Moving can be an exciting time as you anticipate starting fresh in a new place. There is also the potential to meet new neighbors and friends. Neighbors can oftentimes ‘make or break’ a home and unfortunately for these folks, their rude neighbors made themselves known right when they moved in– imagine the disappointment! This content has been edited for clarity.
Yellow House
“Many years ago when my daughters were young, we had moved into our new home on a military base. I walk every evening for exercise. One evening, there was a group of ladies gathered at one house on our street. They were obviously friends and were visiting. As I walked by, they invited me to join them so I could get to know my neighbors.
We sat and visited for about an hour and had a great time. Then one of the ladies turned to me and said,
‘Let me tell you, avoid the woman that lives down there,’ and pointed toward the end of the street.
‘Why?’ I asked.
She said, ‘She is really snooty. She’s hateful and just glares at everyone. I went down when she first moved in and tried to visit with her, but she was just rude, rude, rude.’
She then made some really hateful remarks about how that ‘Fat pig could just go suck lemons’ and other nasty comments. I asked which house the woman specifically lived in and the woman said,
‘That yellow house with the yellow storage shed on the end.’
As I stood to leave and said my good-nights to everyone, she turned to me and said, ‘You never said where you live. Which unit is yours?’
I pointed down the street and replied, ‘The yellow house with the yellow storage shed on the end,’ and turned and walked away.
I never had to deal with her again, and none of the other ladies in the neighborhood would either. Obviously, it wasn’t the first time she’d done something like that.”
Jail Time
“I had a bad neighbor once. Shortly after I’d moved in, he started calling the police about any little thing. I once put ‘my trash can out too early’ and the police showed up. My friends parked on the street for a housewarming party I threw and the police were called to ticket them. After several such petty things happened, I assumed the local cops were just bored.
Then there was a ‘noise complaint’ because I had a radio on while working on my car. A cop showed up and noted the volume was fine. He kind of let slip who called it in by going to speak with the neighbor across the road. After that, I spoke to him one day when I saw him out on his porch. He basically called me a slur and told me to go ‘procreate with myself.’
After that, I went out of my way to keep as clean a nose as possible but started retaliating in kind. I called in his high grass when he let it get too long, called enforcement to ticket his daughter’s car parked on the street, and called to report him as a drunk driver. He’d been drinking on his porch and loudly asked his daughter if she wanted anything from the local burger joint as he got in the car.
The turning point came when he was ‘watching’ his granddaughter– whoever would leave a four-year-old with that man is an idiot. He was drinking and passed out with her playing by the road so I called it in. The cops arrived to find her in the road drawing with chalk and him passed out drunk on the porch. He took a swing at the cops that woke him which landed him in jail overnight.
There were several more altercations and trips to jail for him before things finally came to a stop. One night, he got drunk and got the bright idea to take out the cameras before smashing up my car. I had a video of him swinging at them and the car. He couldn’t see (or reach) the camera on the second story, which recorded all of it. Videos weren’t really needed though, since the cops showed up while he was still in my driveway.
I found out later he hadn’t just been targeting me. He’d been doing the same petty things to several other neighbors for years but nobody had stood up to him. All were happy to see him leave. I pity his new neighbors wherever he wound up. But I feel not one ounce of remorse for putting the screws to him. He earned every twist he took, and then some.”
Rent’s Due
“When I bought my home, there were six of us there to unload the truck. We were all very tired and were just trying to get the job done. The front door was standing open as we carried in boxes. I looked up as a woman walked in with two little boys in tow.
‘Hi, I am your new neighbor,’ she said.
I had a house full of tired cranky people and she thought I had time for a social call? Really? She followed me around for about an hour telling me she had heard a disabled person (me) had bought the house and how her friend used to own it.
I finally turned to her and said, ‘Please, we have work to get done and I will be glad to sit down over coffee and get to know you, but today is not the day.’
She gathered up her two little boys and said over her shoulder that she and her husband would be by the next day ‘to discuss the rent.’ I looked at her and said stupidly, ‘Huh?’ She then proceeded to tell me that although I bought my manufactured home through the bank, she and her husband owned the land it was on and they would come down to discuss the rental amount.
I looked her straight in the eye and told her I did not buy the house through a bank, I bought it outright in cash including the land it was on. There was no bank involved. She gave me a dirty look, and said, ‘My husband will have something to say about that!’ and turned around and walked out.
The following day, I saw her husband coming home from work, so I stepped outside and asked him if he wanted to speak to me as his wife said. He looked at me, kind of embarrassed, put his head down and said, ‘Yeah, I am sorry about that, but when she heard a disabled lady bought the house, she figured she could scam you for some cash. I am really sorry, but she just does these things.’
Grrr! She figured she could rip off a disabled person and get away with it. Nope! Needless to say, I rejected all offers of friendship until she sold her house and moved. Buh bye!”
Smells Like Bleach
“A new family was moving in next door and must have noticed I had a pool. As they were unloading their trucks, the kids came knocking on my door wearing swim trunks and carrying floaties and towels. They said their mom sent them over so they’d be out of the way. I happily walked the kiddies back to their house and informed the mom that I charged to babysit and that my pool is not a public amenity for their use.
I also had to inform her that I had just added chemicals to the pool and it couldn’t be swum in for several hours.
‘What do you mean, chemicals?’ she asked.
‘My pool is chlorine so I use bleach. I just added ten gallons,’ I said (exaggerating a little).
‘My kids are allergic to bleach! Why would you do that?’ she screeched.
‘Well, because it’s my pool, not theirs,’ I replied matter of factly.
‘You’re going to have to switch to a non-chlorine system if my kids are going to be in your pool,’ she said in return.
‘Well then I guess your kids won’t be in my pool, will they?’ I said.
‘You have to be considerate of your neighbors. I work from home so I don’t have time to be shuttling them to and from the public pool! It is your neighborly obligation to help your neighbors,’ she replied.
‘Uh, no, not really,’ I said.
‘Well, how much do you charge to babysit?’ she asked.
‘1,500 dollars a week,’ I said.
‘Excuse me?’ she replied.
‘That’s my current salary, so if you expect me to quit my day job to babysit your kids, you’re going to have to meet my current salary. I also expect benefits including a company car, two weeks paid vacation, and travel expenses,’ I said.
‘Get off my property!’ she screamed.
She harassed us all summer for ‘torturing her kids by having pool parties and not inviting them.’ Apparently, we also ruined her diet by grilling out since ‘smell contains calories.'”
No Parking
“I was moving into a new home and as you may know, moving day isn’t always the tidiest day in the world. My couch was sitting in the driveway and had not yet been carried into the new place. I was waiting for the people coming over to help me move it.
My neighbor was so ticked off that I had a small loveseat in her section of the driveway even though it was out of the way. She went into a fit and drove her little Volks Wagon right up onto my couch. She parked on it, got out of her car while slamming her door shut, and went into her apartment.
That was just the beginning with her tantrums. She would beat on our ceiling with a broom handle if we were talking or walking around. She would also text me in the middle of the night to tell me to shut up when I was sound asleep or call and tattle on me to our land lord.
Her dog would run out and bark at anyone in the vicinity. He was a bit untrusting and scared us a couple times with his charging and barking. The dog cornered my son one day barking at him and he was crying and scared. I told her not to let it happen again or I would have to call the animal police. She responded by telling me she would call child protection services on me. Say what?
After her threat to call CPS, I informed the landlord of her threat and problem dog. He evicted her but it took months to get her out. She harassed us daily to the point of hating where we lived. Eventually, she moved and life was good again for us. I hoped to never see her again.
Ironically, she moved next door to my closest friend. I’ve definitely had to see and hear her again. My friend has had some issues but nothing like I experienced as her building isn’t a duplex.”
What’s Your Problem?
“My son and I moved into a townhome I had rented. He was in sixth grade and started school the day after we moved in. That day, my son had an altercation with a child on the bus. Apparently, the kid was saying to my son that his mom was a ‘Karen’ for some unknown reason. We had just moved in and hadn’t had the time or the chance to interact with anyone in the neighborhood, so my guess was as good as any.
My son verbally defended me and told him to stop. The next day, the child punched my son three times in the shoulder and back while passing him in the hallway which was caught on camera and dealt with by the administrator at his school. The other child was given in-school suspension and the parents were called about what transpired. The video showed the child hitting my son and my son continuing to walk and then running away, so my son wasn’t punished.
After putting my son on the bus the following day, I heard someone banging on my front door. I opened it to two grown women demanding that they come outside. Being alone, I refused and called the police. The police showed up and talked to both of us. They said the women were calmed down and suggested I get some cameras in case something was to happen.
My son and I left the house a couple of hours later as I decided to stay with family members that night. We stopped to get gas and checked my mail at the old house on the way. As my son got out of the car to check the mail, I noticed a car parked directly behind mine in the driveway. The women hopped out and harmed both my son and me with a weapon. I managed to get their tag number and called the police.
It turned out it was the parents of the kid who attacked my son at school. Needless to say, they’re facing multiple felonies and roughly 15-20 years in prison. Craziest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life!”
Not My Mess
“Years ago I moved into an apartment. I was on the second floor and shared a long balcony with my neighbor. It was just us two on the floor in that building and the balcony didn’t have a divider between us. I put a small patio table and chair right by my door to relax on the balcony in the morning with tea or in the evenings to enjoy a book.
One morning, I went out to sit on the chair by the small table. The table was full of beer cans and a huge ashtray full of cigarette butts. The only person that could have done that is my neighbor. It annoyed me. It was one thing to use my patio table and chair without permission, but to leave a disgusting mess for me is another thing. I picked up the cans and ashtray and put them on the ground right in front of her door.
I wiped off my table and wrote out a note that said, ‘Please ask for permission before using my table and chair. This table and chair are not community property. They belong to me. If you get permission to sit here, please clean up your mess. I am not your maid. Thank you.’ I left the note taped on the table.
The next morning I found another load of beer cans and a full ashtray on the table. Only that time, the table had a beer and food mess. I lost it. I grabbed the beer cans that were not all empty and the full ashtray with cigarette butts and ashes. I walked to her door and spilled beer all in front of her door on the concrete. I then poured the full ashtray into the beer and it made a yucky mess on the concrete. She’d have to step in it going out the door.
People on the ground floor of the building said she was very rude like that to them as well. One time she took someone’s clothes out of the washing machine and threw them on the ground so she could use it. She had a bad reputation for not being one to reason with. I wasn’t going to waste my time trying to talk with her to try to come to a resolution.
I decided to fold up my table and chair and put them by the wall next to the front door inside my apartment. It was a pain to have to bring them in and out every time I used them, but I did it. She could get her own and clean up her own mess.
There weren’t any more issues once I removed the table and chair. A few months later, she moved out. Someone else moved in a couple of weeks later and the new neighbors were polite, so my patio table and chair went back out for good. Thank goodness.”
Dog House
“Two years ago, my partner and I had just bought our first house. We had brought our puppy with us too and I was particularly excited because the house had a backyard where we were supposed to build a doghouse. Our next-door neighbor came over a day or two after we had moved in while I was watering my garden.
He decided to be a creeper and asked if he could give me his number. He then started asking probing questions about my schedule like how long I was home alone and kept hitting on me. I turned off the water, went inside, locked the door, and called my partner. It wasn’t sitting right with me that a strange man was walking through my yard who knew I was home alone and wouldn’t accept my boundaries.
My partner came home and met the neighbor’s wife in the driveway to explain what happened and how the guy was out of line. We didn’t see the guy again, but a week later, I woke up one day and went outside to check on my garden and dog. I peeked into the doghouse and my puppy seemed to be sleeping.
I poked it to wake it up, and after it didn’t wake up, I dragged it outside the doghouse and realized it was dead. I don’t know why, but I just knew that my neighbor had murdered it. I immediately called for my partner and we confronted our neighbor and called the police on him. He actually admitted to killing the puppy. Fortunately, he was jailed for animal cruelty and a whole host of other crimes and charges that we didn’t know about.
It is absolutely beyond me as to how someone could have the utter heartlessness to do what he did.”
Landlord
“My mother-in-law owned a property that was sitting empty. My husband talked to his brothers and no one wanted to deal with it. We asked his mother for permission to fix it up and take it over and she said yes. She had owned the place for 30 years. My husband’s family lived there from when he was five until he was in high school when they moved into a bigger house. Then they rented it out.
One of the brothers wanted to move in so she kicked out the renters but the brother changed his mind and it sat empty for about five years. We spent about six months fixing it up and making it livable. Finally, the day came when we were ready to move in. I was on the property waiting for the gas company to come to turn on the gas while my husband and kids were loading the U-Haul.
One of the neighbors flagged me down and I walked over to talk to her. We exchanged names and small talk. Then she told me to be careful of my landlord because she was an awful person. I love my mother-in-law so I was a bit shocked and all I could say was, ‘Oh, really?’ She went on to tell me all these lies about how she wouldn’t fix anything there and how they had had a bunch of short-term renters who would complain about her.
I finally told her she was talking about my mother-in-law and everything she told me was a lie and that she needed to get her facts straight. I have had nothing but problems from everyone in that house. The woman who said all that has moved out, but now her cousin is renting it and she is just as rude. Mostly because she lets anyone and everyone park in front of my driveway so I can’t get my car out when I want to leave without going over and telling them to move.”
Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind
“The weirdest thing someone has done to me immediately after I moved in was when the previous owner told me he had changed the locks as a ‘welcome gift’ and I naively believed him. What he failed to tell me was that he had kept a key. I had another neighbor who was bedridden and had nothing to do all day but look out the window. She informed me the gentleman was letting himself in my house while I was at work.
The neighbor asked me if he was doing some more work on the house for me. It turned out he was coming in to put junk in the attic. I found out the truth because my attic was empty at the time of the inspection before I bought the house. After I changed the locks again, I had someone come out to blow foam insulation into the attic.
I had to pay someone else to come remove everything the man had methodically stashed up there. There was wall-to-wall shag carpeting, several rolls of fiberglass insulation, assorted mementos, beer cans, and a moldy carpet pad complete with rat feces. They say, ‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ and he was definitely out of his mind.”
“Guidelines”
“My husband and I bought a bungalow in a quiet little town in Florida about two blocks from the beach. After a couple of weeks, our next-door neighbor showed up with some cookies and a printed sheet of ‘guidelines’ for us to follow even though there was no HOA. She sweetly told me, ‘We all like to get along here, and this will be helpful for you, and all of us.’
The guidelines included suggestions such as ‘Please wear a cover-up when walking to the beach, there are young children and we don’t want to be walking around half-naked,’ ‘Please do not host outdoor barbeques after 7 pm,’ and ‘Please do not mow your lawn before 7 am or after 6 pm.’
There were about a dozen such suggestions. I was impressed by the fact that they all began with ‘please’ as I appreciate politeness. I looked it over and politely handed it back while telling her my husband and I had been adults for some time and knew how to behave. We got occasional complaints from her about TV and music volume, walking to the beach half-naked, and screeching out of the driveway early in the morning. Whenever she pointed out our failings, I would stare for a few seconds, then politely walk away. It took a few months, but she finally quit speaking to us.”
