13 People Shared Witty Ways to Deal With Insolent Neighbors

Curiosities
2 years ago

It is really hard to tolerate some neighbors. Especially if they don’t even think about how hard it might be to live next to them. But some people have enough power and imagination to design a revenge plan and actually implement it.

We at Bright Side were really impressed by some brave people who were getting too tired of what their neighbors did and decided to respond.

***

The neighbors were constantly fighting, having parties, and listening to loud music at 4 a.m. Well, the girlfriend goes out of town for a week for a work training thing and while she’s gone we see another girl park outside the house and come into it. So at the next party when they are being super loud at 2 a.m. we both go over to ask them to turn down the music, the boyfriend opens the door and starts shouting that we should mind our own business, the girlfriend appears behind him and says the same. My wife just casually asks, “Oh did you get back together? What about that nice blonde girl who was over all last week?” Then we just went home and enjoyed listening to them throw everyone out and have their last fight. © Wind_Yer_Neck_In / Reddit

***

One neighbor let their dogs poop all over everyone’s lawn and never picked it up. We tried asking them, we tried picking it up and putting it on their doorstep, but they refused to do it. My one neighbor decided to get a piece of it and smear it all over the front of the house. After that, they started picking it up. © CrabPplCrabPpl / Reddit

***

My friend had a neighbor who put in a very bright yard light that was pointed at her bedroom window. After a negative interaction when asking a neighbor to re-aim or dim the light or such. She put up a parabolic mirror pointed directly at the dude’s bedroom, used an old projector dowser, and an old lighting board to program a chase sequence that was hours long and repeated. End result was a beam of randomly blinking light that was aimed at the neighbor’s bedroom window. When he complained she let him know that it was his light source and all he had to do was turn off his yard light. © hippybiker / Reddit

***

My mom’s neighbor called the city to demand they make my mom repair her fence that divided their yards. The fence did need a few mild repairs, which my mom would have done if the neighbor had just come over and talked to her. My mom asks if she legally has to have a fence and the person she talked to could sense where this was going. Turns out there are rules about maintaining a fence, but not requiring that you have one, so my mom pays a contractor to tear it down entirely. The neighbor does come to talk to my mom and asks when the new fence will be built. My mom says, “you want a fence, build it yourself!” A couple of weeks later my mom has a nice new fence, courtesy of one annoying neighbor. © robothouserock / Reddit

***

Our neighbor demanded we move our septic tank because he claimed it was partially on his property. He was really irritating about it and kept at it. My dad’s a really laid-back person, eventually, even he got mad and had the property line surveyed. Turns out not only was the septic tank on our property, not his, but the corner of his house and part of his driveway was actually on our land. Dad spent the next few months asking him when he was going to move his house off our land. © lovetolearn4ever / Reddit

***

I deliberately don’t mow my front lawn because it’s seeded with lots of native wildflowers and is a magnet for bees, butterflies, hoverflies, etc. My neighbor complained that it was unsightly and didn’t suit the manicured lawns and verges and green spaces of the area. Fair enough. But rather than mow my lawn, I wrote to the local council and suggested a “help the pollinators” wildflower initiative. The local council doesn’t mow the verges or open green spaces anymore in summer (about half the neighbors don’t either) so all the verges and green spaces resemble my mini “unsightly” wildflower meadow rather than the neighbor’s chemical patch of a lawn. It drives him mad every summer without fail. © Stormaen / Reddit

***

In our first house, my wife and I had a neighbor who disliked us from the start. They were petty and mean to my wife who doesn’t like confrontation — parking across our driveway when she was about to go to work, throwing pieces of wood over the fence, letting their dog crap on our lawn and not picking it up, etc. So the next time it rained, I went out back, threw an entire box of oxo cubes into their backyard, and let the rain melt them into the grass. Their dog absolutely destroyed their yard looking for the smell and I would make sure to comment on it every chance I got. We moved shortly after. © Caffine***9 / Reddit

***

My dad was talking to our neighbor about what color he should paint the house and said, as a joke, “Well I might as well paint the old one (house) blue, haha.” The neighbor became almost angry and said stuff like, “You cannot do that! A blue house? How stupid and annoying! How dumb...” etc. And that’s how I grew up in a blue house. © Stokbakko / Reddit

***

My boyfriend and I own our home (a trailer) and we pay monthly lot rent for the land we live on. We’re homeowners and our water bill is included in the monthly lot rent. I put a spigot lock on our hose because our neighbor kept using my hose and flooding my flower bed in the process. © suburbansociopath / Reddit

***

My grandpa’s neighbor’s septic tank started leaking into my grandpa’s backyard. He repeatedly asked his neighbor to fix the septic tank and clean up the mess in his yard. The neighbor completely brushed him off. So my grandpa took matters into his own hands. He rigged up a “plumbing” system in his yard. He installed an upright PVC pipe that pointed at the neighbor’s backyard over the fence. It was set up to spray the neighbor’s own septic waste over the fence and into the neighbor’s beautiful and polished yard. And just like that, the neighbor fixed his septic tank. © lonedandelion / Reddit

***

Our next-door neighbor would constantly have friends park in the no-parking zone in front of their unit, which made it a nightmare for people to navigate the parking lot. I started calling the tow truck every time I saw a car there. After a couple of weeks, nobody parked in the no-parking zone anymore. © shaydin / Reddit

***

I decided to fence in my backyard and asked my neighbor if he would pay for half of the fence along his property line. He declined. I installed a fence around my backyard a few inches on my side of the property line. That neighbor then tied a new fence into my fence, he also tied into the neighbor’s fence on the other side and the one behind his. So he only paid for about 40’ foot of fence altogether and got his entire yard fenced in. No big deal even though he got a few extra square feet of the backyard and a fence on 3 sides for free. Sometime later his dog knocked a hole in my fence. He asked me to fix it since his dog could escape to my yard and then into the neighborhood. I declined. I told him to fix it since it was my fence and his dog did the damage. He called code enforcement and the homeowners association. Turns out that if I have a fence I have to keep my fence in good repair. I repaired the fence and then painted the side of my fence that faced his property high liner yellow, blue, green, mixed with slates of black, brown. Turns out I get to choose the color of my fence as long as it is in good repair. He complained and was denied by the HOA. He then pained my fence. I had him charged with vandalism and he was fined and had to repaint my fence with the original terrible colors. He then bulk emailed the entire subdivision and complained asking them to support him in his attempt to get me to paint my fence instead. The neighbor to his other side and behind him all pained their fences to match mine. He moved a few months later. © CaptainFlyingSolo / Reddit

***

My neighbor is a cop and his kids always would come over to my yard and throw rocks at my house, screech loudly, harass my chickens, and leave their coop open, etc. I put up a no trespassing sign and they still showed up. I put up some wire fencing and they still showed up. There was nothing I could actually do to get them in trouble because they’re “above the law” since their dad is the law. But luckily last year I worked at a Halloween store and so I put a rubber pig mask on the light post in my backyard and he doesn’t let his kids over here anymore. © d24602 / Reddit

Have you ever had to deal with unpleasant neighbors? What did you do?

Bright Side has its own podcasts now. Take cool articles with you and listen to new stories whenever and wherever you want.

Preview photo credit lonedandelion / Reddit

Comments

Get notifications

our nasty neighbor keeps having noisy parties every weekend, I even had to call the police but he doesn't stop anyways

-
-
Reply

Related Reads