Bad neighbors (Phoenix: foreclosure, mortgage, house)

[cjs123]

These are something.

Crystal--the laundry made me laugh out loud--can't even recall the last time I saw one of those umbrella clothes lines. I have seen bright pink houses (like fluorescent Pepto Bismol); you have my sympathy, having to look at that!

Jared--a guy chasing his son with a butcher knife??? Holy cats--glad your girlfriend didn't take off before you could stop her!

Now I'm remembering a couple more tidbits:

When I first moved to this neighborhood there was a neighbor a couple doors down who walked these two little azz-ugly dogs, naturally on a leash that seemed about 25' long. One dog was nice and the other was a mean SOB (literally ). The neighbor stopped to talk and I was standing on my property just listening to her when suddenly the mean dog FLEW through the air and I heard it's teeth snap, then saw four holes in my pants. Her reaction? She said, 'Just be glad it wasn't your leg.' Even the contractors around the neighborhood didn't want to go to her house--only their comments were not about the dogs, but their owner.

Also suspect the same folks who were screaming/yelling (there were two sets) had other things going on--cars rolling up a little too frequently (according to the folks across the street) and then when someone in the house beat up someone else and the police were called (not by me), the entire family was gone by the time the cops arrived--and they never came back. Left EVERYTHING, never to be seen again. Hmmmm.

After they departed it was discovered their garage had been used as a dump, and for a week there was one of those huge dumpsters sitting in their driveway while some company hauled everything away--which disturbed a lot of six-legged critters who had taken up residence there.

These days things are quiet on either side--knock on wood.

[locolobo13]

The guy across the street from me is a curbstoner. I don't mind too much when a vehicle is parked temporarily in front of my house. But draw the line at blocking access to my property.

Sometimes his customers have blocked my driveway although not in years. The last time we had words was when he parked in front of my garbage can blocking the garbage man from picking it up. I had no clue until the garbage man pulled up honked and went on. Of course the garbage man didn't come back.

When I asked the curbstoner not to park in front of my garbage can he told me to "F-- off", it was a public street. I literally thought we were going to fight it out in the street. But he drove his car off with a few more epithets. At least he hasn't parked in front of my garbage can or driveway since.

[Ponderosa]

My snowbird neighbors from Canada bought the house behind me. They arrived just after Christmas and proceeded to spend the next three months on the patio, drinking beer, talking loudly, using profanity, and playing music from about 8am until midnite EVERY SINGLE DAY. They put up floodlights along the patio cover that light up both their yard and mine like a sports field. The only respite I got was when they went to Jobing to watch hockey (I do hope the Yotes stay here for that reason). They left in April and it was a blessing. They apparently bonded with other neighbors who have teenagers who own more dilapidated, grey primer vehicles than will fit at their own place and are now being parked in their driveway in the off season. Sadly, they will return and if the immigration bill passes, Canadians will be allowed to stay here 8 months instead of the 6 under current law. Oh my...

[MotleyCrew]

Originally Posted by jaredC

Every body has them. I want to hear stories of your bad neighbors. Here's one of mine;

So I purchased a new $199 gas weed eater at Lowes. The very first day I use it in my back yard my neighbor came over to borrow it. Being neighborly, I lent it to him. That evening I noticed my weed eater sitting on a bench in the backyard. No big deal. The next day, there it was again, in the same spot. OK, so now I'm thinking he just suddenly became busy at work, no big deal, I'll just keep checking and say something if he doesn't use it or bring it inside. The following day, there it sat, still on the bench. I'm getting angry because my neighbor doesn't have a backyard fence or a side yard fence except the one he shares with me. I knock on the door and get no reply. I wait till the next day and there it is, on that dang bench. I finally said screw it, climbed the fence and brought it home. It sat outside at my neighbors for 4 days. Taught me a lesson though, don't lend out tools no matter how "neighborly" you want to be. Its been almost a week and my neighbor has yet to tell me the weed eater is gone. I'll let him sweat it out for a bit before I tell him I grabbed it.

So, there's my story, what's yours???

We had a client/neighbor years back who was doing a lot of the construction on his remodel. He came and borrowed my husbands new nail gun...an expensive one....and left it out in the rain for 3 months. It was ruined. So he brings it back and just shrugs and walked away. Never again.

[AZPam]

The house next door to us is cursed.

First neighbor made a dog run on the side yard of her house next to ours. She totally cemented it in and had a dog door in one of the bedrooms. Wasn't too bad when she only had one dog but then she got another dog, and another, and another and another. All of a sudden there were 5 large dogs using the 5 foot wide space between the house and wall. Still wasn't too bad until she decided she didn't need to clean up after them every few days. We spoke to her about the smell a couple of times and it would get better for a week or so and then she would stop cleaning it up again. Finally had enough of the smell and called the City. They came out and cited and fined her for health hazard because it was so bad. She went totally crazy on us. Thought we were going to have to call the cops. Thankfully, she put her house up for sale about 6 weeks later.

The new neighbors started off okay but then turned creepy. He was a real pervert that just made your skin crawl. Loved to make suggestive comments to our and other neighbors teenage daughters. Caught him peeping over the fence when they would be in the pool too. Then he joined the HOA and turned into the HOA Nazi. Everyone got written up for the slightest thing and he called the cops on my kids if they didn't park the right direction in the street. The worst was listening to them fight non stop. The screaming was amazing and you would think there was a murder going on over there. Thankfully they finally divorced and sold the house.

The current neighbors are fitting in better than anyone before. Only complaint is they don't mow their yard, but I think I can live with that!

[DetroitN8V]

My neighbor brings me too much food.

[bobbyf]

Your stories get me very worried about finding a larger, private property in Phoenix, especially since many of the lots are small and so close together. I'm in the east, so we have a little more privacy and distance, 60 foot setback from the street and 20 feet to the property line on either side and even more in the back.

When we visited last December, we rented a house in Glendale and the neighbor's dog barked every morning at 5 am, no more than 20 feet from where I lay my head. If I had to live there long-term, I would have gone crazy.

[PNWGuy]

Originally Posted by jaredC

Every body has them. I want to hear stories of your bad neighbors. Here's one of mine;

So I purchased a new $199 gas weed eater at Lowes. The very first day I use it in my back yard my neighbor came over to borrow it. Being neighborly, I lent it to him. That evening I noticed my weed eater sitting on a bench in the backyard. No big deal. The next day, there it was again, in the same spot. OK, so now I'm thinking he just suddenly became busy at work, no big deal, I'll just keep checking and say something if he doesn't use it or bring it inside. The following day, there it sat, still on the bench. I'm getting angry because my neighbor doesn't have a backyard fence or a side yard fence except the one he shares with me. I knock on the door and get no reply. I wait till the next day and there it is, on that dang bench. I finally said screw it, climbed the fence and brought it home. It sat outside at my neighbors for 4 days. Taught me a lesson though, don't lend out tools no matter how "neighborly" you want to be. Its been almost a week and my neighbor has yet to tell me the weed eater is gone. I'll let him sweat it out for a bit before I tell him I grabbed it.

So, there's my story, what's yours???

I think a better lesson for you would be that next time when you loan something to someone, you will also ask "when do you expect to return it"? Then expectations are properly set on both sides.

[S. Chris Webb]

Maybe I'm the bad neighbor.

After a few weeks of a neighbor's yappy little dog waking me up with its incessant barking from 5:00 am on, I knocked on their door (scary bed-hair and all) at 5:30 to ask them to do something about it. The barking has since ceased. However, two days after I knocked on their door, a "For Sale" sign appeared in their yard.

[Naturen]

I was going to post but then noticed it was for Phoenix. Bad neighbors are universal!