have two dogs and there will be no fence overnight tomorrow night while the posts dry, we wanted to be neighborly and give them a heads up. H went over just now because the guy's car is there and lights are on. No one answers. H comes back and two min. later the guy is out smoking on the deck. He knows what H looks like, so he purposely did not answer (the woman's car is gone, so she is not home).

I'm just over it. I guess they will find out tomorrow is the day it's getting installed when the fence people show up. I had actually thought maybe the guy wasn't home and that they just left lights on, and was about to send H back over with a note to stick to their door when I saw him walk outside. So eff that. No more neighborly behavior from me. And if they let their dogs out off leash tomorrow night and they continuously come on property, I will call.

Sorry this got long and was just a rant. Does anyone else have dumb neighbor stories?

[berbles]

If they're renters, have you talked to the property owner about the fence? You should be giving HIM/HER a head's up.

[kmpls]

My neighbors also suck.

the one to our right has mean dogs that attack the fence most times we are outside. Like biting it and growing. We can't see them thru the fence but its scary because I worry they will jump the fence or find an opening and they sound very mean.

the people across the street opened an old folks home in her house. It sucks. Steady stream of traffic now on our once quiet dead end street. Thanks assholes.

[Saint Monica]

They are dycks.

[Deleted]

Jul 9, 2013 20:51:46 GMT -5 berbles said:

If they're renters, have you talked to the property owner about the fence? You should be giving HIM/HER a head's up.

This is what I was about to say.  We were required to notify neighbors when we replaced our fence at our old place.

But the renter neighbors sound like they're jerks!

[luckyval]

I'd leave a note and then when their dogs come on to your property, make the call ASAP

I'm also with berbles on this, try to get in touch with the landlord

[RoxMonster]

Jul 9, 2013 20:51:46 GMT -5 berbles said:

If they're renters, have you talked to the property owner about the fence? You should be giving HIM/HER a head's up.

It is a woman who we met once back in Oct. when she was in town. She lives in FL, and I have no way of contacting her without asking them for her number. I doubt they'd give it to me since they won't answer the door to us.

I really wish the landlady lived in town, or even better, that a property company owned it. It's owned by a woman who tried to sell it by owner for months and finally gave up and just rented.

[RoxMonster]

The thing that worries me is that this guy seems like the type to get pissed about something that is not even a legitimate complaint and nothing you did wrong, and then do stupid shit to make your life a living hell. I wouldn't put it past him. And even though we have not done one single thing to annoy them or wrong them, I don't think he's logical (he smokes in his car at midnight and blasts music so loud we can hear the words through closed windows).

[emsumm]

Blah, our neighbors are loud and their dogs bark a lot, and it is annoying. Fortunately, our fence keeps us from ever interacting (our yards abut, they're on another street). So, cheers for your fence!

[katietornado]

We have neighbors like yours, except instead of jerks who smoke on the deck, it's free range, home schooling parents with kids who taunt our dog. Their daughter held our dog's ball (he will do ANYTHING for a ball) and while he was desperately waiting for her to throw it, she just held it up and winged snowballs at his face instead. And he just stood there because he loves tennis balls. The kids are precocious (in the bad way) and the parents alternate between thinking it's adorable and losing their shit on them (i.e. yelling at them and kicking them out of the house so they can get some "quiet").

If ONLY we had the budget for a privacy fence. My world would be a lot happier without most of my neighbors in it.

[RoxMonster]

Yeesh you guys have some really bad neighbors. That sucks It's the worst having bad neighbors because I feel like it takes away from some of the pleasure of owning a house and being in your own house/yard. Hopefully this fence will make it more pleasant because we will hardly ever have to see them.

[sara76]

Our neighbors suck too. The fence between our houses is theirs and it was falling apart and they would just hammer boards on it as each one fell off ( they have 3 shepherds who would barrel into our yard, thankfully they got along with our 2 Pekingese if this happened when mine were outside). Finally a storm blew it over into our yard and we offered to pay half if they had a professional board on board fence installed with cement so it didn't rot away and fall like the first one ( the yard floods bad on that side when it rains which is every day in the summer). So we had a guy scheduled. One day before that day they put up a shitty fence from Home Depot with spaces between each board without saying anything. They still expected us to pay what we originally agreed on paying the pro which would mean they were making money from us. We basically told them to eff off and in return they left the broke down fence in our yard. We ended up just renting a truck and hauling it to get it over with, but we pretty much hate each other now. We've def called the county to report their literal cess pool because the water is black and it's a mosquito breeding ground. They drained it and refilled it and its black again. They are nasty.

[goaskalice]

Ugh, stupid neighbors are the suck. We got home from the airport today to our neighbor blocking our garage, and she wasn't home. We live in attached townhomes so the garages are close together. How hard is it to pull into your empty garage before taking the dogs out for a walk? She does stupid shit like that all the time, and is a general pain in the ass for sure.

[Deleted]

My current neighbor (I only have one) is a lovely little family. We don't know them well, but they look out for our property whenever we travel. We hid their kid's bike for them in our garage for Christmas. LOL.

My old neighbor is a motherfucking cocksucker who parks in my spot without permission.

[Doggy Mommy]

Wow, they suck. If they choose to not open the door to have an adult conversation, then they are choosing to be uninformed.

I have shitty neighbors too. She was a single mom with two teenagers/young adults, neither of whom has been in school for at least the last couple of years (mom said high school was "too stressful" for them). She got herself a boyfriend in California and decided to move there, leaving the teenagers and dog behind. Their house is in terrible shape, yard full of weeds, old pond filled with slime and mosquitos, overgrown and dead trees etc. We asked someone on the HOA board about it, and they said they have never paid a single HOA fee or any of their many fines, and they owe over 10k to the HOA.

Eventually the mom came back for the dog and one of the teenagers. The other kid's buddies all moved in. Cue late night parties, oil all over the driveway, days on end spent spray painting their shitty cars in the driveway, testing their subwoofers at 2am, and coming and going All.Night.Long. In a car without a muffler. Older teenager just moved to California too and one of the kids still living there has decided to man up and start taking care of the place. He is making an effort and is being nice to us and our other neighbors. Hopefully this trend will continue!!

[lolc]

Good thing you'll have that fence tomorrow! Sorry your neighbors suck!

Crappy neighbors are the worst.

[goaskalice]

Jul 9, 2013 22:29:51 GMT -5 Doggy Mommy said:

Wow, they suck. If they choose to not open the door to have an adult conversation, then they are choosing to be uninformed.

I have shitty neighbors too. She was a single mom with two teenagers/young adults, neither of whom has been in school for at least the last couple of years (mom said high school was "too stressful" for them). She got herself a boyfriend in California and decided to move there, leaving the teenagers and dog behind. Their house is in terrible shape, yard full of weeds, old pond filled with slime and mosquitos, overgrown and dead trees etc. We asked someone on the HOA board about it, and they said they have never paid a single HOA fee or any of their many fines, and they owe over 10k to the HOA.

Eventually the mom came back for the dog and one of the teenagers. The other kid's buddies all moved in. Cue late night parties, oil all over the driveway, days on end spent spray painting their shitty cars in the driveway, testing their subwoofers at 2am, and coming and going All.Night.Long. In a car without a muffler. Older teenager just moved to California too and one of the kids still living there has decided to man up and start taking care of the place. He is making an effort and is being nice to us and our other neighbors. Hopefully this trend will continue!!

Holy crap! You would think the HOA would have foreclosed on them way before they got that far behind.

[mushmouse]

You're going to love that fence!

[snickers]

Sorry your neighbors suck Glad you are getting a fence!!

[cc]

My dad has awful neighbors. They constantly harass him and have started to harass other neighbors as well. Police have been called multiple times. Here are just some of the things they have done:

-took a picture of his vintage car and posted it on Craig's List for sale at a ridiculous price. They posted his address so he only figured it out when random people started coming to his house to ask about it.

-Photograph my dad at all times, even when he is just mowing the lawn or working on his garden. One time, my kids and I were over and they took pictures of my kids playing in the backyard.

-My dad has an indoor/outdoor cat and they called animal control when they saw his cat outside. AC told my dad that if the cat was outside, he had to be on a leash. My dad now keeps him indoors at all times, but the cat is constantly trying to go out. The neighbors put a trap on their side of the fence to try and catch the cat.

-They have a DJ business so they have huge speakers. They sometimes aim the speakers towards my dad's front porch and will park their car so the headlights shine right into the porch while my dad is sitting there trying to enjoy the fresh air.

-They keep their garbage can outside near my dad's living room and sister's bedroom and will randomly go out there and slam the lid shut, creating a huge noise.

The list goes on and on and my dad doesn't instigate anything. He is a peace loving guy who just wants to enjoy his retirement. The police haven't been able to do anything because they haven't broken any laws.

[Jalapeñomel]

Yep, stop being nice. Treat them how they want to be treated.

[RoxMonster]

Jul 10, 2013 7:38:42 GMT -5 cc said:

My dad has awful neighbors. They constantly harass him and have started to harass other neighbors as well. Police have been called multiple times. Here are just some of the things they have done:

-took a picture of his vintage car and posted it on Craig's List for sale at a ridiculous price. They posted his address so he only figured it out when random people started coming to his house to ask about it.

-Photograph my dad at all times, even when he is just mowing the lawn or working on his garden. One time, my kids and I were over and they took pictures of my kids playing in the backyard.

-My dad has an indoor/outdoor cat and they called animal control when they saw his cat outside. AC told my dad that if the cat was outside, he had to be on a leash. My dad now keeps him indoors at all times, but the cat is constantly trying to go out. The neighbors put a trap on their side of the fence to try and catch the cat.

-They have a DJ business so they have huge speakers. They sometimes aim the speakers towards my dad's front porch and will park their car so the headlights shine right into the porch while my dad is sitting there trying to enjoy the fresh air.

-They keep their garbage can outside near my dad's living room and sister's bedroom and will randomly go out there and slam the lid shut, creating a huge noise.

The list goes on and on and my dad doesn't instigate anything. He is a peace loving guy who just wants to enjoy his retirement. The police haven't been able to do anything because they haven't broken any laws.

All of these are terrible, but the bolded is downright creepy. WTF??

[cc]

Jul 10, 2013 7:55:29 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

Jul 10, 2013 7:38:42 GMT -5 cc said:

My dad has awful neighbors. They constantly harass him and have started to harass other neighbors as well. Police have been called multiple times. Here are just some of the things they have done:

-took a picture of his vintage car and posted it on Craig's List for sale at a ridiculous price. They posted his address so he only figured it out when random people started coming to his house to ask about it.

-Photograph my dad at all times, even when he is just mowing the lawn or working on his garden. One time, my kids and I were over and they took pictures of my kids playing in the backyard.

-My dad has an indoor/outdoor cat and they called animal control when they saw his cat outside. AC told my dad that if the cat was outside, he had to be on a leash. My dad now keeps him indoors at all times, but the cat is constantly trying to go out. The neighbors put a trap on their side of the fence to try and catch the cat.

-They have a DJ business so they have huge speakers. They sometimes aim the speakers towards my dad's front porch and will park their car so the headlights shine right into the porch while my dad is sitting there trying to enjoy the fresh air.

-They keep their garbage can outside near my dad's living room and sister's bedroom and will randomly go out there and slam the lid shut, creating a huge noise.

The list goes on and on and my dad doesn't instigate anything. He is a peace loving guy who just wants to enjoy his retirement. The police haven't been able to do anything because they haven't broken any laws.

All of these are terrible, but the bolded is downright creepy. WTF??

The lady has been arrested for stalking before. She took a picture of the neighbor on the other side of her when he was mowing his lawn. The guy got sick of it and flipped her off. She sent the picture to his boss because he works in public service and "how can they employ someone that would make obscene gestures". She seriously has mental problems.
What scares me is that they have a bunch of guns and I fear that they will snap one day and attack someone.

[RoxMonster]

Wow they sound like wackadoos. That is scary.

[Deleted]

I'm surprised that the police didn't consider it a crime to post someone else's property for sale. This sounds like a terrible situation.

[candreco]

People seriously suck. How hard is it to be a decent human being?

At our old house, we had a neighbor that was fine when we moved in, but then got married and moved out, and then after that we seriously could not tell who lived there. Different cars, people in and out, etc., really shady. One morning when we walked out our front door at about 6:30 to walk DD over to the sitter's and meet up with her H that we carpooled with, we see four or five SUVs drive into our circle (TH development) with no lights on, which was a little weird, but it's starting to get light out. And then three or four guys get out of each one, and we realize that they're all wearing body armor and riot gear, several have rifles (or something, I have no idea). We're all WTF as we pass them on the sidewalk, each of them very politely says good morning, they go up the front steps of the shady house or around behind the row of houses, and as we turn the corner we can see them watching us to see when we're clear. When we got home that afternoon, the door on the house had pretty obviously been battered open, and we eventually found out that it was a drug bust of some sort.

ETA: This was an otherwise very nice suburban neighborhood, lots of playgrounds, families, schools nearby, and so on.  It was really unsettling for a while.

[Deleted]

We had awful neighbors at our old place (drug dealers, abusers, etc) so I feel you. it sucks. it actually ended up with us leaving our old place when I got pregnant. we couldn't imagine raising a child around there.

[cc]

Jul 10, 2013 8:02:36 GMT -5 @pjfranklin said:

I'm surprised that the police didn't consider it a crime to post someone else's property for sale. This sounds like a terrible situation.

There wasn't proof that it was them who posted it other than them telling my dad that they did.

[cst2cst]

Jul 10, 2013 1:10:06 GMT -5 goaskalice said:

Jul 9, 2013 22:29:51 GMT -5 Doggy Mommy said:

Wow, they suck. If they choose to not open the door to have an adult conversation, then they are choosing to be uninformed.

I have shitty neighbors too. She was a single mom with two teenagers/young adults, neither of whom has been in school for at least the last couple of years (mom said high school was "too stressful" for them). She got herself a boyfriend in California and decided to move there, leaving the teenagers and dog behind. Their house is in terrible shape, yard full of weeds, old pond filled with slime and mosquitos, overgrown and dead trees etc. We asked someone on the HOA board about it, and they said they have never paid a single HOA fee or any of their many fines, and they owe over 10k to the HOA.

Eventually the mom came back for the dog and one of the teenagers. The other kid's buddies all moved in. Cue late night parties, oil all over the driveway, days on end spent spray painting their shitty cars in the driveway, testing their subwoofers at 2am, and coming and going All.Night.Long. In a car without a muffler. Older teenager just moved to California too and one of the kids still living there has decided to man up and start taking care of the place. He is making an effort and is being nice to us and our other neighbors. Hopefully this trend will continue!!

Holy crap! You would think the HOA would have foreclosed on them way before they got that far behind.

The HOA can't foreclose on properties, they don't hold the mortgages, the bank does. HOAs are pretty powerless to enforce things if people disregard the rules. They can put a lien on the property, and I'd imagine this one has, but that only matters when they sell and only if they sell at a profit. If they are underwater it isn't much of a threat.

[goaskalice]

Jul 10, 2013 9:57:54 GMT -5 cst2cst said:

Jul 10, 2013 1:10:06 GMT -5 goaskalice said:

Holy crap! You would think the HOA would have foreclosed on them way before they got that far behind.

The HOA can't foreclose on properties, they don't hold the mortgages, the bank does. HOAs are pretty powerless to enforce things if people disregard the rules. They can put a lien on the property, and I'd imagine this one has, but that only matters when they sell and only if they sell at a profit. If they are underwater it isn't much of a threat.

Not true. It's really really uncommon, mostly because most of the time owners aren't paying their mortgage either and the bank foreclosed first, but it is legal for them to do so if it's written in their CC&Rs.