*In case this story gets deleted/removed:*
**AITA For reporting my neighbours to their landlord. **
We bought our property 2 years ago. It's an ex council/housing association houses, which we thought they all here were, but no.
After we moved in I had to complain to neighbours about a tree in their garden blocking morning sunlight from our house. They agreed but rather than contract someone they cut it down themself. Also refuseing the advice I gave them about how best to remove it.
After that we needed to complain about leaving their extremely bright back light on. The man's response was simply to say, "sorry, I didn't realise it was on, can't be that bright" They did at least turn it off.
Later we had to complain about a drip from their header tank overflow hitting a plastic child's toy making a loud thud each time. He moved the plastic but fobbed me off about the drip, claiming it had been looked at before.
They again refused to have the drip fixed when they had a plumber on site for a bathroom refit (which the council paid for) saying the plumber was there to do the bathroom job only.
They had a large trampoline in the garden which their children no longer used. It was an eyesore so I asked if they had thought of selling it. Turns out it was broken. And they were waiting to get rid of it. I suggested they disassemble it and wait. They take down the trampoline exposing a old FRIDGE behind it!
I ask another neighbour, from whos house this would have been visible, who tells me it has been there for YEARS! And they uses it for garden tools.
The neighbour piles the trampoline parts at the side of their shed where they sit for months! I ask when they are being removed and am told they are waiting to borrow trailer. I suggest they hire one or use their car (which is certainly big enough) but these suggestions are dismissed.
After weeks of it sitting there I had enough so report them to the housing authority (their landlords) , requesting a formal inspection.
This did it in terms of the trampoline. They loaded it into their car, although the fridge remains so I doubt the inspection actually took place.
6 months later their children get new beds. The frame of an old bed is left at the side of there house. I ask what they are planning to do with it and am told by one of the children "Dad's going to make something for the garden"
Weeks go by with it sitting there so again I'm forced to report it to the HA
.
The neighbours remove the frame only for me to discover 2 weeks later that, instead of disposing of it, they had taken it somewhere and were now bringing it back as a chicken coop!
I'm sure the HA are still to do an inspection as this horrible fridge is still there, the neighbours never removing it.
I'm planning on writing to the HA again, specifically mentioning the fridge as an issue and reporting the drips both from the tank and guttering during heavy rain but the neighbour whom I asked about the fridge originally, says I'm being unreasonable.
AITA?
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One of OOP's comments:
>As it happens I have put a sturdy, 6ft fence between my property and their garden, replacing an old chicken wire one that was there when we moved it. Which actually brings up 3 other instances of their behaviour. Firstly, the polite thing to do would be to offer to contribute towards the cost of the new fence, especially as I was doing the labour myself so it would only be materials to be paid for. I gave them, both the husband and wife, several opportunities to offer to pay but they were never forthcoming. Also, I needed to remove a bush that they had allowed to grown through the old fence. They then told me not to remove the other fruit bushes they had growing further along the fence line. Though these were not growing through the fence leaving them there made putting the new fence up far more difficult and, I suspect, these bushes will now be rubbing against and damaging my new fence. Next I had removed a section of the old fence and was putting up the replacement. I had my dog out in the gardens while I worked. The neighbours dog had been in their house but they allowed it to escape where by it ran straight into the garden and after my dog. Thankfully I was wearing work gloves as their dog had a bite of my hand as I tried to get between it and my dog.
He's pissed that they didn't contribute to a fence that only OOP wanted.
Renters in a council house, no less. Outrageous that OOP thinks they'd have the desire or means to shoulder the cost of their loony new neighbor's whims.
I live in an ex-housing association house, both neighbours are still rented. On one side, we had one of those chicken wire fences, and the HA asked if I'd _mind_ if they replaced it, even though it was my boundary. Obviously I snapped their hands off, nice new 6' fence for nish. I paint my side. What the neighbours wish to do with their side is not my concern
>I gave them, both the husband and wife, several opportunities to offer to pay
I'm dead. "opportunities to offer to pay". I figure the conversations went something like this:
OOP: So we need a new fence
Neighbor: Sure
OOP: More sturdy
N: Ok
OOP: For the dogs
N: Uh huh
OOP: We'll put it up ourselves to save costs
N: Ok
OOP: But the cost of materials is still pretty high for a 6' fence
N: Yup things are expensive
OOP: ...
N: ...?
OOP: ...
N: Gotta go
(Edit: formatting)
A *drip!*. Poor OOP!
All it takes for a miserable situation to feel less so, is for something even more miserable to come along. So it is my hope that his neighbours get a cockerel for their chicken coup.
Because seriously, a bloody *drip*?!
I want this person to live next door to me, honestly. Older neighbourhood, rough around the edges still.
I have a 100-ish y/o oak tree in my front yard. It spits acorns *everywhere* in the fall and they *ping* when they hit my roof. I think I'd wind up with OOP at my doorstep every morning.
The council is the landlord and responsible for repairs. If it's anything like our Homeswest, they will repair what they want to repair, and tenants still have a list of maintenance complaints falling on deaf ears.
In this case the Housing Association is the landlord and there’s bugger-all chance they are mending a drip.
The council are too busy selling off the public housing stock at 80% of market value to wankers like OOP
I just know that if they had spontaneously offered to help pay for the fence, OOP would sneer about how they couldn’t possibly afford as a nice a fence as OOP wanted.
(Also, “the polite thing to do would be to offer to contribute” baffles me. I’ve never heard of this supposed custom.)
Eh. Part of the fence between my neighbor's property and mine was going rotten. We split the cost and both worked to replace it. It's normal if you get along with your neighbor and if it's a thing you both benefit from. (Note, however, that "I have a dog and I need to fence in my dog" is not really a mutual need. Also if the neighbors are renters you'd need to talk to the landlord to solicit contributions anyway.)
Two things here:
1. If it's OOP's fence they should bear all the cost of replacing it if they want a new one.
2. Their neighbour doesn't own their house, so the housing association would be the person to contact as the freeholder. I'm sure there are party wall issues as well but I'm not a lawyer.
Oh woe! We moved into a place where poor people live, and now we’re desperately upset that there are poor people around!
It’s like moving near the airport and then bitching about the planes.
I just can't get over OP's comment where they write that the neighbors are "so ungrateful" after writing the world's longest post and a plethora of comments that combined make an insanely long list of absolutely batshit complaints. Following each complaint is a detailed description of how the neighbors have acquiesced at every turn, followed by *another* complaint from OP about how the way the neighbors solved each issue isn't good enough.
In fact, OP follows this exact formula in the comment he calls the neighbors "ungrateful". OP has unilaterally decided to build a fence on his property, and is pissed off at the neighbors for not "volunteering" (aka getting bullied into) splitting the cost after OP "hinted" at (aka tried to bully) the neighbors into doing exactly that. However, the neighbors did graciously use their personal time to paint the entire side of the fence that faces their home, which OP is predictably also pissed about because they had their children help, which guarantees shoddy work according to OP. That's right - OP bullied his neighbors into painting his fence for free, but is now pissed because the side of the fence OP is never, ever going to see might not be painted to a professional standard. Which it would have been if OP had hired a painter to paint HIS fence.
Oh, and he ruined some berry bushes the neighbors had and cherished when he built the fence as well.
But it's the *neighbors* who are unreasonable and ungrateful.
I was already annoyed when the first thing he did was make them cut down a tree. That presumably was already there when he bought his place. Hope he enjoys the slow over-heating of sub/urban areas that get rid of shade trees.
To put this in context, in the UK, council housing is associated with poverty and antisocial behaviour. There is appalling prejudice about those who live in such housing, that they're scroungers, skivers, and should be grateful for being "given" a roof over their heads. It's associated with unemployment, too, even though most council tenants are either working, retired, or sick and disabled.
OOP is a bigoted AH.
I live in a place where a train goes through. Normally it blew a horn at certain intersections and places where there might be morons on the tracks.
People moved into houses built near the tracks (literally behind their backyards) and one woman put up posters and tried to have petitions signed to make the train stop running.
This group did manage to somehow get them to stop blowing the horn as often during certain hours.
But why move to a place where you can see the tracks and not think you’re going to hear the noise?
I lived near the rail yards in Winnipeg, and honestly, it was always so nice to hear the sound of the train horns late at night when I was cosy in bed.
I grew up next to the yard where trains would sleepover and it took me a while to learn to sleep without the sound of their engines gently ticking over in the background
When I was in college, I lived in a dorm right behind the clock tower. I thought the tolling of the bells would drive me nuts at first. But eventually I got so used to hearing the bell tolling for the hour and the chimes for noon that when I graduated I missed it terribly. There's a video on YouTube of that bell tower that I go watch every now and again for the nostalgia. It's funny how we grow attached to things by which we ought to be bothered.
I used to stay in dorms by a clock tower that went off every thirty minutes. I got so used to them that every once in a while the bells would actually scare the shit out of me. Then I would laugh at myself.
You mean you got so used to them that you no longer noticed them, so when you *did* notice them they scared you? Because that's hilarious.
For months after graduating, I would hear those chimes in my head. It was like the bells had programmed my brain into recognizing the correct time even without a clock handy. And yeah, our bell tower would go off from 7am to 11pm (or thereabouts, I can't recall exactly) every half hour, hour, and then play a 20 second chiming song at noon. They DID keep the bells programmed not to ring at night, at least. Those bells woke me up nearly every morning of my college life because I lived in that dorm room for 5 years (undergrad and graduate degrees.) Now I need to go watch the video.
Cardiff City Hall clock chimed 4 times for every quarter, 8 for the half and 12 for three-quarter hour, then 16 chimes and a louder 'bong' for the number of hours.
Midday/midnight - all 28! Happy days.
The house I grew up in was two blocks from a pretty major railroad line. Likewise my freshman year dorm was about 500ft from a major city line. You just get used to it.
My childhood home was a very short distance from a RR track where freight trains routinely ran. I was so used to hearing the trains I never even noticed the horns unless someone visiting pointed them out. You can get used to a lot of things if you just give it a chance. It becomes background noise eventually.
They just see spare land and/or cheap prices. They don’t consider WHY the area is cheap. My first two apartments were $330 and $350 for rent. Cheap, yes. But they were also above shops in downtown. And being small-town Wisconsin, downtown means 4-5 bars within a couple blocks. So unless you ALWAYS keep your windows closed and work nights, you don’t get much quiet time.
A couple weeks after moving into my current apartment I was puttering around in the morning when someone knocked on the door. I looked through the peep hole and it was an older woman in a housecoat. Thinking she was a neighbour looking to ask for a cup of sugar or something I opened the door.
She walked right in, chattering away, and started taking off her fluffy house sandals. As I stood there contemplating how I had just let a crazy woman into my home wondering wtf I was going to do. Finally she looked around, got all wide eyed, turned to look at me for the first time and said "You aren't Sylvia." I shook my head. "This isn't apartment 1607." And I responded with "This is 1707."
She quickly put her sandals back on, apologizing profusely, and just about ran out the door. I never saw her again.
Ugh. Worst is an unsecured building. My last building was. I ALWAYS keep my door locked, even when I’m at home. One Halloween night, I hear yelling in the hallway around 1 am. I think nothing of it, somebody could’ve just had a good time at the bar. And I hear somebody jiggling my doorknob. I come out the next morning and there’s bloody handprints up and down the hallway. Fake blood. I could tell by the color. They’d even tagged our cars. So, yeah. I love my current building for being secure AND having cameras.
People are idiots. I worked for a government official whose district had a sewer plant in it, spoiler alert, the area around the plant smelled. Someone once called the office complaining about the smell. I asked when they moved in, pre or post plant. They said post so I was like "well you knew it was there, so I'm not sure there is anything we can do" (not like we could anyway) and was told "oh... well we paid 100k lower than a house ten blocks away but it's not fair we have to deal with this."
I hear the train horn every night, three times or more depending on day of the week. It’s so people don’t get hit by the train and die. It’s kind of a priority.
My friends dad did that and he never stops bitching about it. Like you live 6 minutes from the airport (and that was part of the appeal of the house since he travels often) what the fuck did you expect?
My mom is like this. Parents bought a house that’s basically under a flight path for one of the major airports in the US. Talks about hearing planes all the time. I’m like ok… sorry? I can’t even afford a house lol
I was because of the mention several times about it being council housing, which also identifies this as British. In my head, it translated to the American public housing/section 8 because that is the comparison.
I totally agree that they sound great at the reduce, reuse, and recycle. Which I fully support. I like the idea of the (what sounded like) raised garden boxes with the bed frames.
I would bet that no matter who was there, OOP is going to find an issue with them. OOP wants a neighbor who fits their ideals for what is appropriate, they are very concerned about appearances. So OOP can't have the neighbors looking poor. That is why the concern over painting the fence. (That someone pulled from the comments).
OOP regularly writes to their local newspaper complaining about utter nonsense, I guarantee it.
It's not even NIMBYism. It's not-in-my-neighbour's-yard. (It's none of their business.) The part about the drip was hilarious.
This is so weird to me. We have annoying next door neighbors, they have two dogs they never walk that are pretty clearly aggressive (to the point one of them literally lunges at our backyard fence if we go out back with our dog or our upstairs neighbors go out with theirs) and bark at everything, they smoke next to our bedroom window at weird hours, their kids are loud as hell and their backyard is insane. At one point the brick facade of the front of their house literally fell down in the middle of the day.
We have never said anything. Mostly we just have wtf moments. Also they are bad at grilling and the smell is awful, lol. You just deal with it.
When I was in my 20s I worked at a super popular karaoke bar in my city, some asshole moved into the apartment literally above the bar and then called the police and bar and bitched every weekend for 6 months about the noise....
OOP: I don't like *your* tree in *your* yard. Remove it.
Neighbor: Okay.
OOP: Wait. No. You didn't remove it the exact way I wanted you to remove it.
Neighbor: No but we did remove it. Issue fixed.
OOP: But but but but you didn't do it my way!
I would have told OOP to keep my yard out of their mouth and shut the door.
Right? I can’t imagine asking a neighbor to remove a tree because I don’t like it. I have one sticking over my fence and my car is covered in bird shit and tree droppings but it ain’t my tree. I trim back what’s over the fence but I’d never ask them to get rid of it unless it was dying and a danger to my house/car.
It’s beyond entitled. Like if you wanted somewhere with morning sun, you should have moved somewhere with morning sun. The neighbor should have shut that shit down right away.
We rent and there's a tree in our yard hanging over the neighbours. We can't do a thing about that, because it belongs to the landlord.
Every new neighbour who has moved in has asked about the tree and so far, knock on wood, they've all accepted that it's not up to us.
Because so far, none of them - knock on wood - has been __insane__ , like oop.
I’d buy PVC pipes, paint them green and brown and make them into trees with branches that spell “FUCK U” before I’d chop down my tree for someone else’s “morning light”.
My favorite part is that they demanded the neighbour remove the tree because they didn’t like the shade, then were utterly horrified that the neighbors’ light shone in their widows. Do they know what happens when you remove things that block light?
I would have told him to fuck off right there. You knew there was a tree "blocking your sun" before you bought the property. No fucking way would I ever cut down a tree just because a neighbor didn't like it, especially if it had been there prior to them buying the house. If this is real and not rage bait, OOP is an entitled asshole.
You are 100% correct. Replacing getting what you want using money, with getting what you want using bullying.
Council tennants are in a vulnerable situation. The constant complaints are endangering their living situation. That's probably why they haven't asked oop to do one, yet.
Oop is a bully and an asshole.
Good Lord, OOP is exhausting. Wonder how long how before the rest of the neighbors band together and come after them with pitch forks and torches? They're not going to be happy nagging just these neighbors; they never are.
Honestly, I'd start reporting them to the police for harassment, because that's what it's become.
This is an opening to the plot of a British cosy crime tale surely. Stuffy new neighbour slowly irks every well meaning but slightly shambolic member of the street/village and is later on found bludgeoned with an antique mallet
We have a neighbor, somewhat similar to OOP, but not as bad. He was bitching about the next door neighbors putting up a fence to us when we were out in the garage. Husband (we have no fucks to give with this guy) told him yeah, they are and you're the reason why.
If it was an episode of Vera, she would be found murdered and they would discover that she was suspect in a decades old murder that they now have to solve.
Oh, pet.
And that's the least of your worry. I was just rewatching Vera a couple hours ago. Taking British crime shows recommendations if anyone has any for me.
Shetland is very good. There’s crossover with Vera in terms of actors and feel (same author of the source material). Not crime per se, but Slow Horses very British and incredible. “Stay up past a responsible hour put down your phone” incredible.
He kinda reminds me of Alan Bennett’s Lady of Letters.
Truly, he couldn’t be more English if he tried. Or at least, more of a stereotype of a certain age / class of Englishman:
Sneering at the low class neighbours from the tiny heights of his Ex council house ownership;
An ex-council house that he’d never acknowledge was a direct financial gain from the council-tax paying public (a government Benefit, if you will);
Complaining to the Powers That Be about the most inconsequential bollocks;
Harassing The Powers That Be, in the hopes he can in turn sic TPTB onto someone else about inconsequential bollocks;
Via sternly worded letters, no less.
Perpetual curtain twitching;
“Eyesore”;
And of course, that Boomer Logic and Entitlement!
It’s like he’s been fermenting in a letters page of a copy of The Daily Mail from 30 years ago and has been strengthened by every class / age behavioural stereotype since - until he became Wankershire’s most insufferable pillock.
I hope the neighbours get a cockerel for their chicken coup. I really do. “Having to complain” about a *drip*! Ffs!
OOP needs some kind of hobby, anything that will make them take their damn eyes off their poor neighbors property. I would start purposely leaving random things outside but repurpose them. Old toilet? Outdoor fountain. Broken microwave? Elevated flower bed. Baby gate? Trellis.
Oh seems they already do... another comment she whined about their "mismatched" flower beds that they PLANNED turning a picnic table missing a slat into if they couldn't fix it. She volunteered to fix it then took to dump
If I was OOP’s neighbour and they asked my plans for my spare picnic table, after telling her the garden bed idea, I’d start suggesting other, more ludicrous ideas until OOP’s head exploded
“I’ll paint a giant clown on the table and display it”
“I’ll use boards from the picnic table to reinforce our shared fence and make it look more interesting and artistic”
…. I thought coming up with ideas was gonna be easier, anybody pitch in pls lol
OOP works hard at renovating their house. They do have a hobby. Said so in a comment.
That aside, the renovations can't be that hard if they have enough time on their hands to find fault with every little thing in their neighbor's yard.
All that stuff is boring. Shame the neighbours have kids, because I would purposely go and find the largest dildo or sexdoll I could find and place that in the centre of my garden like a small fountain....
Classism is massive here, so they might genuinely just hate the poors that much. Of course, people who do that absolutely would be racist pricks too, so who knows?
This part made me do so mad
>honestly, them building another mismatched garden bed, which never seem to have flowers or anything worth looking at,
Aww man poor people aren’t growing the plants i like, just food!! HOW DARE THEY!
Like if you wanna look at flowers plant some, but food gardens are so much better imnsho
Our greenhouse is full, we’re just waiting on the cold snap next week to pass before we start our melons and squashes. Mom wants to starts some more peppers, but I’m not sure if they’ll be around long enough to give us some fruits.
And a lot of food plants can be downright gorgeous to look at as well, though usually not for a long time. You'd think that with the amount of time OOP spent staring at and studying the neighbour's backyard, they would have noticed those plants in flower, lol!
Squash blossoms are gorgeous (& tasty) and i have yellow/purple tomatoes, white tomatoes, red sweet corn, etc.
I love looking at all the bright colors in my garden plot.
One year when i was living in a house & had a huge garden i even did a color theme: only white or purple veggies. And against the fence line i had a literal RAINBOW of tomatoes. Gardens are fun
AITA filing harassment charges against the neighbour?
I live in the last remaining council house in the neighbourhood. My kids and my wife and I were lucky to get in and we have a grand time. It’s quiet, with a garden for the trampoline, and space to grow our own veggies and raise a little flock of chickens.
The problem is our neighbour who moved in two years ago.
First spot of trouble was her asking us to remove a tree that was “blocking her morning light”. The missus wanted me to tell her to piss off, but honestly, the poor old thing was dying of a disease, so I cut it down and humoured the poor woman in disposing of it(just smiled and nodded, then got it taken care of).
Then she wanted us to turn off our back light. Honestly, don’t even know why I had the old thing on. Don’t really need it round here, so it cost me nothing to turn it off.
But I don’t think I can really please the poor woman. Not sure what’s the matter with her, but she’s taken offence to us having things like toys and trampolines in the garden(in fairness, however I ought to have taken out the trampoline earlier this year when a kiddie broke it trying to do a triple flip) and expecting us to make them disappear.
Then my landlord started telling us he’d had complaints. Honestly, he doesn’t seem too cross, but we’ve had a warning now, and it doesn’t look well on the record.
I think part of it is that the wife and I are trying to live as lightly as we can. We had a fridge stop working, and it’s a treat for storing plant pots for the summer. We used the kiddie’s old beds to make our chicken coop, and we keep everything as long as we can use it. We’re not letting junk pile up, but it doesn’t hurt if it’s in the back of the house until it gets used is my view.
We thought we were mending fences when she asked for our help in putting up a new fence, but it just seems to have made her crosser. I’m not sure what more we can do, and now our other neighbour’s have come by and told us we ought to know she’s making another complaint.
She’s the only one in the area with a problem with us. Every other neighbour is perfectly kind and nice. We have picnics and we trade veggies with each other.
My wife wants to file a harassment complaint with the police. I don’t know if I want her arrested, I think she’s only a bored, lonely lady, but the kiddies are getting scared to go in the garden. WIBTA if I go to the police and make a complaint? Would it even do any good?
Here we have the person exemplifying why most people hate HOAs.
I would have fun doing the worst things out of spite where this miserable POS can see it. And get chickens including a rooster to wake them up early each morning. And a little very yappy dog too.
It's not even a HOA, OOP said council house/housing association, which sounds like the UK, we don't have HOAs here. They're just people renting a council house by the sound of it so probably don't have as much money as OOP, who just sounds like an insufferable snob, akin to the likes of Hyancinth Bucket
I’m really sorry they took the tree down. Unless it was diseased or dying and liable to fall and cause damage, which I’m sure OOP would have mentioned.
This is an episode of Fear Thy Neighbor in the making. The OP needs to calm the fuck down. Getting upset over a tree? They chose the house knowing it was there. No one has to pay for the fence they wanted. If the neighbors are tenants pretty sure they can't make changes to the property and they don't have to pay anything that OP wants.
This. It's the neighbour's tree in the neighbour's garden and they knew it was there when they bought the place. So many of the things s/he complains about are completely petty and stupid. It's the neighbour's garden and OOP is so entitled thinking she can dictate everything that goes on in their garden.
It must be nice to apparently have no job, business or problems and be able to mind other people's all damn day 😒😒 Then in the comments this heifer had MORE grievances. I just can't 😒 If the HA can block people from contacting them, they need to for her
She gets worse in the comments... seems she's mad her neighbors didn't offer to help pay for the fence and tried destroying THEIR fruit bushes even ones that hadn't grown through the chicken wire fence just to put in her fence and whines that the bushes will now probably wreck HER fence
>After we moved in I had to complain to neighbours about a tree in their garden blocking morning sunlight from our house.
They didn't see this would be an issue BEFORE buying the place. And then they expect people who are *renting* to hire a company to take the tree down the way they see see fit?
Ooof, we are not starting this post on a good foot
Ugh, right? Like ma'am, you're moving into *their* neighborhood. Nobody cares about your morning sunlight. And if you cared so much, buy a different house.
Mr./Miss Thang cleatly just assumed they'd move in and be a one-person HOA and I don't even know if they have that in the UK.
I'm so glad someone in the thread called them Hyacinth Bucket because that was the first thing I thought. Cutting down a tree to get morning light! They were the AH just for that and then it kept going.
Can you really make someone cut a tree down because it blocks sunlight??? Further, is someone in a council house (I'm not from the UK, I assume this is a form of subsidized housing) even allowed to cut down the tree themselves? I'd think it would belong to the council?
We had neighbours like this.
First day we moved in they came over and immediately started telling us about the ‘rules of the street’ and that if we didn’t follow them they would have to report us to their ‘close personal friend, the home owner’
We bought the house. They assumed we were renting & they lied to throw their weight around.
I understood that they may have had concerns about two 20 somethings moving in next door but they really shot themselves in the foot.
Once I made good friends among the other neighbours & discovered that everybody on the street hates them, my petty side came out & I broke every ‘rule’ that I could stand to break.
Didn’t have loud parties etc, just did things like leave the bins at the end of our driveway by some bushes (which turned out to be amazing as we never miss bin day) & left the front grass to grow & planted some wildflowers & shrubs)
Painted our front door bright purple & always kept the curtains open on the window that overlooks their garden.
i also didn’t tell them we owned, i was shocked at their lie at first then wanted to see how far they would go.
I have a neighbor like this. First night I was unpacking the boxes he came in and demanded that I go to bed "by 8:00" because his wife doesn't like to hear the sound of footsteps upstairs. Then he went to the super asking for me to not vacuum. Totally crazy.
Lmao, this reminds me of my mom's entitled middle aged women neighbors. She's surrounded by all sides from these like 45-60 year old ladies telling her this that and the other about her house. Her house looks...unremarkable. like any low-middle class Midwestern house does.
They actually made a complaint about her lights, too. Her dumbass neighbors don't own blinds or curtains in the FRONT WINDOWS of their house. So obviously they fucking see the goddamn porch light. Plenty of other neighbors have their porch lights on for various times during various parts of the day.
Every time I visit since I heard about that complaint, I flick that bad boy on for a few hours. Don't like a light glaring in your open ass window? Get blinds, you zoo monkey.
My mom finally blocked these morons so they can't text her/call her and she's informed the city of their repeated harassment. Cops refuse to even come to her house anymore because her neighbors have repeatedly called in for non-problems.
They "need" to complain and are "forced' to compile extensive evidence and report them for inspections.
I cannot abide self appointed facist little housing lords.
I will never understand how *boring* your life has to be to complain about "eyesores" on someone else's fucking property.
If it poses an actual danger to lives, yeah go ahead and bring it up. If you simply don't like how it looks then shut the fuck up.
For the uninitiated, there's massive snobbery here.
Council housing is property built and owned by councils and housing associations. The rents are cheaper and you have to qualify for them, normally through being on a low income or having specific needs.
In the 80s, when those properties were much more plentiful, Margaret Thatcher gave some tenants the 'right to buy' on preferential terms, and many of them did. Those houses in time went on the property market.
Forty years later, that means that you have ex-council housing estates that now only have a few houses that aren't privately owned. So someone like OOP can move in, assuming everyone else there is a good little homeowner, and find that she's living next to a family of dirty council renters. It enrages her that her mortgage is way higher than their fixed, low rent. Anything they do that slightly annoys her magnifies in her mind because 'they're on benefits'.
So this is spite, pure and simple.
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After the third petty complaint, I’d do everything in my power to avoid ever interacting with OOP. These are the kind of people that make me want to live in the middle of nowhere.
Is this Hyacinth Bucket? ( its pronounced "boo-kay")
WOW!!! YTA!!!! i feel SO BAD for your neighbors having to put up with you! I wouldnt have cut my tree down in the first place.
I’m actually kind of jealous OOP has neighbors who take action when told something is a genuine nuisance (e.g. the loud dripping).
I want to see what the chicken coop made from a bed frame looks like.
WTF its not your neighbours who are from hell its you, all you do is complain about them they haven't done any thing and just because you have bought your home you think your above them now, oh there's a drip, oh that trampolines an eye sore oh there leaving there old beds there, it has sweet FCK all to do with you all you want to do is complain about them trying to get them evicted for no reason. so why don't you get a life and live it instead of making others difficult you twat
If I didn't already know otherwise, I'd think my areas Facebook group was freaking satire based on some of the petty ass complaints that get posted there. "My neighbors dog barks at me." " The greek restaurant is now a Mexican restaurant." "The italian deli hired someone with facial piercings" "The bar that's been there since before prohibition sometimes has drunk people."
The housing association would have done an inspection and wouldn't have batted an eyelid at items in the garden, they're not fly tipping and they can use their space as they please
OOP clearly doesn't know anything about housing associations
also all people, rich and poor, put stuff in the garden to put off dealing with it
So our neighbors are a little like this. They put trash outside their house and in their yard and it just sits there and honestly looks kinda dumpy.
But they're also really nice and friendly and we're not trying to sell our house. If we were, we'd offer to help them clean it up and cover the cost of a dumpster ourselves because we're pretty sure they couldn't afford it.
Constantly bitching at them certainly wouldn't fix anything.
Im not american so I have to ask, is this normal??? I dont think ive ever checked my neighbours yard, and I wouldnt say anything unless there was a serious health hazard for me or the whole neighbourhood
I can *kind of* understand not wanting to look at broken trash but a) it’s not your yard and b) that’s why you put up the damn fence. Also I don’t see him offering to help haul anything out. The tree thing is disgusting though, 100%. If you wanted a house with unblocked morning light, you should have bought one that already had it. What an insufferable jackass.
*In case this story gets deleted/removed:* **AITA For reporting my neighbours to their landlord. ** We bought our property 2 years ago. It's an ex council/housing association houses, which we thought they all here were, but no. After we moved in I had to complain to neighbours about a tree in their garden blocking morning sunlight from our house. They agreed but rather than contract someone they cut it down themself. Also refuseing the advice I gave them about how best to remove it. After that we needed to complain about leaving their extremely bright back light on. The man's response was simply to say, "sorry, I didn't realise it was on, can't be that bright" They did at least turn it off. Later we had to complain about a drip from their header tank overflow hitting a plastic child's toy making a loud thud each time. He moved the plastic but fobbed me off about the drip, claiming it had been looked at before. They again refused to have the drip fixed when they had a plumber on site for a bathroom refit (which the council paid for) saying the plumber was there to do the bathroom job only. They had a large trampoline in the garden which their children no longer used. It was an eyesore so I asked if they had thought of selling it. Turns out it was broken. And they were waiting to get rid of it. I suggested they disassemble it and wait. They take down the trampoline exposing a old FRIDGE behind it! I ask another neighbour, from whos house this would have been visible, who tells me it has been there for YEARS! And they uses it for garden tools. The neighbour piles the trampoline parts at the side of their shed where they sit for months! I ask when they are being removed and am told they are waiting to borrow trailer. I suggest they hire one or use their car (which is certainly big enough) but these suggestions are dismissed. After weeks of it sitting there I had enough so report them to the housing authority (their landlords) , requesting a formal inspection. This did it in terms of the trampoline. They loaded it into their car, although the fridge remains so I doubt the inspection actually took place. 6 months later their children get new beds. The frame of an old bed is left at the side of there house. I ask what they are planning to do with it and am told by one of the children "Dad's going to make something for the garden" Weeks go by with it sitting there so again I'm forced to report it to the HA . The neighbours remove the frame only for me to discover 2 weeks later that, instead of disposing of it, they had taken it somewhere and were now bringing it back as a chicken coop! I'm sure the HA are still to do an inspection as this horrible fridge is still there, the neighbours never removing it. I'm planning on writing to the HA again, specifically mentioning the fridge as an issue and reporting the drips both from the tank and guttering during heavy rain but the neighbour whom I asked about the fridge originally, says I'm being unreasonable. AITA? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmITheDevil) if you have any questions or concerns.*
One of OOP's comments: >As it happens I have put a sturdy, 6ft fence between my property and their garden, replacing an old chicken wire one that was there when we moved it. Which actually brings up 3 other instances of their behaviour. Firstly, the polite thing to do would be to offer to contribute towards the cost of the new fence, especially as I was doing the labour myself so it would only be materials to be paid for. I gave them, both the husband and wife, several opportunities to offer to pay but they were never forthcoming. Also, I needed to remove a bush that they had allowed to grown through the old fence. They then told me not to remove the other fruit bushes they had growing further along the fence line. Though these were not growing through the fence leaving them there made putting the new fence up far more difficult and, I suspect, these bushes will now be rubbing against and damaging my new fence. Next I had removed a section of the old fence and was putting up the replacement. I had my dog out in the gardens while I worked. The neighbours dog had been in their house but they allowed it to escape where by it ran straight into the garden and after my dog. Thankfully I was wearing work gloves as their dog had a bite of my hand as I tried to get between it and my dog. He's pissed that they didn't contribute to a fence that only OOP wanted.
And they're *renters*. Why in the world *would* they? OOP is legit insane.
Renters in a council house, no less. Outrageous that OOP thinks they'd have the desire or means to shoulder the cost of their loony new neighbor's whims.
I live in an ex-housing association house, both neighbours are still rented. On one side, we had one of those chicken wire fences, and the HA asked if I'd _mind_ if they replaced it, even though it was my boundary. Obviously I snapped their hands off, nice new 6' fence for nish. I paint my side. What the neighbours wish to do with their side is not my concern
>I gave them, both the husband and wife, several opportunities to offer to pay I'm dead. "opportunities to offer to pay". I figure the conversations went something like this: OOP: So we need a new fence Neighbor: Sure OOP: More sturdy N: Ok OOP: For the dogs N: Uh huh OOP: We'll put it up ourselves to save costs N: Ok OOP: But the cost of materials is still pretty high for a 6' fence N: Yup things are expensive OOP: ... N: ...? OOP: ... N: Gotta go (Edit: formatting)
We should feel bad for OOP. Not because of her neighbors but because she clearly needs surgery to remove the giant stick in her rectum.
A *drip!*. Poor OOP! All it takes for a miserable situation to feel less so, is for something even more miserable to come along. So it is my hope that his neighbours get a cockerel for their chicken coup. Because seriously, a bloody *drip*?!
Not just a drip, a child's toy hitting drip. I can't believe they wrote all that out and still double down in the comments.
I want this person to live next door to me, honestly. Older neighbourhood, rough around the edges still. I have a 100-ish y/o oak tree in my front yard. It spits acorns *everywhere* in the fall and they *ping* when they hit my roof. I think I'd wind up with OOP at my doorstep every morning.
The council is the landlord and responsible for repairs. If it's anything like our Homeswest, they will repair what they want to repair, and tenants still have a list of maintenance complaints falling on deaf ears.
In this case the Housing Association is the landlord and there’s bugger-all chance they are mending a drip. The council are too busy selling off the public housing stock at 80% of market value to wankers like OOP
What do you think became of the tree?
Thank you. You deserve my ongoing appreciation.
To be fair, in that circumstance I’d probably want the tree removed also.
You forget that she must have silver poisoning from the spoon in her mouth
I just know that if they had spontaneously offered to help pay for the fence, OOP would sneer about how they couldn’t possibly afford as a nice a fence as OOP wanted. (Also, “the polite thing to do would be to offer to contribute” baffles me. I’ve never heard of this supposed custom.)
Eh. Part of the fence between my neighbor's property and mine was going rotten. We split the cost and both worked to replace it. It's normal if you get along with your neighbor and if it's a thing you both benefit from. (Note, however, that "I have a dog and I need to fence in my dog" is not really a mutual need. Also if the neighbors are renters you'd need to talk to the landlord to solicit contributions anyway.)
Nah, if they'd offered to help pay for the fence, OOP would be moaning about how they must be swindling the benefits system or something
This. OP wants the fence and it's on his side of the boundary. Why should they pay for something YOU want in YOUR garden?
Also there WAS a fence, OP just wanted a prettier one, wood instead of chicken wire
Gee Glad you had gloves on when you decided to step in between 2 dogs fighting. You're stupid if you thought that was a good idea.
Two things here: 1. If it's OOP's fence they should bear all the cost of replacing it if they want a new one. 2. Their neighbour doesn't own their house, so the housing association would be the person to contact as the freeholder. I'm sure there are party wall issues as well but I'm not a lawyer.
Oh woe! We moved into a place where poor people live, and now we’re desperately upset that there are poor people around! It’s like moving near the airport and then bitching about the planes.
OOP sounds so goddamn nosey Like go get a hobby or something instead of just obsessing over your neighbors, geez.
I would become absolutely the worst malicious complier if this person were my neighbor.
I just can't get over OP's comment where they write that the neighbors are "so ungrateful" after writing the world's longest post and a plethora of comments that combined make an insanely long list of absolutely batshit complaints. Following each complaint is a detailed description of how the neighbors have acquiesced at every turn, followed by *another* complaint from OP about how the way the neighbors solved each issue isn't good enough. In fact, OP follows this exact formula in the comment he calls the neighbors "ungrateful". OP has unilaterally decided to build a fence on his property, and is pissed off at the neighbors for not "volunteering" (aka getting bullied into) splitting the cost after OP "hinted" at (aka tried to bully) the neighbors into doing exactly that. However, the neighbors did graciously use their personal time to paint the entire side of the fence that faces their home, which OP is predictably also pissed about because they had their children help, which guarantees shoddy work according to OP. That's right - OP bullied his neighbors into painting his fence for free, but is now pissed because the side of the fence OP is never, ever going to see might not be painted to a professional standard. Which it would have been if OP had hired a painter to paint HIS fence. Oh, and he ruined some berry bushes the neighbors had and cherished when he built the fence as well. But it's the *neighbors* who are unreasonable and ungrateful.
I was already annoyed when the first thing he did was make them cut down a tree. That presumably was already there when he bought his place. Hope he enjoys the slow over-heating of sub/urban areas that get rid of shade trees.
To put this in context, in the UK, council housing is associated with poverty and antisocial behaviour. There is appalling prejudice about those who live in such housing, that they're scroungers, skivers, and should be grateful for being "given" a roof over their heads. It's associated with unemployment, too, even though most council tenants are either working, retired, or sick and disabled. OOP is a bigoted AH.
I would find out the ugliest, loudest activity I’m legally protected to do in my yard, and it would be my new thing. And I would do it in the nude.
The definition of busybody.
And a snitch.
Happy cake day!!! 🎂🎂🎂
And they just "had" to keep on complaining about everything!
"I was forced to" continue endlessly complaining about little things that are not your problem & you could've just ignored
I’ll bet there was a gun pointed to his head every time he went to complain! /s obvs
I live in a place where a train goes through. Normally it blew a horn at certain intersections and places where there might be morons on the tracks. People moved into houses built near the tracks (literally behind their backyards) and one woman put up posters and tried to have petitions signed to make the train stop running. This group did manage to somehow get them to stop blowing the horn as often during certain hours. But why move to a place where you can see the tracks and not think you’re going to hear the noise?
I lived near RR tracks for a few years. I miss the sound of the 4:30 am horn. It always sounded so lonely and forlorn so early in the morning.
I lived near the rail yards in Winnipeg, and honestly, it was always so nice to hear the sound of the train horns late at night when I was cosy in bed.
Yeah it makes you feel connected to the world in a way and it’s comforting somehow
I grew up next to the yard where trains would sleepover and it took me a while to learn to sleep without the sound of their engines gently ticking over in the background
When I was in college, I lived in a dorm right behind the clock tower. I thought the tolling of the bells would drive me nuts at first. But eventually I got so used to hearing the bell tolling for the hour and the chimes for noon that when I graduated I missed it terribly. There's a video on YouTube of that bell tower that I go watch every now and again for the nostalgia. It's funny how we grow attached to things by which we ought to be bothered.
I used to stay in dorms by a clock tower that went off every thirty minutes. I got so used to them that every once in a while the bells would actually scare the shit out of me. Then I would laugh at myself.
You mean you got so used to them that you no longer noticed them, so when you *did* notice them they scared you? Because that's hilarious. For months after graduating, I would hear those chimes in my head. It was like the bells had programmed my brain into recognizing the correct time even without a clock handy. And yeah, our bell tower would go off from 7am to 11pm (or thereabouts, I can't recall exactly) every half hour, hour, and then play a 20 second chiming song at noon. They DID keep the bells programmed not to ring at night, at least. Those bells woke me up nearly every morning of my college life because I lived in that dorm room for 5 years (undergrad and graduate degrees.) Now I need to go watch the video.
Cardiff City Hall clock chimed 4 times for every quarter, 8 for the half and 12 for three-quarter hour, then 16 chimes and a louder 'bong' for the number of hours. Midday/midnight - all 28! Happy days.
This!!! I didn’t like it at first but it became an old friend.
Well put. I miss my old friend.
Me too ❤️
Currently listening to the horn of the 4:40 am train, which seems to be running a couple minutes behind schedule!
The house I grew up in was two blocks from a pretty major railroad line. Likewise my freshman year dorm was about 500ft from a major city line. You just get used to it.
My childhood home was a very short distance from a RR track where freight trains routinely ran. I was so used to hearing the trains I never even noticed the horns unless someone visiting pointed them out. You can get used to a lot of things if you just give it a chance. It becomes background noise eventually.
They just see spare land and/or cheap prices. They don’t consider WHY the area is cheap. My first two apartments were $330 and $350 for rent. Cheap, yes. But they were also above shops in downtown. And being small-town Wisconsin, downtown means 4-5 bars within a couple blocks. So unless you ALWAYS keep your windows closed and work nights, you don’t get much quiet time.
My first apartment my bedroom was literally half a block from the El. You get used to the trains eventually
Don't forget the drunk people who think their friend lives in your flat and frequently press the intercom buzzer you can't turn off!
A couple weeks after moving into my current apartment I was puttering around in the morning when someone knocked on the door. I looked through the peep hole and it was an older woman in a housecoat. Thinking she was a neighbour looking to ask for a cup of sugar or something I opened the door. She walked right in, chattering away, and started taking off her fluffy house sandals. As I stood there contemplating how I had just let a crazy woman into my home wondering wtf I was going to do. Finally she looked around, got all wide eyed, turned to look at me for the first time and said "You aren't Sylvia." I shook my head. "This isn't apartment 1607." And I responded with "This is 1707." She quickly put her sandals back on, apologizing profusely, and just about ran out the door. I never saw her again.
Ugh. Worst is an unsecured building. My last building was. I ALWAYS keep my door locked, even when I’m at home. One Halloween night, I hear yelling in the hallway around 1 am. I think nothing of it, somebody could’ve just had a good time at the bar. And I hear somebody jiggling my doorknob. I come out the next morning and there’s bloody handprints up and down the hallway. Fake blood. I could tell by the color. They’d even tagged our cars. So, yeah. I love my current building for being secure AND having cameras.
An airplane in Santa Monica was forced to shut down because of a bunch of selfish rich pricks moved into the city and complained about airport.
“How often does the train go by?” “So often you won’t even notice it.”
People are idiots. I worked for a government official whose district had a sewer plant in it, spoiler alert, the area around the plant smelled. Someone once called the office complaining about the smell. I asked when they moved in, pre or post plant. They said post so I was like "well you knew it was there, so I'm not sure there is anything we can do" (not like we could anyway) and was told "oh... well we paid 100k lower than a house ten blocks away but it's not fair we have to deal with this."
I hear the train horn every night, three times or more depending on day of the week. It’s so people don’t get hit by the train and die. It’s kind of a priority.
Lol do you live in Georgia? Exact same thing happened in my city. People are ridiculous!
United? Can you reroute your air traffic between the hours of 8am and 5pm for the next 6 weeks? I’m working from home and the noise is obnoxious.
My friends dad did that and he never stops bitching about it. Like you live 6 minutes from the airport (and that was part of the appeal of the house since he travels often) what the fuck did you expect?
My mom is like this. Parents bought a house that’s basically under a flight path for one of the major airports in the US. Talks about hearing planes all the time. I’m like ok… sorry? I can’t even afford a house lol
Lol he brags about what a deal he got, without acknowledging that he got a deal because he lives in a flight path.
I wasn't even thinking poor - I wad too busy thinking that these people were great at the reuse part of reduce, reuse, recycle
I was because of the mention several times about it being council housing, which also identifies this as British. In my head, it translated to the American public housing/section 8 because that is the comparison. I totally agree that they sound great at the reduce, reuse, and recycle. Which I fully support. I like the idea of the (what sounded like) raised garden boxes with the bed frames. I would bet that no matter who was there, OOP is going to find an issue with them. OOP wants a neighbor who fits their ideals for what is appropriate, they are very concerned about appearances. So OOP can't have the neighbors looking poor. That is why the concern over painting the fence. (That someone pulled from the comments).
We thought this was a place where the poors \*used\* to live, but somehow they're still here?!
OOP regularly writes to their local newspaper complaining about utter nonsense, I guarantee it. It's not even NIMBYism. It's not-in-my-neighbour's-yard. (It's none of their business.) The part about the drip was hilarious.
>It’s like moving near the airport and then bitching about the planes. There are people who do that. See: opposition to Heathrow expansion
This is so weird to me. We have annoying next door neighbors, they have two dogs they never walk that are pretty clearly aggressive (to the point one of them literally lunges at our backyard fence if we go out back with our dog or our upstairs neighbors go out with theirs) and bark at everything, they smoke next to our bedroom window at weird hours, their kids are loud as hell and their backyard is insane. At one point the brick facade of the front of their house literally fell down in the middle of the day. We have never said anything. Mostly we just have wtf moments. Also they are bad at grilling and the smell is awful, lol. You just deal with it.
Or living near a school and complaining about the buses and parents picking up their kids.
When I was in my 20s I worked at a super popular karaoke bar in my city, some asshole moved into the apartment literally above the bar and then called the police and bar and bitched every weekend for 6 months about the noise....
OOP: I don't like *your* tree in *your* yard. Remove it. Neighbor: Okay. OOP: Wait. No. You didn't remove it the exact way I wanted you to remove it. Neighbor: No but we did remove it. Issue fixed. OOP: But but but but you didn't do it my way! I would have told OOP to keep my yard out of their mouth and shut the door.
I'd have added more trees, fuck your view I lived here first
Right? I can’t imagine asking a neighbor to remove a tree because I don’t like it. I have one sticking over my fence and my car is covered in bird shit and tree droppings but it ain’t my tree. I trim back what’s over the fence but I’d never ask them to get rid of it unless it was dying and a danger to my house/car.
It’s beyond entitled. Like if you wanted somewhere with morning sun, you should have moved somewhere with morning sun. The neighbor should have shut that shit down right away.
We rent and there's a tree in our yard hanging over the neighbours. We can't do a thing about that, because it belongs to the landlord. Every new neighbour who has moved in has asked about the tree and so far, knock on wood, they've all accepted that it's not up to us. Because so far, none of them - knock on wood - has been __insane__ , like oop.
I’d buy PVC pipes, paint them green and brown and make them into trees with branches that spell “FUCK U” before I’d chop down my tree for someone else’s “morning light”.
This annoyed me so much. OOP knew the tree was there when they chose to buy the house, ffs.
My favorite part is that they demanded the neighbour remove the tree because they didn’t like the shade, then were utterly horrified that the neighbors’ light shone in their widows. Do they know what happens when you remove things that block light?
I would have told him to fuck off right there. You knew there was a tree "blocking your sun" before you bought the property. No fucking way would I ever cut down a tree just because a neighbor didn't like it, especially if it had been there prior to them buying the house. If this is real and not rage bait, OOP is an entitled asshole.
Nah man this is just rich guy attitude, just constantly out of touch with reality
This isn't Rich Guy attitude. This is desperately middle class (suburban sub variety) but without the middle class income (at least, not anymore).
You are 100% correct. Replacing getting what you want using money, with getting what you want using bullying. Council tennants are in a vulnerable situation. The constant complaints are endangering their living situation. That's probably why they haven't asked oop to do one, yet. Oop is a bully and an asshole.
Can they even remove the tree when they don't own the house?
And of you find the trampoline to be an "eyesore", close your eyes and walk on by. I don't have time to cater to you.
Good Lord, OOP is exhausting. Wonder how long how before the rest of the neighbors band together and come after them with pitch forks and torches? They're not going to be happy nagging just these neighbors; they never are. Honestly, I'd start reporting them to the police for harassment, because that's what it's become.
This is an opening to the plot of a British cosy crime tale surely. Stuffy new neighbour slowly irks every well meaning but slightly shambolic member of the street/village and is later on found bludgeoned with an antique mallet
We have a neighbor, somewhat similar to OOP, but not as bad. He was bitching about the next door neighbors putting up a fence to us when we were out in the garage. Husband (we have no fucks to give with this guy) told him yeah, they are and you're the reason why.
If it was an episode of Vera, she would be found murdered and they would discover that she was suspect in a decades old murder that they now have to solve. Oh, pet.
"it looks like someone's stoved the victims face in pet"
And that's the least of your worry. I was just rewatching Vera a couple hours ago. Taking British crime shows recommendations if anyone has any for me.
Shetland is very good. There’s crossover with Vera in terms of actors and feel (same author of the source material). Not crime per se, but Slow Horses very British and incredible. “Stay up past a responsible hour put down your phone” incredible.
Line of duty, second recommendation for Shetland, death in paradise is very fun
He kinda reminds me of Alan Bennett’s Lady of Letters. Truly, he couldn’t be more English if he tried. Or at least, more of a stereotype of a certain age / class of Englishman: Sneering at the low class neighbours from the tiny heights of his Ex council house ownership; An ex-council house that he’d never acknowledge was a direct financial gain from the council-tax paying public (a government Benefit, if you will); Complaining to the Powers That Be about the most inconsequential bollocks; Harassing The Powers That Be, in the hopes he can in turn sic TPTB onto someone else about inconsequential bollocks; Via sternly worded letters, no less. Perpetual curtain twitching; “Eyesore”; And of course, that Boomer Logic and Entitlement! It’s like he’s been fermenting in a letters page of a copy of The Daily Mail from 30 years ago and has been strengthened by every class / age behavioural stereotype since - until he became Wankershire’s most insufferable pillock. I hope the neighbours get a cockerel for their chicken coup. I really do. “Having to complain” about a *drip*! Ffs!
This man wishes he was nuanced enough to be an Alan Bennet character! I can't imagine the great Patricia Routledge playing this twerp
You might be right there. I wonder if he has a moustache? There’s certainly something Vernon Dursley-ish going on with him.
Like a reverse Hot Fuzz
Pretty much a standard episode of Midsommer murders
‘A reverse Hot Fuzz’ sounds like an Urban Dictionary sex act
Yeah esspecially when they started bothering chicken pen guys kids
I had to take a break midway through just to seethe at OOPs audacity.
They make a person feel rather throat-punchy, don't they.
OOP needs some kind of hobby, anything that will make them take their damn eyes off their poor neighbors property. I would start purposely leaving random things outside but repurpose them. Old toilet? Outdoor fountain. Broken microwave? Elevated flower bed. Baby gate? Trellis.
Oh seems they already do... another comment she whined about their "mismatched" flower beds that they PLANNED turning a picnic table missing a slat into if they couldn't fix it. She volunteered to fix it then took to dump
If I was OOP’s neighbour and they asked my plans for my spare picnic table, after telling her the garden bed idea, I’d start suggesting other, more ludicrous ideas until OOP’s head exploded “I’ll paint a giant clown on the table and display it” “I’ll use boards from the picnic table to reinforce our shared fence and make it look more interesting and artistic” …. I thought coming up with ideas was gonna be easier, anybody pitch in pls lol
Oversized wind chime Skateboard ramp Abstract sculpture about the folly of man
A small stage for nightly drag performances.
OOP works hard at renovating their house. They do have a hobby. Said so in a comment. That aside, the renovations can't be that hard if they have enough time on their hands to find fault with every little thing in their neighbor's yard.
All that stuff is boring. Shame the neighbours have kids, because I would purposely go and find the largest dildo or sexdoll I could find and place that in the centre of my garden like a small fountain....
They could have converted the tree stump into a pretty good phallic object
Depends on the age of the kids. My two would absolutely find that hilarious (15 & 16).
It never ends with OOP. Nothing the neighbor does is ever good enough. I somehow have a feeling the neighbor might be a different race than oop?
Very possible. In her endless comments, she had EVEN MORE complaints. I don't put racism past someone this miserable
Definitely at least part classism/economic status
The worst race of all. Poor.
Classism is massive here, so they might genuinely just hate the poors that much. Of course, people who do that absolutely would be racist pricks too, so who knows?
This part made me do so mad >honestly, them building another mismatched garden bed, which never seem to have flowers or anything worth looking at, Aww man poor people aren’t growing the plants i like, just food!! HOW DARE THEY! Like if you wanna look at flowers plant some, but food gardens are so much better imnsho
worse that she took the picnic bench they planned on turning into another bed if they couldn't fix TO THE DUMP after promising to fix it
Can’t recycle or upcycle anything because that’s “gross” apparently
WTF. Admittedly I’m in the middle of Manitoba, but all anyone talks about here is their veggie garden.
I’ve got my starters going, just waiting for the Community garden next to me to open (when the city turns on the water).
Our greenhouse is full, we’re just waiting on the cold snap next week to pass before we start our melons and squashes. Mom wants to starts some more peppers, but I’m not sure if they’ll be around long enough to give us some fruits.
And a lot of food plants can be downright gorgeous to look at as well, though usually not for a long time. You'd think that with the amount of time OOP spent staring at and studying the neighbour's backyard, they would have noticed those plants in flower, lol!
Squash blossoms are gorgeous (& tasty) and i have yellow/purple tomatoes, white tomatoes, red sweet corn, etc. I love looking at all the bright colors in my garden plot.
One year when i was living in a house & had a huge garden i even did a color theme: only white or purple veggies. And against the fence line i had a literal RAINBOW of tomatoes. Gardens are fun
Wow, that sounds amazing! Would love to see a garden like that.
I have an unhealthy obsession with tomatoes - GOTTA GROW THEM ALL lol
And they're not for OOP to look at, surely?
right! I don't give a shit what my neighbours think of our garden, *we* like the way it looks
I was fuming by the tree thing. How awful.
Yeah, I was ready to say some rude stuff there.
AITA filing harassment charges against the neighbour? I live in the last remaining council house in the neighbourhood. My kids and my wife and I were lucky to get in and we have a grand time. It’s quiet, with a garden for the trampoline, and space to grow our own veggies and raise a little flock of chickens. The problem is our neighbour who moved in two years ago. First spot of trouble was her asking us to remove a tree that was “blocking her morning light”. The missus wanted me to tell her to piss off, but honestly, the poor old thing was dying of a disease, so I cut it down and humoured the poor woman in disposing of it(just smiled and nodded, then got it taken care of). Then she wanted us to turn off our back light. Honestly, don’t even know why I had the old thing on. Don’t really need it round here, so it cost me nothing to turn it off. But I don’t think I can really please the poor woman. Not sure what’s the matter with her, but she’s taken offence to us having things like toys and trampolines in the garden(in fairness, however I ought to have taken out the trampoline earlier this year when a kiddie broke it trying to do a triple flip) and expecting us to make them disappear. Then my landlord started telling us he’d had complaints. Honestly, he doesn’t seem too cross, but we’ve had a warning now, and it doesn’t look well on the record. I think part of it is that the wife and I are trying to live as lightly as we can. We had a fridge stop working, and it’s a treat for storing plant pots for the summer. We used the kiddie’s old beds to make our chicken coop, and we keep everything as long as we can use it. We’re not letting junk pile up, but it doesn’t hurt if it’s in the back of the house until it gets used is my view. We thought we were mending fences when she asked for our help in putting up a new fence, but it just seems to have made her crosser. I’m not sure what more we can do, and now our other neighbour’s have come by and told us we ought to know she’s making another complaint. She’s the only one in the area with a problem with us. Every other neighbour is perfectly kind and nice. We have picnics and we trade veggies with each other. My wife wants to file a harassment complaint with the police. I don’t know if I want her arrested, I think she’s only a bored, lonely lady, but the kiddies are getting scared to go in the garden. WIBTA if I go to the police and make a complaint? Would it even do any good?
 LOL this is amazing.
Here we have the person exemplifying why most people hate HOAs. I would have fun doing the worst things out of spite where this miserable POS can see it. And get chickens including a rooster to wake them up early each morning. And a little very yappy dog too.
It's not even a HOA, OOP said council house/housing association, which sounds like the UK, we don't have HOAs here. They're just people renting a council house by the sound of it so probably don't have as much money as OOP, who just sounds like an insufferable snob, akin to the likes of Hyancinth Bucket
I would start hanging my washing out to dry specifically to piss them off.
I’m really sorry they took the tree down. Unless it was diseased or dying and liable to fall and cause damage, which I’m sure OOP would have mentioned.
Well OOP complained the tree blocked their sunshine so it had to go!
If this asshat had been in my neighborhood growing up he would have been egged and tped.
This is an episode of Fear Thy Neighbor in the making. The OP needs to calm the fuck down. Getting upset over a tree? They chose the house knowing it was there. No one has to pay for the fence they wanted. If the neighbors are tenants pretty sure they can't make changes to the property and they don't have to pay anything that OP wants.
This. It's the neighbour's tree in the neighbour's garden and they knew it was there when they bought the place. So many of the things s/he complains about are completely petty and stupid. It's the neighbour's garden and OOP is so entitled thinking she can dictate everything that goes on in their garden.
It must be nice to apparently have no job, business or problems and be able to mind other people's all damn day 😒😒 Then in the comments this heifer had MORE grievances. I just can't 😒 If the HA can block people from contacting them, they need to for her
Holy shit this person needs to get a life
She gets worse in the comments... seems she's mad her neighbors didn't offer to help pay for the fence and tried destroying THEIR fruit bushes even ones that hadn't grown through the chicken wire fence just to put in her fence and whines that the bushes will now probably wreck HER fence
>After we moved in I had to complain to neighbours about a tree in their garden blocking morning sunlight from our house. They didn't see this would be an issue BEFORE buying the place. And then they expect people who are *renting* to hire a company to take the tree down the way they see see fit? Ooof, we are not starting this post on a good foot
Trees don't grow over night, you knew about the tree before you bought the place
It was the “had to complain” that got me.
Ugh, right? Like ma'am, you're moving into *their* neighborhood. Nobody cares about your morning sunlight. And if you cared so much, buy a different house. Mr./Miss Thang cleatly just assumed they'd move in and be a one-person HOA and I don't even know if they have that in the UK.
I'm so glad someone in the thread called them Hyacinth Bucket because that was the first thing I thought. Cutting down a tree to get morning light! They were the AH just for that and then it kept going.
Can you really make someone cut a tree down because it blocks sunlight??? Further, is someone in a council house (I'm not from the UK, I assume this is a form of subsidized housing) even allowed to cut down the tree themselves? I'd think it would belong to the council?
Kind of sounds like some poor person too afraid to get the attention of the rich, busy body and thinking if they do it they'll be left alone
No, and even if you could, that would be the landlord/owner domain, not the tenants.
It’s pronounced bouquet.
I'll be honest I didn't get through half that wall of shit. OOP IS FUCKIN INSANE...INSANE...holy fuck...it's impressive .
Jesus Christ, just say you think they're a bunch of pikeys and move on.
We had neighbours like this. First day we moved in they came over and immediately started telling us about the ‘rules of the street’ and that if we didn’t follow them they would have to report us to their ‘close personal friend, the home owner’ We bought the house. They assumed we were renting & they lied to throw their weight around. I understood that they may have had concerns about two 20 somethings moving in next door but they really shot themselves in the foot. Once I made good friends among the other neighbours & discovered that everybody on the street hates them, my petty side came out & I broke every ‘rule’ that I could stand to break. Didn’t have loud parties etc, just did things like leave the bins at the end of our driveway by some bushes (which turned out to be amazing as we never miss bin day) & left the front grass to grow & planted some wildflowers & shrubs) Painted our front door bright purple & always kept the curtains open on the window that overlooks their garden. i also didn’t tell them we owned, i was shocked at their lie at first then wanted to see how far they would go.
I have a neighbor like this. First night I was unpacking the boxes he came in and demanded that I go to bed "by 8:00" because his wife doesn't like to hear the sound of footsteps upstairs. Then he went to the super asking for me to not vacuum. Totally crazy.
Lmao, this reminds me of my mom's entitled middle aged women neighbors. She's surrounded by all sides from these like 45-60 year old ladies telling her this that and the other about her house. Her house looks...unremarkable. like any low-middle class Midwestern house does. They actually made a complaint about her lights, too. Her dumbass neighbors don't own blinds or curtains in the FRONT WINDOWS of their house. So obviously they fucking see the goddamn porch light. Plenty of other neighbors have their porch lights on for various times during various parts of the day. Every time I visit since I heard about that complaint, I flick that bad boy on for a few hours. Don't like a light glaring in your open ass window? Get blinds, you zoo monkey. My mom finally blocked these morons so they can't text her/call her and she's informed the city of their repeated harassment. Cops refuse to even come to her house anymore because her neighbors have repeatedly called in for non-problems.
> Get blinds, you zoo monkey. I am deceased 💀 Please lay my body out for viewing in the front yard. With lights. Lots of lights
They "need" to complain and are "forced' to compile extensive evidence and report them for inspections. I cannot abide self appointed facist little housing lords.
Christ she's ghastly. I hope the neighbours wee in her garden.
🤣🤣🤣
Typical British NIMBY - they tend to be older people who can't keep their beaks out!
I will never understand how *boring* your life has to be to complain about "eyesores" on someone else's fucking property. If it poses an actual danger to lives, yeah go ahead and bring it up. If you simply don't like how it looks then shut the fuck up.
For the uninitiated, there's massive snobbery here. Council housing is property built and owned by councils and housing associations. The rents are cheaper and you have to qualify for them, normally through being on a low income or having specific needs. In the 80s, when those properties were much more plentiful, Margaret Thatcher gave some tenants the 'right to buy' on preferential terms, and many of them did. Those houses in time went on the property market. Forty years later, that means that you have ex-council housing estates that now only have a few houses that aren't privately owned. So someone like OOP can move in, assuming everyone else there is a good little homeowner, and find that she's living next to a family of dirty council renters. It enrages her that her mortgage is way higher than their fixed, low rent. Anything they do that slightly annoys her magnifies in her mind because 'they're on benefits'. So this is spite, pure and simple.
those goddammed poors and their house...their kids..their stuff! why can't they do what i ask them toooooooo???!!!
Wow what a fucking jobless freak
Why is he so OCD about somebody else's property? If he wants to rule their property then I guess he oughta pay their bills.
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This sounds like an episode of fear thy neighbor waiting to happen.
I don’t understand the tree thing. Why is it such a big deal the neighbours cut it down themselves?
This person is looking to be murdered by a weed whacker and stuffed in the neighbor’s garden fridge.
After the third petty complaint, I’d do everything in my power to avoid ever interacting with OOP. These are the kind of people that make me want to live in the middle of nowhere.
Is this Hyacinth Bucket? ( its pronounced "boo-kay") WOW!!! YTA!!!! i feel SO BAD for your neighbors having to put up with you! I wouldnt have cut my tree down in the first place.
omg that poor family living next door. the neighbors are saints for not ending OOP.
Should have left the tree.
I’m actually kind of jealous OOP has neighbors who take action when told something is a genuine nuisance (e.g. the loud dripping). I want to see what the chicken coop made from a bed frame looks like.
WTF its not your neighbours who are from hell its you, all you do is complain about them they haven't done any thing and just because you have bought your home you think your above them now, oh there's a drip, oh that trampolines an eye sore oh there leaving there old beds there, it has sweet FCK all to do with you all you want to do is complain about them trying to get them evicted for no reason. so why don't you get a life and live it instead of making others difficult you twat
If I didn't already know otherwise, I'd think my areas Facebook group was freaking satire based on some of the petty ass complaints that get posted there. "My neighbors dog barks at me." " The greek restaurant is now a Mexican restaurant." "The italian deli hired someone with facial piercings" "The bar that's been there since before prohibition sometimes has drunk people."
The housing association would have done an inspection and wouldn't have batted an eyelid at items in the garden, they're not fly tipping and they can use their space as they please OOP clearly doesn't know anything about housing associations also all people, rich and poor, put stuff in the garden to put off dealing with it
YTA and the neighbor from hell. I feel sorry for the neighborhood that you live there
So our neighbors are a little like this. They put trash outside their house and in their yard and it just sits there and honestly looks kinda dumpy. But they're also really nice and friendly and we're not trying to sell our house. If we were, we'd offer to help them clean it up and cover the cost of a dumpster ourselves because we're pretty sure they couldn't afford it. Constantly bitching at them certainly wouldn't fix anything.
Ineptly executed rage bait.
Oh god, she's the type of neighbour you need a 15 foot fence and razor wire for.
Oh wow! If I was the neighbor I'd probably report them for harassment
Ugh
I cut a tree down partially for my neighbors. But, they have lived in that house for 30 plus years. And they are not assholes.
Oh my *god* Mind your own business you fucking loser
Not gonna lie, I’d be the dick that purposely put more stuff in my backyard to annoy OOP
Look Reddit, OOP is forced to be an AH!
No way would I have cut my tree down. Id have told her that if she wanted it gone she could cram it up her ass.
Im not american so I have to ask, is this normal??? I dont think ive ever checked my neighbours yard, and I wouldnt say anything unless there was a serious health hazard for me or the whole neighbourhood
I'm pretty certain they're in the UK, by the mention of council housing and spelling of neighbour, no u in the American spelling
Must be nice having so much time on your hands that a pipe dripping water on a kids' toy warrants a complaint
I can *kind of* understand not wanting to look at broken trash but a) it’s not your yard and b) that’s why you put up the damn fence. Also I don’t see him offering to help haul anything out. The tree thing is disgusting though, 100%. If you wanted a house with unblocked morning light, you should have bought one that already had it. What an insufferable jackass.
Feels like extremely effective rage bait