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Yesterday, while meeting new tenants to give keys & collect the 1st month of rent at one of the properties I had a few turnovers in, I met the next door neighbor.
Retired, looks about 80 but who knows? I've seen 40 year olds that look 20 years older than they are.
Very pleasant man. He let me know that he has been helping my tenants out by taking their recycling and garbage cans to the curb and bringing them back up to the garage. He said he doesn't have a whole lot to do until his wife gets home from work - she's a nurse - so he doesn't mind.
My husband had met him in the fall when the neighbor had all of our recycling/garbage cans for the property in his driveway - he was drilling holes in the bottom of them so rain water would drain out. My husband hadn't gotten around to doing it yet.
I really don't want my neighbor to be doing any of this. He looks a little fragile, what if he falls on my property and injures himself?
I apologized to him for having tenants that didn't keep on top of taking their garbage out on the scheduled days, etc. I also thanked him profusely. When his wife came outside to talk she made it clear, in a very nice way, that he did it for their sake - to keep animals off of their property (yet they are the feeders of the stray cat population on the street) and out of their garbage.
THEN they told me that my tenants sure do drink a lot, the "one with the funny hair" is on some sort of anti-depressant (I'm assuming she tosses her empty med bottles in the recycling for him to know that and I have NO idea how he connected "funny hair" to the anti-depressant), my tenants (in general) smoke inside the units, and sure are "wasteful with food". Huh?
I started to wonder if part of the "helpfulness" is to be nosey - once the cans are on the street anyone can go through them.
I gave them my cell phone number and told them to call me the next time they have a concern with my tenants not putting their recycling/garbage out or not bringing the cans back up to the garage - or for any other reason. I'll deal with them.
I did tell them that we're putting a fence up between our driveways to give them (the neighbors) some privacy as well as building a covered/enclosed space off of the garage to keep the cans in. They won't have to see the overflowing cans or worry about critters wandering over to their property.
I think that is the only way I could have handled the situation and they both seemed happy about the enclosure for the cans. I didn't want to get in to "Why are you on my property?" with either one of them after it seemed to me like he wasn't just being helpful, he was being a little nosey too.
Just a bored retired guy and don't look in to it too much?
I'm going to buy them a little gift to thank them for what he's done for my previous tenants, and leave it at that.
I wouldn't encourage his nosy behavior with a gift. You're asking for him to butt in even more, if you do this.
Building the enclosure is your way of not only taking care of problems, but also putting a barrier up that says, you stay on your side, and leave my tenants alone on your side.
If you give him a gift for being a buttinsky, he'll get even worse.
I wouldn't encourage his nosy behavior with a gift. You're asking for him to butt in even more, if you do this.
Building the enclosure is your way of not only taking care of problems, but also putting a barrier up that says, you stay on your side, and leave my tenants alone on your side.
If you give him a gift for being a buttinsky, he'll get even worse.
IMO.
I agree no gift, no thank you note and no further contact. They are nosey annoying neighbors....you will regret feeding into their passive aggressive nonsense. Make sure you store their number on your cell phone so you can let the numerous calls go straight to voice mail!
You have a dilemma. Let it continue and you may have an issue with a nosy neighbor. Cut it off, and have something happen at your rental: a police raid, a brawl, something else, and you ask yourself, "Why didn't the neighbors let me know something was going on?".
He probably knows about the anti depressants because he interacts with his neighbors....I find that some people on anti depressants are rather open about their meds and their usage and will tell anyone who stops to chat.
Is your neighbor nosey? Maybe, maybe not, but it might that nosey neighbor that puts a thief behind bars because he was 'watching' the area...or he might be the one to call the fire dept when your meth head tenants blow up their 'kitchen'....who knows, but I'd play this one cool....ask him not to do maintenance on your property but you call you if he has any concerns.
You don't need to buy him a gift....just a thank you so much and call it a day.
He sounds like my grandfather! My grandparents sold their house and moved into a condo at some point during my childhood, and I remember my grandfather used to take every trash can belonging to people in their building to the curb on trash day. He also used to rake leaves off the paths out front and goodness knows what else.
Both he and my grandmother knew all of the other residents drama and lives.
Yes, they were totally nosey. They were also insanely bored in their retirement and in my grandfather's case he seemed to miss having a house and yard to take care of.
While I wouldn't encourage this man to be nosey, I wouldn't discourage it either. As Kim said, sometimes nosey neighhbors are the best as far as safety and security goes.
Unless the other tenants start complaining about what he's doing, don't worry about it
The guy might be not nosy but since he is seeing a lot he is talking about it.
neverthless, this could lead to you feel indebitness to him. Already you feel bad about saying no at this early of the good deed he is doing. So i would do like you said, give him a thank you gift and find a way to say kindly no thank you.
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