The Annoyed at the Neighbors post.

This is a post for everyone, so rant about your neighbors.

I live in an undeveloped subdivision. I rent. It's all condos and there is literally 12 people that live on our block. There are no other houses nearby. My block has an HOA which is now starting to get on my nerves after 4 years of living here.

Last year we were told by our upstairs neighbor that the HOA was going to be "watching" us because they thought we had more dogs than the city ordinance allowed.

Then it was that we had a garden in our back yard. That I told the landscapers not to put mulch down in the flower bed where I plant. (not that they remembered to do that the previous two years anyway). The HOA didn't like that.

Today, the HOA president came down to my house. My wife is at home trying to rest getting over the flu, and the pres decides to ring my doorbell a dozen times. So my wife gets up thinking that something horrible has happened and he says that there has been "several" complaints that my garbage cans are sitting outside. That if they are out anymore he is going to send a fine to my land lord.

Now, there is an HOA rule that garbage cans need to be kept in the garage. However my garbage can stunk so bad, that I put it outside the door infront of my truck so no one can see it. I have a yard waste can that sits on the side of my house, but that's technically a garbage can too.

You can't see it unless you drive down the side street that technically no one is supposed to be driving on according to the village. I also have no other buildings on either side of my unit.

The thing that aggravates me the most is that because we don't hang out with the rest of the people on the block, (they all get together a couple nights a week to drink in their driveways) they're shiny happy people to us. We've stopped by a couple times to make our presence known and we've always been nice, but they have not been very friendly and open.

Now for those who would say "It's because your renters", it's not. There are two other sets of renters on the block that hang out with everyone and they all seem to get along great.

My wife and I are looking for a new rental.

Yeah, moving seems easiest. No sense wasting your energy.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: My wife and I are looking for a new rental.

Yep, best solution at this point. The other option is to swallow your pride and join the "clique" and get on the board so you can destroy them from the inside. You can think of it as playing a role, like Burn Notice, etc.

For me, I'd never live in a place with a HOA. They mean well and not all are bad, but so many are run by shiny, shiny people (So shiny!)

As someone who has been there, often, it seems to be a "thing" that groups of people do when they get together with something in common: pick/PICK ON! someone they THINK isn't doing things their way (aka, the RIGHT way). You probably aggravated the situation by appearing to cop a superior attitude when you didn't socialize with your new neighbors.

To make matters worse, you live where there is a HOA, which in this case can be used as a (very HEAVY) club to punish you for being unfriendly. People can be so weird, SOMETIMES?

Is there an open container ordinance I your town? If so next time their drinking in the driveway call it in. Or if you want to get along next time you see them out there carry a couple cases of beer down there.

My last house was in a neighbor hood with out an HOA. The lesbian couple across the street thought they should be the HOA. One day when I was working in my garage they came over and told memo mow my lawn. That it was too long, didn't match the neighbors, I better mow it, etc. I didn't mow the lawn very short during drought conditions and my lawn actually was greener because of it. It was just a little longer than the others. I don't respond well when you cop an attitude to me so I told them I didn't give a rats ass, they could mow it for me if it was such a problem. I didn't mow my own lawn for 3 years. They mowed it for me. 8)

By the way. I have since moved to a house in the middle of five acres and have about 100 square feet of lawn. The rest is trees. If anyone can see the house they are trespassing.

If your rents there is nothing to worry about, the HOA can't evict you, only the owner of the property can.

I share the end of a cul-de-sac with an older couple that really likes to take care of their law. Coincidentally, if I can find my house, I don't give E36 M3 about my lawn. The two yards used to run together and mine always looked like crap while hers looked grand. They put up a picket fence, which suits me fine. Her yard really does look nice, probably the nicest on our street.

When we cam home from the mountains this week there was a crew ripping the grass out of her entire yard. I'm pretty sure she's having it sodded.

you've got the best yard in the area, and now you're sodding?? WTF??!!?? Great way to use less water in the next drought asswipe. It's your money, guys, but don't expect me to bother controlling the weeds in my lawn to save yours.

Luckily, there's no HOA and if there were, I wouldn't be here.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

Dealing with HOA's must really suck; fortunately, I've never had to deal with one.

That said, it seems you've been pushing their envelope since you lived there. It's hard to tell, but your responses may not have evoked any sympathy from your neighbors; if anything, they may have been more stoked to keep vigil on your activities.

Sometimes the key to having good neighbors is to be a good neighbor yourself. If you can't make this happen, move and avoid communities with an HOA. Even then, you may not get the results you want if you don't make an effort to make yourself an appreciated neighbor.

Just a humble opinion that may not be worth $.02..........

so, you admit that you're violating the rules, and you're irritated that they're giving you hassle about it? sounds like you should clean out the stinky can and put it back in the garage, and move the yard waste can to the back yard or in the garage as well.

i really sympathize for those of you with overzealous HOA people but this doesn't sound like one. some HOAs have a rule that you can't grow produce where it is visible from the street, might check and see if yours does.

unfortunately, being a renter doesn't make you exempt from HOA rules, and does nothing but make you the bad tenant to your landlord when he's getting complaints and fines because of you.

I live on 50 acres... No neighbors now. LOL

I did have a neighbor when we first moved to Texas who thought it was cool to stand outside and watch us. He'd just stand there and watch us for HOURS and hours. We'd be playing outside, or working on cars, or hanging out when the sun went down. I was a damn good kid. Never caused any trouble. He just thought that we were up to no good. He even went as far as to write the local paper about how "Horrible" we were. I wrote a letter back describing in detail what he did and what all we did. We were high school kids, we were really just hanging out. The letters I got in for the next few months were awesome. LOL

In reply to Strizzo:

I haven't been pushing it. I asked my landlord if there were any rules against a vegetable garden, she said no and on that same note, the HOA pres has his own vegetable garden, it's just in a nice box on the side of his yard, mine is in the flower bed on the back of my house.

The dog issue is something they came up with on their own. I have 3 dogs, there is nothing in the rules about limit of pets. Village Ordinance is 3 dog limit.

My wife and I have been very nice to these people. We have made an effort to socialize and they are very uninviting. We have never had a problem until recently. It seems like in the last year there have been issues that have come about that nobody seems to want to directly confront me about and I have to hear third party. If nobody wants to directly confront me, not my problem.

I don't complain when his grandson leaves the street littered with toys and bicycles. I don't complain when his Boxer gets out and stands and bark at my back door for hours driving my dogs nuts and I can't catch it because it's skittish and he just tells me "oh well".

I left my can outside for 2 days.

When the boxer comes around, start dropping laxatives wrapped in bacon out the mail slot. Maybe then the owner will keep better tabs on the poor thing.

I try to keep my place looking nice. I don't do a great job, but the place doesn't look like a dump either. Fortunately, most of our neighbors, everyone in our little subdivision really, does the same. Of course, we're all on acre to acre-and-a-half lots. Put houses on 1/4-acre lots (or God forbid smaller) then it gets a little touchier. The Golden Rule is all you really need in these situations. If my neighbor ever asked me to remedy a stinky or unsightly problem on my property, I'd be pretty damn apologetic and fix it right away.

That said, I'm sure that a HOA can be a royal pain in the ass if they choose to be.

You can't pick your neighbors or your inlaws, you can shoot 'em but ya just can't pick 'em.

In reply to 1988RedT2:

That's kind of what happens here I help out my neighbors upstairs and across the street.

My HOA pres could have left a note, sent a letter, flagged me down on my way in and out of the subdivision (he's always outside) but instead comes down to my house in the middle of the day, rings the door bell numerous times, wakes up my wife, and then proceeds to harass her about the cans and threatens the fines to my land lord.

There could have been better ways of approaching this.

When I first moved in to my new house back in '03 there was this old guy who would cruise around really slowly in a big black caddy and look in on everyone. It is a quiet neighborhood and I live at the end of a cul de sac with 5 acres of lot... so it is a bit odd to have someone sitting at the end of the driveway looking at you that wasn't going to come in and say hello. There is no other reason to be there than to see me.

OK, so, after a couple days of this I notice that the mulch bed at the end of the driveway is full of butts. Next time he is up there I go and introduce myself... to the guy... parked at the end of my driveway smoking... and littering... and he proceeds to tell me that the germans killed a lot of jews and my purchasing german cars is helping them pay off the war debt. Seriously. So I politely told him that I was about to kill one myself if he dropped one more butt out that window. He died not too long after. It wasn't me.

We had a rash of migrants from the big city who sought a better life where the taxes were low and the schools were constantly top notch. However, when the house next door was sold to a family with too much time on their hands, they started trouble. Found my empty gas cans in a dumpster 4 blocks away (my name was on them and the store owner knew me...small town) and the son was a prime suspect, but couldn't confirm as many gas cans disappeared while Katrina refugees roamed the area. I did make sure my regular gas was well put up and a nice 5 gallon with 1/2 gas, 1/4 diesel and 1/4 used motor oil was prominent. He wrecked his car so I never confirmed stuff.

Wife badgered the city council into looking at a lot of ordinances and such to make life better and managed to pass a few, but it tripled our property tax.

She came after me personally after we fought back and got her over ruled on some of her plans. Fence issues, chainsaw usage, too many cars!!??, mowing during a weekday, allowing wildlife to pass onto her property, constant complaints about how I was lowering property values with my yard which is basically a well maintained pasture (3 acres on the edge of town with woods for the next 7 miles), running my chipper, fireplace issues, firewood issues....she reported me for everything. Finally had a hearing with the city council where she just went ballistic about how I was ruining her property value as I am the only house near her so I was costing her a great deal of money.

City council fell apart when I went down the list of things she wanted me to "comply" with to increase her property value when I simply stated "You want me to do a big list of stuff to increase the value of your house...sounds like you are offering me a job and I am willing to discuss how much you should pay me to do this work." She sold her house in the middle of the crash and moved to the other side of town into a mini-mansion subdivision with the other squawkers with a big fence and gated entrance and "civilized" rules!

Love my new neighbor...his kid came over and helped me build a couple of gokarts that we promptly broke racing around the pond...then we fixed them and his dad and mom rode around until they wrecked a few times. First ladies kid is in Kentucky because of warrants, unpaid bills and the repo man hunting his Maxima. Current neighbor kid visited from the Navy 3 weeks ago and helped me load a trailer of scrap metal.

Bruce

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

i was only referring to the cans, not the dogs as you said "they thought..." implying that you didn't, they were just being a pain.

if i left my trash cans out for two days at my townhouse, i wouldn't be suprised at someone saying something. you said you left your trash can out for two days, but then also said that you leave a yard waste can on the side of the house, and that its technically still a trash can as well. how long has that been there?

i'm not trying to be a dick, just trying to see the issue from both sides. i know most people here assume that all HOAs are run by neighborhood nazis, but they do actually serve a purpose to protect all owners property values. also remember that it works both ways, and you can complain just the same about your neighbors dogs or trash cans, or kids toys if it bothers you. no need to suffer silently.

In reply to Strizzo:

To be honest, the yard waste can has been outside for almost 2 years and it has been out of sight from the other houses. In don't know why now it has become a problem and not two years ago. Its just gonna go in the garage with the other two. I just left my other can outside to air out, I had planned to bring it back in tonight.

Gardens, garbage cans, and dogs? It sounds like people where you live don't have enough to do, and don't know how to mind their own business.

Neighbor behind me is really starting to get on my nerves. Last year his boys was pulling pranks throughout the neighborhood, trees tp's and such. My house which has the quick getaway to theirs, they used to leave things in front of my door, like a fork sticking up to step on. Last straw for that was when they lit something on fire in front of my door, rang the bell and ran. Found out just before they did that they went into someone down the streets house that was redoing floors and urinated on the bare subfloor. Now they have built chicken coops right behind my property barely on their property. When I first saw it a couple months ago all it was was a small coop and a couple exotic chickens. Figured if it kept the boys out of trouble then fine. But it has grown to 2 coops about 10X12 each and around 2 dozen chickens. They are raising chickens, they have a heat lamp going all the time that I can see. They built it at night, which was irratating enough. Rooster crows day and night. But the worst for me is the smell, I can't open my window without smelling chicken poop. Can't go in my backyard without smelling it and sometimes can smell it in the front yard. If I wanted to smell and hear chickens I'd have moved to a chicken farm. We are within City limits but on the edge of town. Next week I'm going to city hall to check ordinance for chickens within city limits and file a complaint, if possible. They have been the scorn of the neighborhood since they moved in, between the boys getting into everything and daddy playing loud music outside that you can hear better down the street than up close and now these chickens. Last straw for me. I like the privacy that my wooded 1.2 acres gets me but now it just doesn't seem to have it.

In reply to wlkelley3:

Accidentally drop a 'coon in the chicken coop.

93EXCivic wrote: In reply to wlkelley3: Accidentally drop a 'coon in the chicken coop.

Or a Molotov cocktail. Everyone likes roast chicken.

I had a feud with a neighbor and an HOA in a house I was renting. The short version of the story is that I became very aggravating and the neighbor moved. Somebody new moved in and the feud with the HOA disappeared as well.

Some people just have too much time on their hands, have borderline obsessive compulsive disorder or want everyone to conform to their interpretation of the rules.

I'll never live somewhere with an HOA again. If somebody manages to bring an HOA into a neighborhood where I already own property, I'll move and then set up property in the HOA area as a halfway house.