You’ve likely had your moments when you may have been an unpleasant person to live next to. Perhaps you were making a little too much noise, or the music was playing a tad bit louder than it should have. But as a sensible human being, you made it a point to apologize and not repeat the same mistake.
Of course, not everyone thinks the same way. Some may even up the ante in terms of being a horrible neighbor, as you will come to see in the stories you’re about to read.
Scroll through for the mildly infuriating accounts, as well as our conversations with a few experts.
#1
My neighbour called social services on ME for not wearing a coat in 10c … I am 25!!!!
Image credits: archieslefttoenail
#2
my garage is separate to my house. when i first moved in they put a skip,not the standard one, but a huge flat ended one on my garage forecourt. without notice or asking. them told me i was being ridiculous to be bothered by it. it damaged my kerb and tarmac and they are refusing to care. now they have blocked of a right of way i have over their land. i will be seeing them in court soon. odf thing to do to a lawyer.
Image credits: cl
#3
my neighbour reports me to the council due to my child being awake early hours running around he’s autistic she knows this but still seems to think its something that can be controlled. she really made me hate this place
Image credits: courts
Some neighbors may not seem the deplorable type at first. They may be adept at putting up a front and making themselves appear decent. However, there are initial cues you can pick up on that could serve as ominous signs of things to come.
Real estate expert and Chamberlin Real Estate School owner and director Marty Zankich says one telltale indicator is when the neighbor puts their music on blast during the day. As he tells Bored Panda, there’s a good chance for them to do the same at night.
#4
My parents’ neighbour called the crows every morning around 7. She screamed so loudly that everyone could hear her. She was convinced the crows saw her as their mom and thought it was her duty to feed them every morning.
Image credits: Mandy
#5
First time I met my neighbour she came around to mine and just poured red wine all over the new carpet, and she always used to tell me she would beat me up if she saw me get a takeaway and not give her some of it. Very strange girl.
Image credits: Chels
#6
It’s definitely lame in comparison to the other comments, but a streamer’s room was right under my own and they didn’t let me sleep. They would ALWAYS stream at night. Screaming, laughing, talking extremely loudly. Every. Single. Night. Not being able to sleep for so long REALLY took a toll on me, I literally hallucinated at sone point and the rage I was feeling was.. EXTREME. Thankfully, they moved some time ago and now I am finally able to sleep at night! I am seeing streamers in a different light now.
A neglected home is another sign, according to Zankich. Seeing a house next door with junk and trash strewn around is a warning sign to be cautious of.
“Even just the exterior of the home can tell you a lot about who lives inside,” he said. “The best, most considerate neighbors generally keep their property clean.”
#7
Went through my bins, came into my garden to look in my house, reported me to the police for ‘indecency’ I was in my house and hadn’t been out all day in shorts and a tshirt.
Image credits: abbyt2308
#8
my neighbours made me cry on my birthday and complained to the council for “shutting doors too loud” and then came over and asked us to turn the TV down at 9pm. we are in houses, not even flats.
Image credits: lottie
#9
I used to live in a flat above an old lady when I would pass her in the stairs she would hit me with anything she had with her shouting don’t talk to me.
Image credits: Bluejack
A lack of boundaries, especially when done passive-aggressively, is another sign, according to criminal law expert Mike Kruse. These actions are usually in the form of putting up a fence on your property, repeated violations of noise ordinances, or worse, dumping waste in your yard.
“Such behavior is clearly disrespectful of rules and your rights under the law, which often leads to more serious disputes,” he said.
#10
Neighbour trapped our cat inside and refused to give him back, threatened police as apparently he was eating bread.
Image credits: Ash and Janie
#11
my old neighbour knocked on our door to complain that the inside of his walls where cold and apparently that was our fault.
#12
My neighbour slept with my children’s dad then recruited the full street to try and get me out my house and moved. I’m still here. Still unbothered. However everyone now knows she lacks decent human morals.
Disruptive neighbors are typically disrespectful of personal space, according to lawyer Emma Alves, who also specializes in real estate disputes. Other examples she gave include letting their landscaping move into a significant area of your land or consistently parking in your designated spot.
As she noted, these signs of disrespect can escalate into more severe outcomes, such as property destruction and even harassment.
#13
they had a rooster that would wake us up at 5am. my dad was arrested for stealing it.
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#14
next door neighbor set fire to his girlfriend’s clothes because he assumed she cheated. she had no clothes after that, and the fire was in the garden. our gardens together were really small and had hedge in-between, could have been dangerous
#15
my ex neighbour complained over 10 times because my sons disabled ramp went 2cm on to her side of the joining wall
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As someone dealing with a difficult neighbor, you may be tempted to simply ignore them. You may think that as long as you avoid encounters, you will be able to keep your peace. However, your living situation may lead to deeper issues.
According to Jacob Megrendoller, LCSW, founder and therapist of Lightline Therapy, it can lead to an erosion of a person’s sense of safety. As he noted, “home is supposed to be a place of rest and safety, not vigilance.”
#16
He hooked his electricity meter up to mine and was paying for his electricity for 2 years , I had him evicted and sued him for £5000.
#17
made up noise complaints to try and get us evicted. we moved out off our own backs. landlord doing last walk round with us got a call from our neighbour saying we were blaring music again and they were trying to knock on the door but the music was too loud.. neighbour was mortified when she came face to face with the landlord. landlord decided to sell up and a man who works in London now lives there. he’s had to install ring cameras at the door and around the house to prove to the council he’s not home when the alleged noises happen because this neighbour reported him to the council too.
#18
Mine called police because I am switching on the light in the building every time i enter at night… like hello i am also paying shared electricity bill?
You may be able to brush off these issues initially, but the undue stress can compound over time. As interpersonal communication expert Dr. Beth Ribarsky points out, it can take a toll on one’s overall health.
“If they play loud music every night when you need to be up early, this is not only stressful but also takes a toll on your physical well-being,” she explained.
#19
They sent screenshots of a poc who rang their Ring doorbell, saying it was so suspicious…… it was the postman
#20
stole our dog during a snowstorm, when we went round to get her he said he didn’t have her. we got the police involved and suddenly she appeared
#21
nah i win. i knocked my upstairs neighbours door at 4:30am to ask her to stop banging because my 6 month old was crying and she was upsetting him more and when i was going back down the stairs she hit me over the head with a MOP. literally got so many more stories but that’s the most unhinged one
While living next to a neighbor from hell has some heavy drawbacks, you can’t just uproot your entire life because of the nuisance next door. However, there may come a point when leaving would be the next best thing for you.
So, when would you know if it’s time to move? According to property management expert and RedAwning.com founder Tim Choate, it’s when you feel threatened in terms of your physical safety and emotional health.
“Walking away isn’t defeat; it’s just wise to leave what harms you for the sake of peace,” he clarified.
#22
Used to call environmental health & the police on my tumble dryer. Apparently it was too loud despite repeated low environmental health noise readings and the police telling her to stop wasting their time she carried on reporting us. The police would turn up and say to the tumble dryer “stop partying so loud”, it was a weekly routine. She also called environmental health because my house alarm went off when a power cut happened and the battery ran out. Like I wanted to be woken up at 4am by the house alarm I couldn’t stop. Not once did she contact us or the police to ensure we were ok. Straight to environmental health.
#23
They said I was locked up like I was in a dungeon when I was 8 just because I wasn’t out playing in the road like their kids…I also didn’t have freinds and just enjoyed staying in. Then just before we left that house we realised they BROKE INTO OUR GARDEN AND CHOPPED OUR TREES DOWN ??? they would always argue with us about removing the trees because the leaves “got in their garden”…. Like yeah it’s a tree mate, one that had been there for decades and had a protection order on it, I ended up taking some of the logs from it because I loved that tree and we were leaving anyway so now it grows mushrooms on it !
#24
During lockdown my neighbour used to walk around my ground floor flat to whisper my dogs name “Missy” at all hours in the night. She’d wake me up growling. He’d stand near my back door or bedroom window outside, in the rain sometimes just wanting to see my dog. But never moved when I told him it wasn’t a good time. Sometimes at 11pm, then 2am, 5am whenever he liked for 20mins. He’d claim he was taking his recycling out but the bag was always empty. I moved out so I could get some sleep.
Image credits: Your energy path
Leaving a home because of a difficult neighbor is a “cost-benefit decision in the practical sense,” according to Alves. And if the situation has led to increased expenses for repairs and legal fees, then it may be time to consider moving.
“The financial and emotional cost of staying often outweighs the inconvenience and cost of moving,” she stated.
#25
old woman who lived next door decided that the best way to contact me was to scratch at my window screen like a gremlin instead of knocking on the door (ended up having to call cops on her)
#26
Karen matthews and Craig Meehan. I win.
Image credits: Linsey
#27
My neighbour called my abusive ex to tell him I was secretly moving out of the house. Fully knowing he’d been violent. So much for girl code’ing.
Meanwhile, Kruse says a good sign would be if the neighbor’s actions have gotten so bad, you’ve deemed it necessary to document everything. However, he also urges getting the authorities involved.
“If their behavior is intentionally disrupting your rightful enjoyment of your property, or has become threatening, you should call the police or consult with legal counsel about things like a peace bond rather than suffering it,” he said.
#28
My ex neighbour threw bleach into my baby’s paddling pool. Luckily they weren’t in it at the time.
#29
She stalked me. Police found pics / videos of my in my house on her phone and weird notes in her house about being me
#30
Mine reported me to social because my daughter is autistic
#31
Mine reported me to Environmental Health for using wax melts in my house
#32
Came to complain because we put a caravan on our drive and she could no longer see into our living room from her bedroom!
#33
My neighbour put fireworks through my letterbox because my autistic son wouldnt stop stimming in the garden
#34
Used to constantly send notes through my door, one of them said that we turn the light switches off too loudly
#35
They copied everything I did. In the end, I used to feed them lies and so instead of getting ‘x’ car, I’d get a different once after they’d purchased what I’d told them, but like EVERYTHING.
#36
We used to have a neighbour who demanded the entire street had to be silent when her baby went down for a nap. She would lean out of her window and tell everyone to be quiet and for the children to all go inside (during the day!)… Despite the fact she held loud parties until the early hours EVERY weekend. Parking is extremely limited and there are no assigned spaces, yet she decided she needed 3 spaces for her one car in the communal car park. She blocked the road with her car and refused to move because we all ignored the signs she put up ‘claiming’ all 3 spaces.
#37
My neighbors do this fun thing- they hear when I go outside with my dogs (I have a fenced in yard but it’s a duplex) not even 5 minutes later they bring their dog outside to stir mine up. And YES at first I did think it was a coincidence, but then it just KEPT HAPPENING
#38
Whenever I make a sound in my house my next door neighbour will bang and slam doors for about 2 to 5 hours afterwards.
#39
My neighbors granny came to chase my husband with a walkingstick, because she was determent that he did not spend enough time with our kids, the same granny brought me a note, with a number to the dentist, because she also was determent that my 18 yrs old son needed a dentist and she said, I was a bad mom, who did not take care of my sons teeth…
#40
My next door neighbours when they first moved in use to shout “ praise the lord” at 2am so I blasted slipknot at 8:30 in the morning as a way of keeping me awake I’ll wake yoh
#41
I live in Nashville and I think I’ve had the worst experiences with neighbors…one time my neighbor accused me of stealing her WiFi to spy on her. most recently my neighbor tried to break into my home for parking in her unreserved parking space.
#42
Lived above this older lady in my early 20s with my toddler. we couldn’t walk across the apt and she would bang her Broom on the ceiling. we literally had to tip toe everywhere. she called the police on me making a noise complaint saying I was having a party. I was at my parents home an hour away that wknd. A year later I read in the newspaper that she was arrested and charged for making over 300 unnecessary 911 calls. She was cray
#43
We lived next to each other in a duplex. When I would go out to shovel or mow the lawn, I would just do the whole thing because it felt petty if I just did half. My oldest child was medically fragile and we were in the hospital for over a week once. It had snowed and when I came back she had only done her side. So I stopped doing the whole thing. All of a sudden I was getting CPS called on me when my kids were playing in our backyard. She told them I locked them out there all day (they were 2 and 6) and just made weird random things up.
#44
a neighbor complained to the landlord about I cooked fish for dinner and she didn’t like the smell . told me to stop cooking fish… I now cook it once a week
#45
had a downstairs neighbor that would lift weights in the middle of the night, he would often drop the weights, had an upstairs neighbor that would party and stomp his feet on weeknights because he didn’t work . Asked nicely to stop ,had to go to work . He didn’t stop so when I left for work I laid my tower speakers on their backs and cranked my amp ,locked the door and went to work .. He adjusted his attitude
#46
My 90+ neighbor has been hallucinating that my husband goes to her house in the middle of the night. She believes he pulls on her front door and looks in her windows. She’s called the police several times in the last two years. We never go in her yard and he’s sleeping all night.
#47
She reported me to association because i didn’t know her name. She wrote them a letter because I didn’t speak to her when I saw her
#48
I’m convinced my neighbors on the left are vampires. they moved in about 8 years ago. And I have legitimately, never seen them out during the day. i didn’t know they had children until last year. the husband mows his lawn at 4 AM. I’m not kidding. i don’t know what they do for work. I’ve never seen them grocery shopping.
Image credits: TheWordSlinger
#49
Called the police on Halloween for anti social behaviour because I put stickers on my front window.
#50
my neighbour called the social services on me when I passed my driving test and she couldn’t drive
#51
My neighbour knows my work and social routines and quizzes me when there’s a change. he also knows when I’m coming and going and he’ll sit in his car on his driveway so that he can watch or approach me. Such sad antics.
#52
Moved out to their boyfriends during lockdown but left their cat behind, who then proceeded to sit outside their front door and cry every day
Image credits: Hanna & Obi
#53
She would ask me to babysit her 3 children and not come back for 3 days at a time
#54
Complained that my dogs bark, my windows were open too wide, she could smell my oven chips, I don’t pick up my dogs mess, my washing was too close to hers and she couldn’t get through
#55
I had a friend whose neighbour had a door leading from their attic into my friends attic, when the neighbour had a fight with his wife he would apparently go through that door and spend a night in my friends attic, this went on for around 3 months I think
#56
An old lady once tried to spat on my while I was walking down the street. I’ve never met or talked to her but we live in the same building, just in a different hallway
#57
my very much MARRIED neighbour hit on my mother (she was also in a relationship) and he was trying to have an affair with her, she said hell no ofc
#58
Cut our tree down to little nubs and left all the trimmings in our yard.
#59
Mine used to hang dried squid on the line used to make my garden stink
#60
He accused my dad of scratching his car and having footage just because he hated him (my dad didn’t do it and he in fact did not have footage) then he damaged my parents car for a solid 2 years, dragging his keys, punching holes in the windows etc, and it only stopped after he moved away. But we couldn’t do anything about it cause we didn’t have “proof”
#61
Neighbour across the road, after I had decorated my house and yard with Christmas decorations… nothing abnormal just store bought decorations… rang the police, my real estate, the council and posted dozens of insulting posts on fb stating that Christmas decorations are for Americans (I’m in Australia) and that they are a traffic hazard and need to be pulled down. We (police, real estate, council) all had a laugh at how nuts it was. I kept my decorations up for half of January just for him
#62
I had a neighbor for 5 years that threw eggs at our house, dumped a can of pink paint on our white Persian cat, slashed my tires…only 3, literally spit on my kids, punched my MIL in the face and knocked her front teeth out, whipped my FIL with his cane, lit our yard on fire. She was my sister in law….
#63
when I was a kid, our neighbours started feeding our cat. Eventually our cat started being over at their house more often than at ours. one day they came over to tell us, they “had to” put our cat down, because it was “sick”. We never even learned what kind of sickness…
#64
My neighbour used to sleep outside my door with their pile of laundry and get mad at our landlord for not letting them set fires inside the apartment.
#65
My neighbour tried to find my husband a new wife. One of her girl friends. She said he could do better than me. He couldn’t wait to tell me.
#66
An older woman neighbor called my husbands corporate office to complain because he parked in front of her house.
#67
My neighbor started removing the tiles in his kitchen at 3am
#68
stalked me and my mom from me coming home to me leaving and then banging on our door at all hours to the point where my terminally sick mom got severe anxiety and had 5 plus attacks a day. only when I sent a restraining order to his HOME AND WORK did he calm down till we moved
#69
She would walk around staring into everyone’s backyard. When confronted she said she was inspecting the fences and then proceeded to scream at us in front of our infant son and threatened to call bylaw on our dog. She then proceeded to tell all our other neighbours that my husband is abusive. Hope she got help because we moved shortly after all that
#70
Our neighbors claimed they had a legal right to enter our property because 100 years ago their ancestors pulled logs through our property. They harassed us until we sold
#71
They were all 6ft+ and living above us, really big guys. They would wrestle, scream, and play loud music. The worst of it was one of them was unhinged and IN LOVE with my roommate. She was not and ended their little situationship. He didn’t like that so for the rest of my time there, this large man would stomp so hard our apartment shook. He would also yell so much that I started sleeping with gun earplugs and would still hear him occasionally. I was seriously considering murder for a while as my job required me to wake up at 5 am.
#72
I just had a baby and they would constantly slam the doors at all hours. They literally harassed a newborn baby
#73
I like the smell of food. I like cooking myself. I often cook from different countries. like Korean. Japanese. Chinese. just much Asian in general. but the neighbours cooked Asian food from dawn to dusk. my god. the smell was putrid. I gagged every time I opened my windows. I still have no idea why it smelled so bad. they cooked the same thing every single day. maybe it was a specific herb. but I’m glad I don’t have to smell it anymore
#74
Neighbours across the street called the cops on my brother and I when we were 12 and 10, because they thought we were playing too roughly in the snow
#75
my old neighbor in my condo building used to call the board to report i was partying and making noise all night. i never once had anyone over my house but he swore i did. this went on forever until i finally invited him in to see nobody was at my house
#76
I have one that watches me 24/7 asking why I leave my house 5 times a day, can hear him talking outside my house to someone at night when I’m in bed. Copies words I say and things I do. He is just weird and I’m giving my notice soon so I can be gone.
#77
My neighbour (I’d just literally moved in that day, also 8mths pregnant) knocked on and asked me to remove a tree from my back garden because it was detrimental to her dogs, I said I might do it next year but not this year stroking my belly, over the 8 yrs I lived there she gave me grief about the tree in my front garden as well, dropping leaves and all that, so in the end I got my own back and had an affair with her boyfriend, and also reported her for tax evasion, then wrote her letter when she moved away telling her about both things.
#78
I was hosing and the wind took the water. She told my husband I whose her on purpose but that she “wasn’t wanting to cause trouble”.
#79
My neighbor growled at me for not water my garden enough in a drought. Then bullied me into paying her to look after the garden for me while I was at work. I was a pushover
#80
Ordered a yard of decorative rock for my garden and had it dumped by my garage. Loaded a bit of it into my yard and had to leave for an hour. Came back and it was gone, asked my neighbour he denied seeing it and a few weeks later my rock was around his deck and garden.
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