Topic : 12/24 Nasty Neighbors

My family and I have lived in our Long Island neighborhool slightly over two years...we LOVE our new home and FINALLY have room to breathe (we previously lived in a 900 sq. ft. "shoebox" for 6 years...a little TOO close for comfort for a family of three, two Labs and 1 cat!).  Anyhoo...my family and I are the type of people who, for the most part, keep to ourselves and mind our own business, yet I do wave to my neighbors or chat for a few minutes at the mailboxes on occasion and will even take in mail, newspapers, etc., when requested.  HOWEVER ~~ there is one family a few doors down who has alienated pretty much EVERY ONE on the block!  They have called the cops to complain (most recently on US this past February when they felt that our 16-yr. old son had too many friends over our house to "hang"), filed complaints on others with the Town, made idle threats (even went as far as approaching another neighbor's property brandishing baseball bats FOR NO APPARENT REASON), "talks trash" about others (including us) behind backs and pretty much thinks they "own" the block (even though they're NOT homeowners!).  The main culprit of this brood (we'll call him "Kenny K") is the patriarch and the splitting image of Charles Manson!!!  Needless to say, Kenny K's a little bit PSYCHOTIC & scary!  This past summer, someone bashed one of our car windows overnight and even though Kenny K was THE FIRST person who came to mind who would be capable of doing such a thing (we later found out that it wasn't him, but a former trouble-maker school friend who our son no longer "hangs" with); even the local police officer, who came to our house to investigate the matter, when asked if we had problems with any neighbors and my husband mentioned Kenny K. replied "You mean "the CRAZY one?"!!  Kenny K. is the type of person who attemps to be "Mr. Community"...every  year his family sets up quite the impressive Halloween Haunted House display (the downside of this is that it brings kids over in droves who "egg" and spray shaving cream on other properties), and every single weekday morning he's outside like a (obnoxious) "cheerleader" when the school buses pick up his and other children.  However, he's underhanded; nice to your face but will STAB you in the back in a heartbeat when you're not looking; he can't be trusted!

Another neighbor who is becoming a problem lives right next door.  They leave their two dogs (a vicious Pitt-mix and Presa Canario) out the ENTIRE day (from 7AM); whenever I let my two Labs out in our backyard several times/day to "do their business"  (they won't stay out unless we're out there with them) the barking/carrying on between the two sets of dogs begins and it's only a matter of time before their aging, shoddy stockade fence dividing the two properties collapses and those two dogs get into our yard AGAIN...they've already broken through once several months ago; fortunately I let my dogs inside in time before they were attacked!  I've approached this neighbor THREE times ~~ nicely ~~ about resolving this matter and their attiude is that WE should keep OUR dogs away from that side of OUR yard and that the little Pitt-mix" is "harmless"!  Three strikes; they're OUT ~~ I'll eventually take pictures of the conditon of their fence from our side and report it to the Town and let THEM handle the matter.

As much as I LOVE our new home and community amenities, I'm slowly getting to the point of unhappiness/disharmony and it's only a matter of time before we pack up and move AGAIN (much to my husband's dismay).  I'd rather it NOT come to this!

OXO
Lucy B.

A septic field that is surfacing is in violation of environmental and health codes.  The county needs to be notified and will take over from there.  The offending owners of the septic issue will be issued a summons and will be required to either fix the problem or face severe penalties.  This happened with my neighbors too, and the county was extremely helpful in their interventions.  Thankfully the issue was handled without requiring a verbal battle with my neighbors, who foreclosed on their property and dumped the responsibility on society.

I had nasty neighbors that evoked nasty behavior. 

My neighbors had 4 house dogs living in a 2 bedroom duplex with a newborn.  I tried to welcome them to the neighborhood by being a gracious neighbor(lived in the area for 10 years).  I gave a few needed pieces of furniture to the young couple. 

How did I get paid in return?  I was given dog feces on a daily basis on my front porch at the door.  Dog feces throughout my side of the yard, which had taken years to landscape to my liking and  my new neighbors made no attempt to contain the dogs.  To make matters worst, their unsavory friends would hang out around the property no matter what time of day and took over my back porch.  Calling the law only provoked worst behavior.  Loud music would knock pictures off the wall.

I started to feel hatred and contempt toward my neighbors.  Just the sight of them provoked unkind thoughts and very colorful daydreams of ways to bring about unfortunate events that would adversely affect them.

I could not achieve happiness or peace at my own resident.  In the end, I moved to keep my sanity.

I would like to say that one's own sense of proper conduct cannot be enforced upon another.  To keep one's dignity and sanity, it is better to move if one could.  As for homeowners, pray that you have good neighbors and be thankful if you do.

I understand the nasty neighbor situation quite handily. A year ago my neighbors Pit Bull and Rottweiler killed my little dog Jake, a small Lhasa Apso.

We live out in the country and there aren’t any laws regarding animals being kept up in a fenced area or on a leash. I tried to keep Jake in the house but from time to time he would get away from me. On the particular day of his death he had been out of my sight for approximately 10 minutes. I kept calling for him but he wouldn’t come. After about 30 minutes missing Jake, one of my neighbor’s son’s called to let me know that the Pit and the Rottweiler had Jake in the ditch besides my house mauling him. I went off with a pistol for self protection against the two dogs in order to find Jake, but it was too late, they had done the deed already. I fired a warning shot at the two dogs to stop them from coming at me. My neighbor who owned the dogs came out and started yelling at me and here I am the one with the dead dog, go figure. Anyway long story short my husband told them that if they valued their animals that they had better keep them fenced as we were tired of their dogs viciously attacking our animals and intimidating us. This had been going on forever not all damage done was ascribed to this pair of dogs, however they did cause a great amount of fear and angst. These dogs were killing another neighbors cats, so much so the folks who owned the cats moved away they couldn't take it any more. They would always get the same sort of dog and allow them to run free over the neighborhood. Well they kept the dogs up for a few days. The Rottweiler was loose and ran at my husband, my 2-year-old grandson and myself on our property. This was the final straw my husband got the shotgun and killed the dog immediately. Upon this happening, the owner of the dog our esteemed neighbor went ballistic. Threatening my husband with bodily harm and calling him everything but a white man. I called the sheriff’s department to get the idiot to go away at least he was smart enough not to set a foot on our property and has not yet. But we can’t go out in our yard to do anything without them giving us the middle finger salute nor can we drive down the road without it happening. Here of late we have been finding golf balls aimed at our barn and travel trailer, so far no sign of damage good thing that they apparently aren’t any good at golf or they would probably be breaking out windows or denting the barn it has metal siding. I am concerned that at some point in the near future the neighbor who is probably 30 years old and looks to be well over 6', 200 lbs., will physically confront my husband who is a 60-year-old. At times we talk about moving because of all of this nonsense, but I refuse to allow these folks to take any more away from me than they already did when they took my little buddy away. It is hard on my husband because he gets so angry, I think this allows them to win and I try to convince him to ignore them, but it doesn’t work to well.

Just wanted to share my  neighbor story. We live in a small "village" in Ohio. At the time our neighbors on both sides of us had fenced in yards, our yard was not. On many occasions we would find dog poop on our truck, the front sidewalk and on our grandsons outside toys. Puzzled on what was happening & most of how it was being done....we "caught" neighbor#1 pitching dog poop w/a shovel towards our house. There was a confrontation as to WHY & he said it was OUR dogs mess? I can add that there are many pets in our community...unsure how he knew it was our BUD?! Soon after we were served w/court papers. When we arrived at court..neighbor #2 (to our right..who was nice friendly & we chatted regulary w/him & his wife) was there sitting w/neighbor #1. As court went on...it came down to our dog BUD had NOT been in their fenced in yards...but had pooped within 6 feet inside THEIR property line. We were found guilty of poop (lol) fined $50.00 & court cost. We installed privacy fence asap on neighbor #1 side..and fenced in side #2. Totally enclosed & private. Neighbor #1 climbs a ladder to take a peek over every now and again. :) BUD (golden retreiver) has sinced passed on at age 15 & we never did teach him how to measure  distances.(ha ha)! AND to this day we do not speak to either neighbor. We feel a  knock on our door & talking would have been better.

Now its a fun memory of our BUD that we share....& he was worth every penny ;)

Thanks for letting me share 1 more time

Sandi B

OHIO

   I prefer to live on 5 acres with NO neighbors in sight.  I would tell the pigs next door to keep their trash, noise, and smell on their side of the fence.  Once they make their problems mine, I will do whatever I can to get rid of them.  I won't talk to them just ignore them like a bum on the street.  Keep your kids, smoking, noise, and pig habits to yourself.  By acting like you can live like a pig and do as you please, you just make neighbors hate you and wish you would go away.  No one wants to have their home and neighborhood de-valued because of pig neighbors.  I would also be the first to call the sheriff, and set up closed circuit cameras on all sides to get the 'PIGS' on tape, then have the pigs arrested.   

where do i start, my next door neighbor and i use that word loosely, is insane, i call her the CRAZY LADY,

several years ago, she took the trash out of my trashcan and threw it on my front porch when i asked her how it got there she told me the flies did it, and that is just the beginning, another time we borrowed a RV, 35foot and backed into our side yard to get ready to go to bikefest. we turned the generator on at 9 in the morning to cool the fridge and i could get loaded to go, she called the cops at 10 and said it was bothering her, cops told me to have a nice weekend, when we came back and we backing in back in the yard again, her wimpy husband to us he was going to call the city because you cant have a RV seen from the street in your yard, hello it was behind the front line of the house dummy. she yells at us all the time and tells us to move, because she has lived here longer than us. she snorts at me like a pig. she throws pine needles and leaves at me when i am cleaning my driveway, the pine trees are hers, the needlies fall on my driveway, she planted prickly cactus right along the property line and put 1 x 1 junk wood as a border, also that tacky looking wire mini fence and plain old junk planks of wood. none of looks like it belongs to her side of the yard, people pulling up to our house would think i did that. she has called the police on us numerous times for stupid stuff, like the junk and the cactus disappearing. we told police must be plant theives in the neighborhood. she calls animal control about my dog barking, (she used to have a dog that they would put out at 7 in the morning on a 8 foot chain and not bring back in or pay any attention to until like 10 at night and it would bark all day and i never called animal control on her) my dog is on 3 strikes now, have to keep a shock collar on her, wish i could shock CRAZY.... she came out while the police were talking to us that she called again about survey stakes. and put a No Tresspassing sign facing us on the pine tree. police just shook their heads. sign disappeared now today there is a  new sign that they had to use a ladder to put it up the tree trunk facing our window, not the street, my house specifically, she has sprayed me with the water hose, my son got her back with a bucket of water. we have tried to give her a message to give it up by parking 2 very ugly but legal trucks in front of her house for a couple of months, she has only 1 driveway and wimpy parks his truck right on the property line on the street so we took his spaces and he had to park in front of the other neighbor on the other side.  she has lined up dog cages and crates and boxes and other junk along the fence line facing us (chain link fences separates the two yards) and has tied them together with wire so they cant be pushed over. she has planted thorny rose bushes right on the fence line too. I AM SO OVER THIS she just cant let it go and ignore me as i would love to ignore her. she seems to have no life except her grandson I feel sorry for that kid, she took the liner out of her pool and puts him in there to play like it is  a giant sand box, i could continue to go on and on  i am living in neighbor hell any help or any other ideas to make her stay out of my life would be appreciated, even dr phil would have a hard time with this loon...

thanks for listening/reading  my extensive rant