Does your neighbors’ dog bark between the hours of 1 and 5 a.m., their teenager’s music rattles your windows on the weekends and their trash keeps ending up on your lawn? Finding an effective but non-aggressive way to deal with bad neighbors is ideal. So start by kindly asking them to be more mindful of their actions.
When you live in an apartment, you are almost sure to have many people living around you. Neighbors can turn out to be a big help or even become your friends. But, as you may already know, a bad neighbor can get under your skin or make your blood boil.
If a neighbor starts causing problems, it doesn’t mean you need to pack up and move to a house in the suburbs. Instead, choose to deal with the situation effectively.
Of course, living in a neighborhood means getting up in each other’s business from time to time – it just can’t be helped. Unless you want to live by yourself in the woods, you are going to encounter your neighbors’ quirks.
We humans live in a community and it is important to interact with people around us. Socializing with your neighbors is very important since they play an important part in your daily lives. By the very thought of neighbor, we have some qualities that we expect them to have like friendship and helpfulness. To get a positive vibe from your neighbor, it is important that you become a good neighbor at the first place. To foster a good neighboring relationship is not always easy. It is neither too difficult.
Guest Kay complains, “I am shocked at the stories of bad neighbors – how some of the neighbors behave. Would it be good to consult outside ‘experts’ about some of the serious problems? The landscape forum here is great for those stories about a bad neighbor’s invasive plants. Hey, where your property starts is where their mess should end, right? You can clean up right at that point. I hate to say it, but some of these problems may be taken to local zoning and law enforcement. They need to know what is going on and will have an objective view. Be careful of crazy people.”
One more complaint says, “Our next door neighbors let their dog use our front yard and back yard to eliminate its feces and urine. Worst is, it’s on a leash. They have no respect for other people’s property, it would seem.”
The saying “good fences make good neighbors” is so true, even though I don’t care for them myself; I have to erect one because of my bad neighbor.
Is your neighbor nameless and faceless, or do you actually know each other? It’s a lot harder to care about someone you have never met, and resentment can build quickly when neighbors don’t bother forming a relationship with each other. The best way to get what you want - some peace and quiet on the weekends, for example - might be to forge a relationship with your neighbor so you understand each other better and are more willing to be considerate. You don’t have to end up as best friends, but seeing each other as people is a good start to increased neighborliness.
Have you tried the simplest method for getting what you want - simply speaking up and asking for it? Your discomfort might be completely obvious to you, but chances are your neighbors don’t even know they’re being a bother. While you’re sitting there stewing and getting ready to boil over, they’re happily playing their music or trampling your grass without realizing how angry it’s making you. Instead of waiting until you’re ready to blow and doing something passive aggressive, simply call up or visit your neighbors and request that they address the problem.
Among the different routes that are open to making a complaint, resolving the situation informally, is often seen as the best. A central reason for this is that if you have bought your home your neighbors could be around for a while and it’s advantageous to keep relations civil. Airing your grievances could solve the problem and save you time and money complaining about the noise to other authorities.
It is important to be reasonable when approaching a neighbor about their noise problem. By offering to be flexible, for example, they might reduce their noise at a particular time of the day. Don’t deal with the problem while a party is going on however; instead all they can do is ask them to turn the music down.
Communication breakdowns often lead to further misery and can make the situation a lot worse. A friendly approach can often work wonders, sometimes it is good to talk! A misunderstanding that might not be evident could lead to worse problems. Remember too that some neighbors are just oblivious to other people’s needs and have little respect for these no matter what you say or do, you are only human, and you can only try so much. If this is the case then you need to get specialist help/advice as soon as possible.
Are you sure you aren’t doing anything that could be getting on other people’s nerves? You don’t want your neighbors to have the leverage to simply fire back that you should take a look at your own irritating habits. Mow your lawn, don’t play loud music, and be as considerate as you want your neighbors to be. Hopefully they’ll follow your example and correct the problem without your having to intervene.