Dealing with Difficult Neighbors

[Gryphon]

We've all had them. How do you deal with the folks with the obnoxious dogs, the loud music and cars, the "pigs" of the neighborhood who leave out their trash cans or litter their lawns?
Got any good "bad neighbor" stories?

[Sandy Eggo]

I do, but I'm short on time. Great topic! LMAO I can't wait to share.

[Sunny]

UGH! Right now I have a neighbor that likes to get up at the crack of down on the weekends to do his lawn maintenance.

I know I should be grateful...but, something about that leaf blower at 7:00a.m. just irks me.

[Gryphon]

Some people next door to me just built a beautiful new house. They moved in, slapped a satellite dish on the FRONT of the house.
The husband drives some Acura that looks like something from a budget version of Too Fast Too Furious...complete with two mufflers the size of coffee cans. He parks it on their front lawn. On cold mornings, he goes out and lets the noisy thing run while he is getting ready...so I dont even need an alarm clock anymore.
Then yesterday, one of their guests parks half on the street half on MY lawn. (I resisted the temptation to go tell him to move it,because I didnt want that to be my first meeting with the new neighbors.) So this morning, my sprinklers come on, and right where he parked his car, their busted. 

[followsthewolf]

Mmmmmm

Sounds like a meeting with the neighbor over a cup of coffee is needed.

Without an understanding, I strongly feel that it will get worse.

[Sunny]

Yes, I agree that you need to talk with those neighbors, like yesterday.

That is the one benefit to having a homeowner's association...if things don't resovle themselves, the association takes action.

[Gryphon]

Thats the thing...
our association cant do anything apparently about the satellite dish or the cars. (We've tried to have cars towed before, and for some reason we cant legally, even though its against the associations bylaws to park anywhere other than your driveway or garage)
The sattellite dish, the FCC has a rule that we cant make them put it someplace that will result in a lesser signal. (Forget the fact that my dish gets a perfect signal from my backyard...the installed simply sends the association a letter saying that it HAD to be smack on the front)

[~Daisy~]

Oh

My


God


Do I ever!! My  neighbors behind me were the ones who single handedly caused property values to plummet to an all time low in a neighborhood that was lovingly built around the time of the Beatles Invasion of the US. Even then, when a new home sold for around the $10,000 mark, I'm certain property values were more, uh, viable than they were after....the...Huffmans.

You see, while I was on maternity leave 3 years ago, they tried to recreate the Wizard of Oz, Anderson style. I mean, someone dropped a doublewide trailer on top of a perfectly good brick ranch. Well, that is, perfectly good if you covered your left eye and couldn't see the aluminum foil "blinds" they made over their "bar" room.

And then there is the topic of their pets. Two dogs that never got played with, or any attention paid to them, for that matter. Somehow, the Wonder Dogs learned to jump a 6 foot wooden fence. Repeatedly. So, after calling the Animal Shelter a couple of times (only when the dogs decided to get territorial of MY yard and approach my young children as if they were going to have a showdown), the neighbors decided to replicate a baseball fence--you know, the wire one that goes at a 45 degree angle from the rest of the fence to catch flyballs?!--on top of the 6 foot wooden one. Yeah, tacky central.

Then there was the issue of their stereo. These people were drunks--to the point that they make me look like a sommelier--and would have parties to show for it. I mean, super speakers blasting "You're an asshole--and all your friends are assholes, too" directed at us when having our Eddie Bauer-esque backyard bonfires. And this was always when they would be running around like the new Barnum and Bailey's, complete with Fat Girl Smushed into Fake Leather Chaps, Eminem lookalikes, Gallagher meets 21st Century hairstyles...oh yeah, and drunken 12 year olds. Yep, I do not exaggerate. They didn't like us because, well, I don't know why, but we tried to give them a shot when we first moved in, and went over for New Years the year I was pregnant with my youngest--to which they started shoving Boones Farm under my nose ("It's New Years! You have to have ONE glass." Okay, one glass later, "Here! Have another!" I refused, but they still managed to spike my Ginger Ale, to the point I was throwing up at precisely 12:15, and not sure how that happened!) So...they decided we must be too snooty for them, or something. Not sure. But it was a neighborhood relationship made in Hell. They made fun of the people around us who maintained their lawns, while they let their dogs ruin theirs. They cut down ALL the trees in their yard, in a neighborhood which borders a National Forest, AND they parked cars, spare tires, and trash dumpsters in the front yard.

We no longer have to worry about them, however. About 3 weeks ago, they abandoned their house. Yep, they are gone, but their trash is not. Neither is the double wide on top of the house. No orange HUD stickers yet, but I'm waiting.

[Gryphon]

literally on top of their house???

God, I need to see photos...

[~Daisy~]

Just took one....

Uploading it now

[~Daisy~]

The Neighbors'

[~Daisy~]

This was built in 2003. The siding near the roof fell off last year. They let it hang for almost a year before it fell completely, and never replaced it

[Gryphon]

What an eyesore...
Why would anyone spend money to make their house look worse??

[~Daisy~]

You got me!!

[Sunny]

Wow, my complaints pale in comparison next to THAT!