Some people have all the luck in moving in next to model neighbors. From not blaring loud music in the wee hours of the morning to knowing how to mind the business that takes place within their property line, good neighbors can sometimes be hard to come across. Unfortunately, that leaves plenty of disgruntled property homeowners with tale after tale of unbelievably rude and obnoxious neighbors. Here are just a few stories about neighbors straight from hell:
All stories have been edited for clarity.
Obsession
“I moved back to my hometown after my divorce and bought a beach cottage. I was excited to have a fresh new start.
My new home was perfect for us. When I moved in, I immediately got acquainted with the one neighbor directly next door. He was a single man that was about my age. He always seemed to enjoy chatting with me and knew exactly when I came home from work to meet me. He would always return my emptied trash container back to its spot on trash days.
I engaged with him in chatting as he appeared to appreciate someone to talk to. However, as time went on, his chats became full of paranoid hostility toward the rest of the neighborhood. Eventually, things got so bad that I would wake up to several angry messages from him. The messages scared me so much that I had counselors at a women’s shelter look at them, to which one replied, ‘Do you own or rent?’ She then suggested I move immediately, but it wasn’t that simple.
I would receive texts from other neighbors while at work warning me not to come home for a while because my neighbor was acting out. His rants turned into screaming and chanting threats from my porch directly at neighbors.
I ended up going to the police and showed the messages I had from him. I was disappointed when they told me they couldn’t really do much.
Eventually, my neighbor was arrested, and soon after his father sold the place to a wonderful family.
All is peaceful now and I can stay and my daughter is safe to ride the bus home from school now.”
Bad Neighbors!
“We had pretty crummy neighbors after we bought our first home.
We first visited the home in the middle of the night. The power was not on as the house was vacant so we used lighters to light the home and ‘see’ it.
I don’t recommend this method of home viewing when looking to purchase a home.
It was nighttime, but the next-door neighbors, on the right, were still up. My husband had a pleasant conversation with them out front before we left. The neighbors on the left were not outside so we had no idea of the caliber of nonsense they could provide.
We decided to purchase the home and drove by as often as possible during escrow so that we could get a better feel for the neighborhood. Each time, there was still no sign of the neighbors on the left.
Once we moved into the home, we soon learned that the neighbors on the left were renters. It became clear that they did not give rats ass about their home or the neighborhood. They were unfriendly people and thought they had every right to continue to use our property as if they owned it.
We tried to be nice in the beginning. We waved at them as we passed only to be met with them flicking us off. We smiled at them which was met with frowns and more middle fingers hurled in our direction. Eventually, we gave up being nice and just ignored them.
We did not have a dog when we moved in, so imagine my surprise when I walked out into my fenced-in backyard to find the neighbor’s dog handling his business. This was repeated nightly as they did not allow their dog to run the neighborhood. I didn’t care and locked the gate so they couldn’t enter my property without permission.
On Easter of the same year we moved in, we decided to have an egg hunt for the kids in the backyard. My youngest child ran out of the house and happily started collecting eggs. My husband and I left the kids outside for a brief moment and went inside. Out of nowhere, we heard my son screeching and bolted outside to see what happened. When we got to him, he was sitting on the porch crying uncontrollably. It took a minute to assess why he was crying so hard. His shirt had a slimy substance on it. Then I saw the mess on my porch and the snickering of the neighbors on the other side of the fence.
They were throwing eggs at my children.
Furious, I nearly jumped over the fence but my brother-in-law pulled me back. I was positive I was going to jail that day. We called the cops and after an hour or so, peace was restored. However, my Easter Sunday was ruined. Thankfully, the neighbors had the decency to be slightly ashamed and retreated to the inside of their house so we had some peace.
This family had several vehicles and rather than park them in their massive driveway they would block my driveway. So many times I had to hunt them down to move a vehicle so that I could enter or exit my driveway. Sometimes I would pull out and pull back in just to mess with them. They always returned the vehicle to the same parking space as soon as I was clear.
Thankfully the owner of the house sold it and the renters moved out within about six months.”
It’s A Hereditary Thing
“My son was going through a divorce and had won full custody of his son. I left my home and moved in with him to help raise the baby. After living in an apartment for some time, we finally found a decent-sized house that was better suited for us. It was right after we moved in that the issues began.
The next-door neighbor’s kids were a real pain. The oldest one told me they used to live in our home before we came along and ‘ruined it.’ His entitlement was off the charts! However, his statement explained a lot. There were a crazy amount of strange areas on the walls and lower parts of the ceiling that had plywood covering fist punch holes. Some of the doors had broken knobs and broken locks and one door that was leftover with punch holes.
The youngest child went through my truck our first week. The one time I forgot to lock it, the boy rummaged through the truck looking for I don’t know what. Once time after catching them in the act, the older brother asked, ‘What’s wrong with that truck? It never moves. Can I buy that truck?’
‘Uhhh…no, it’s mine,’ I said sternly.
I drove my son’s van most of the time because I had my grandchild with me. The older brother formed a habit of creeping around the house. He walked his untrainable dogs in my yard ONLY when he knew my dog was out to start trouble.
I even caught the kids spray-painting graffiti boobs on an old shed bordering the property. I called them the creeper kids. I had the last straw when I found the oldest child on the side of the house taunting my dog with a stick.
Finally, I saw a lady in the backyard next door and went and introduced myself. I asked her to talk to the boy because I was tired of asking him to not bring his dogs into my yard.
Can you guess what her reply was?
‘Oh, we can’t control the dog. He’s too strong and drags us around.’
What the heck! I wanted to say. Lady, you can’t even control your kid!
Instead, I repeated that this was my yard, my dog is always on his lead, and I didn’t want an issue. ‘I want you to keep your dog out of my yard, please!’
‘Well, we’ll just have to stop walking the dog I guess.’
‘No ma’am, you just need to walk him OVER THERE!’
At that point, I think the attitude was hereditary!
It was people like her that pushed me to only want to live in the country.
To be fair, my son was in a hurry to get us housed. The town was on the small side, and we truly hated apartments. The rent was kinda cheap, but I hope as young adults the children learn how to behave.”
Who’s That Lady?
“My husband and I bought a home that was severely neglected and needed many repairs. We didn’t move in right away because we were fixing and remodeling. Occasionally, I would stop by the property and check on the progress.
One day, the next-door neighbor barged through the hedge that divided the property. She asked if we were the new owners, then proceeded to talk badly about the former owners. In her list of complaints, the neighbor went on about the residents before us never repairing anything and having loud parties. Her tone was extremely accusatory and her mannerisms were aggressive for no reason.
I assured her we were quiet people and we bought the home to remodel it.
The woman then scoffed and said, ‘I’ve lived here for thirty years. Don’t even think about causing trouble. I’m a retired lawyer and will sue you!’”
My first thought was, ‘Oh no. She has time and the know-it-all attitude to be a nuisance. That was just what she turned out to be. After trying to tell us how to remodel the home and what materials to use, we put an iron fence around the whole property with a drive-thru gate. The neighbor stopped calling after we never return her calls. We went to zero contact to avoid her and her controlling ways.
She is the most obnoxious person I have ever met and she still lives next door.”
What’s Yours Is Actually Mine
“In 1985 I bought a nice property in Connecticut. The place was a short commute into midtown Manhattan with a half-acre lot near the beach and a boat anchorage one block away for our sailboat.
The house itself was a two-story with a full basement. The place was about eighty years old but in great condition. Two months after we moved in, our next-door neighbor came over and asked to talk ‘about our landscaping.’
At the time, his place was a total mess. He had a full-time job but was also building his own house, by himself, while his family was living in it. That project was underway for three years already and his yard was full of their vehicles and construction materials. I didn’t mind any of it. I thought that was kind of cool that he could do that. Besides, it was four feet below our grade, so it was really no problem.
The problem was that he had bought a small sliver of a lot and there was no room for a front lawn. So, he had situated his house at an angle so that from their living room they overlooked our expansive front lawn. There was a four-foot drop-off that tapered to zero at the street. I had hired someone to build a proper rock retaining wall along the property line, then put some flowering shrubs on top. This made a fairly nice effect and allowed us to pave the way for guest parking.
My neighbor’s problem was that it hadn’t occurred to me how my changes to my property made my neighbor feel.
‘It’s kind of selfish that you intentionally blocked off the view to your lawn without consulting me first,’ said our neighbor as he sat on our couch.
Part of my reason for the shrubbery was privacy, as his front windows pointed at my property. The neighbor then suggested I pull out the shrubs and install something ‘low profile,’ that would cascade over the rock wall.
My neighbor was specific about what he wanted and what would perfect his view of my lawn. He also asked that I not let my guests park in my widened driveway, behind the new shrubs, where I had paved it, as that, too, would block his enjoyment of our yard.
I really didn’t know what to say. My wife kept pressing me to be ‘nice,’ but the more my neighbor talked, the more annoyed I was. Our neighbor was there on our couch for an hour, saying the same things over and over, telling me how to landscape and use my own property to maximize his enjoyment of it.
Finally, I told him to get the hell out of my house or I’d throw him out. He left, obviously baffled at my intransigence.
My wife didn’t approve of my handling of it but he didn’t come back.”
Can’t Be Helped
“A friend of mine bought half a twin in a fairly nice neighborhood in a small town. She and her husband spent their engagement refurbishing the house and moved in right after the wedding. It wasn’t long until they realized the couple next door was completely dysfunctional.
They would hear fighting at all hours of the night, especially after the bars closed and the man would stumble home. This went on for some time before the arguments turned into physical fights with loud crying and screaming. My friend tried to reach out to the woman and convince her to get some help to no avail. ‘He was sorry,’ ‘He said he wouldn’t do it again,’ and ‘Sorry if we disturbed you,’ Were some of the classic abused woman answers my sister kept getting out of her neighbor.
I’m sure there are a lot of things that I haven’t been told, but the abuse escalated so badly that this poor woman apparently thought that lighting herself on fire was an appropriate exit from the situation. That’s right, she lit herself on fire in an attempt to end her life and therefore her abuse. My friend was home alone when she smelled something she could not identify as she heard the most horrendous scream she had ever heard. When she ran outside, she saw her neighbor covered head to toe in flames. With a horrifying realization, my friend screamed in horror seeing that the odor was burning flesh. Her abuser extinguished the flames and called an ambulance. Thankfully, the woman survived.
My friend was so traumatized that she cried for weeks and sought counseling. At least, she thought, the awful neighbors would be gone. Surely this woman would get some help, her partner would go to jail or at least be kept away with a restraining order. One would think, but nope. Weeks later, after a hospitalization, rehab, psych treatment, and other necessary recovery steps, my friend’s neighbor moved back home.
She came home terribly disfigured and went back to the same dysfunctional relationship she was willing to burn to death to leave, only now it was worse because he would tell her she was ugly and no one else would ever want her because of her scars.
My friend tried to help her. They offered again and again to get her help only to be told she didn’t need or want help. That was when my friend decided to get out. They put the house up for sale and prayed that the neighbors wouldn’t be fighting when prospective buyers were there. The house sold and they are currently living with family looking for another house. My friend is still pretty messed up and still in counseling. She lives with the guilt that, despite her best efforts, she wasn’t able to help this woman.”
Domestic Dispute
“I sign the one-year lease to my first apartment on my own. My girlfriend, my roommate, his girlfriend, and I moved in the beds, TV, and other things. By the time we finished, it was already dark so we decided to unload the rest the next morning.
After getting inside, we all started unboxing things when we heard a commotion at the neighbor’s house. We heard blood-curdling screams that got louder with each passing second. Terrified, my girlfriend called the cops while my roommate and I went to the front door to see what was going on.
We went outside just in time to see a man running with a baby. Shortly after, a woman scrambled out of the apartment crying and bleeding.
As it turned out, the guy had two strikes against him already for domestic disputes. In a panic, he sliced up his wife a little bit before kidnapping their child. The cops rushed to the unit and took our statement.
It was at that moment when realized I didn’t want to live at the apartments anymore. I called the property manager and told her I would no longer like to live there. She said it was too late because I already signed the contract.
My girlfriend got on the phone and – not so politely – told her how we just heard and helped our neighbor who just got sliced up and lost her child to a maniac, and that it would not bode well for her to keep us to this agreement. I went to the office and got my deposit back the very next morning.
The lady was fine, I moved out too fast to know what happened to the maniac and the child.”
