17 replies to this topic

[BePhoto]

So - we live in a townhouse -- we moved in about a year and 1/2 ago. - My neghibor recently decided to be a jerk.

1st, he complained about my dog. We have a 1 1/2 year old german shepherd trained search and rescue dog - we work with Chesapeake Search Dogs and the Maryland State Police in SAR work. - Obviously, it is a well trained dog. - But he complained that our dog is barking excessively in the early moring (3:30am, 1:30am, etc.).

I might understand complaining about that - if it was actually happening! - but its not! - Our alarm clock goes off at 7am, and on occasion, she has to go out late at night (midnight, or wakes up and has to go to the bathroom in the early morning) - but our bedroom is literally right next to the back yard, and I let her out, and stand there by the door and watch her.... she goes to the bathroom and comes back in. - If on the rare occassion that she does bark (she is not a yapper) - she saw something and at most let out about 3-4 barks before I've gotten her to come inside.

Oh, and what really gets me... he never once said a word to us - only called animal control and theyl came out and gave us a warning - then...

he complains to the county about a drain that is emptying onto his property (again, a reasonable complaint if it was actually happening) - but its NOT! - there was a drain (not coming from my house by the way) - that was pointed towards his property in my back yard..... but its DRY - no water comes out of it - I dont think its even connected anywhere..... but the county came out, and said if I dont move it I will be fined.... so I dug it up - took me 5 minutes, no big deal.

THEN! -- the jerk complains about the property line, and says he has 1 1/2 foot more onto my property than the fence shows..... he tries to complain to the county, and the county comes out and says..... NOTHING - they cant do a thing, it's HIS fence that is wrong.... I'm just using the space that he screwed up on ..... what's he going to do? - move his fence? -- NO... he just wants to be a jerk!

In the meantime, he complains about my dog again, and again.... and again. - Keep in mind with my schedule, we are often away - during which, my dog is not even at the house -- when we are home, we spend a ton of time at my inlaws with my dog.... so it's not like we are ever home!

And in all this time, he has never said a word to us directly.... wouldnt it be the neghiborly thing to do to come to US if you have a problem??

So I get another notice from animal control yesterday and this time he has an affadavit for them to give us a fine. We can appeal - and since my wife works in a lawyers office, we have council that will work for us pro-bono..... and he has to be there at the appeal! -

but seriously... what a jerk this guy is. - he lives alone, and is in his mid-40's -- I seriously dont know what his problem is - but this is just absurd!!

I cant wait to see him in court! - JERK!

[Alyssa]

James,

that guy sounds psychotic - obviously he is a lonely freak and it has nothing to do with you.

but none the less, be careful, i once knew someone who had a loser neighbor like this and the asshole put POISON in his yard to try to kill his dog!!!

This is probably a stupid question, but do you both own your property?

that sucks!!!

[DanielleNDerek]

What a jerk. goodluck in court.

[starchild]

That's just awful! He has some kind of prejudice against dogs, or something about you that he doesn't like - people are weird!! It could be something totally normal about you guys that he hates, like your wife works for lawyers, or your car is blue, anything random like that makes unhappy nutjobs go off the deep end. I hope you fight this tooth and nail...and sue him for all this drama he's causing! Good luck

[TammyB]

I live in a townhome/condo sub. We have so many irresponsible pet owners it's not even funny. My dogs have been attacked by off leash dogs 3 times already, people don't pick up their dog poo, people park on the corners of the street so you can't see around the corner. Seriously it's amazing how people have no lack of concern about their fellow neighbors.

Our next door neighbor has a 15 year old kid, who skateboards and does jumps in the back on the townhomes until 10:30 at night, well being that it's right next door you can hear it loud and clear, and God forbid if you have your window open. DH and I go to bed around 10:00 at night because we both work early in the morning so yeah it ticks me off.

I think people need to be aware that their neighbors hear almost everything, and try to keep noise down as much as possible. For us, as soon as the housing market turns around (who knows how long that will take) we are selling our townhome and buying a house with alot of land. I've really started to hate having neighbors.

[rodent]

I live in an apartment. Last fall my upstairs neighbor was a guy who yelled at his wife all night. We were sleeping in the living room for a month. I went about 3 weeks with no sleep & was losing my mind.

After he moved out (I think he was evicted) a really loud lady moved in. She played music so loud at night that I had ear plugs & a white noise CD but I couldn't drown her out. I left her a friendly note, but it pissed her off so she started stomping every step she took. Eventually she became tired of doing that.

Her alarm clock goes off from 5am to 9am every day.

I can block out most of her loudness now with a CD of ocean sounds. She doens't play music after 10:30 because we will call the cops now.

If you have the chance, listen to the 2nd story in the podcast & you might not feel so terrible about you neighbor. This neighbor is crazy!

This American Life

[JennyK]

Wow what a jerk! He obviously has nothing better to do with himself then complain about nothing.

I had a garage-neighbor from hell.. At the apartments my FI and I lived at, you'd have to rent out a garage. The walls arent built all the way up but high enough not to climb over. The dude next to my FI's spot was a loaner and honestly crazy. He'd talk to himself.. leave threatening notes on our garage door. One day my FI went out for a few minutes so left his garage door slightly open.. the next day, the "Creepy Guy" as we'd call him, threw some kind of acid on my FI's car overnight. My FI drives a nice black Inifiniti G35 so you can imagine how PISSED we were lol We called the cops and even though there were traces of it on his side of the wall, we had no real proof it was him.

[Celina]

Wow,what a jerk! I agree with Alyssa, keep an eye out for your dog. He sounds a little like someone with too much time on his hands.

My current neighbor (who actually passed away in January) - before she died, she was a B**ch! OMG - for Mothers Day 5 years ago, FI had a beautiful red concrete patio poured for me. My FMIL bought us new patio furniture and a new grill. I had beautiful patio pots. I totally loved it! Our house was newly built, so we didn't have our fence up yet. One day our neighbor had some guys doing some renovation work at her house. The guys were cleaning out their paint tools right by my patio and got some kind of grease all over my new patio! FI went out there and told them about it. They tried to clean it up and it didn't work.

When I found out I went over and asked her about it and she immediately denied they did anything wrong. I said - well if they didn't do anything, why did they try to clean it up? After going back and forth with her contractors, they denied it even after my FI said he saw them cleaning their tools there we still got no where. I filed a police report with pictures. Needless to say, the next week, someone poured grease all over my patio in the same place where the spots were.

We were livid! We knew it was her! We have tried everything to get the stains out. To this day they are still there. Since it is a dyed concrete, it is hard to get the stain out without leaving a huge discoloration. I ended up buying an outdoor rug to cover it, but still - every time I go out there it's like a thorn in my side.

[Jenn3878]

WOW what an @hole! I had a weird neighbor - I own my condo and my bedroom wall backed up to my neighbors’ bedroom wall, well this guy would crank his music from 9 at night till 6 in the morning and would play one song over and over again – RED RED WINE. OMG I would wake up in the morning with that song in my head! At the time I lived alone and didn’t want to go over there and start trouble. Well I would bang nicely (HAHA) on the wall to get him to turn it down and he would just make it louder. I called the condo board and spoke to the woman there and explained that I lived alone bla bla bla and she sent him a warning, he still kept on, well since he was only a renter I guess he got booted. My family jokes that I should have that song at our wedding! NEVER!!

[BePhoto]

Oh My Goodness - I'm not the only one that has horror stories! - and from what I can see -- Mine is nothing compared to some of yours!

Alyssa -- yes, we both own our homes. -- Luckily, me watching my dog when she is outside is the norm - I always did it before he complained, and will still do it. I'm kind of a freak about my dog - and we quite literally spend every second together except when I am out working! - I mean, she goes to the store with me, she goes to the gas station, she goes everywhere I go! -- But I have heard of jerk neghibors putting poison in other peoples yards.... so I'm all over it! --

--
Thanks Starchild - I do plan to fight this to the end.... Actually - first I plan on putting up a 6 foot fence so I dont have to see him anymore... I went out today and measured in between houses - it is 10 foot to the fence from both houses -- so I'm going to ignore his little riff about the property line and build my fence. - The county tells me if he has an issue with it - then he would have to pay for a surveyor to come survey the land and then if he is right I would have to move it. - At this point, I dont care even if he is right - it's worth it to make him pay for the surveyor!

Tammy --

Dont put up with it!!! I'm sure you are not the only one it is bugging - I'd approach your neghibor about it (in a nice way), and if they are not receptive - I'd call the cops!! We had the kids in our neghiborhood put up a basketball net on the most heavily traveled road in our subdivision - why some parents thought this was a good idea for a basketball net to go there is beyond me! - The kids wouldnt get out of the way of cars - the way the road is, the sun glare is horrible right at that spot in the afternoon when all the kids would play - and the kids started playing chicken with the cars on their skateboards -- crossing right at the last second before the car went by..... I had about a day of that before I called the cops..... it took about 6-8 months - but finally, the cops took the net away! -- People dont seem to realize nusaiances likes these devalue all of our property! -- nobody likes dealing with these problems!! The sad thing is -- all of our other neghibors are GREAT!!!!!!!!!

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Celina-- OMG - your story I think takes the cake! I would have FLIPPED!

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I just dont understand people.... there is no sense of common courtesy anymore in the world. - I try to keep a good outlook, and then someone like this guy just brings my whole outlook on our society down -- it is rather depressing!

-- It doesnt help that I am in the News industry... a coworker of mine... one of our photographers at the Examiner was assaulted the other day by a student at a high school -- this happened while she was shooting an assignment about the teenager who brutally attacked her teacher at that school!

The world today seems so depressing at times........... Thats the big up-side to shooting weddings.......... at least at weddings, everyone is in a good mood (usually)!