Although people can choose where to live, they can’t necessarily choose who will be living next to them. All one can do is hope that whoever their neighbor is, they don’t turn out to be a problem. More often than not, agreeable neighbors are a rarity. Here are some stories about nightmare neighbors that prove “loving thy neighbor” is sometimes impossible.
1. Leaping Lizards
I had a neighbor who was a pet hoarder. Her yard was messy, and incredibly, she kept a massive pile of animal waste in a garden shed near her property, right next to our patio. We were always curious about what was happening there. Then, one day we found a disturbing flyer in our mailbox.
It said, “Missing male iguana. It is aggressive and can bite. Please don't try to approach.”
In just a few days, the animal control team came with a bunch of trucks and vans. They entered the house and rescued hundreds of animals. All of them were unwell or hurt. There were unusual birds, lizards, cats, dogs—you name it, it was quite hectic.
2. Serial Psycho
I once had a middle-aged neighbor who dwelled in a rundown little house─ the sort you'd think a horror film character would inhabit. Often, he'd be out shouting incoherent ramblings into the night, going on these livid tirades at the most ungodly hours like 1 am.
He once aggressively pounded on my front door, making threats against my dog for barking, all while said dog was snug inside with me and our neighborhood was dead silent.
He was notorious for accusing folks left and right of pilfering his mail, and he'd frequently stick cardboard up on his van's windows. Dealing with him was like being perpetually under suspicion, making all of us anxious to get caught outside by him.
Then, things took a scary turn. He randomly arrived at my doorstep armed with a hammer, prompting me to ring the cops and request a restraining order.
Fast forward to a month after, when I heard odd sounds emanating from my attic. Believing squirrels had invaded again, I rang up our local pest control. But the look of sheer terror on their faces after checking it out told me something was amiss.
They simply mentioned, “Can't handle what’s up there, it's a job for the police.” I dialed the authorities and they soon emerged from the attic with that crazy neighbor of mine. The encounter left me nearly incapacitated with fear.
In the rare moments when he'd crack a smile, there was always an unmistakable fury concealed in his eyes. I can't say how relieved I was when he eventually moved away.
3. I Made A Ritual Our Of Getting Revenge
My neighbors are highly religious. They would routinely display posters for the nearby church camp on their land. They had this annoying habit of placing our trash bins in our driveway. As frustrating as it was, their actions started becoming increasingly aggressive.
They even began infringing on my property and causing damage to my home. However, I couldn't ever catch them red-handed. So, I took the only logical step that I could think of.
In my plush ritual robe, I made a spectacle of setting up a salt circle around my house, reciting chants and generally making a fuss. They haven't given me any trouble since then.
4. She Was Doggone Crazy
We owned a large, securely fenced garden. Our dog, a typical Lab-size, wasn't at all aggressive or noisy. Despite her mild nature, our next-door neighbors, particularly the wife, believed her to be a menace. They kept reporting us and our supposedly vicious dog to the authorities.
The authorities paid us a visit, met our unassuming dog, and listened to our assurances that she was confined to our garden. All they asked was for us to ensure she remained within our boundaries.
Even after their visit, the neighbor lodged two more complaints about our dog. Fortunately, the authorities realized her claims were outlandish and discussed this with her. However, she then took her grievance to the next level.
Our dog started falling ill frequently, displaying serious symptoms of sickness. We brought her to the vet, who advised us against feeding our dog any potentially harmful human food.
This advice left us puzzled as we had never done that. Back at home, we resolved to watch our dog more closely. We discovered to our horror that our neighbor was dumping hazardous items like leftover food and dirty mop water over the fencing.
When confronted, she denied the accusations. However, we managed to capture her actions on video, and we ensured she saw us recording her. That night, her husband came over, apologized profusely, and pleaded with us not to involve the authorities.
He gave us his assurance that our dog would no longer be harassed. We chose to let it go, but warned that if our dog was harmed again, we wouldn't hesitate to press charges.
Thankfully, our dog was finally left alone, but the neighbor maintained her nuisance behavior. So she decided to switch tactics—and that pushed me over the edge. She started tampering with our garden. More than once, she clambered over the fencing to destroy our hedges, young trees, and even tore out flowers recently planted in our flower bed.
Once again, we sought out her more reasonable husband for a conversation and warned him in the same way we did about our dog before.
This whole situation was unbelievable.
5. Their Antics Pooped Me Out
After saying goodbye to my folks' place, I settled into an apartment with neighbors who were extreme clutterbugs. Roughly two months in, creepy crawlies like cockroaches started to infest our apartment, followed by mice, and then, to our horror, rats.
Around once a month, we'd find ourselves dialing for emergency help as we'd often find them unconscious in the parking area, in front of their door, or on the staircase.
One day they came knocking with a startling accusation. They accused us of constantly calling the cops. They then berated us, saying they didn't have insurance and were forced to resort to multiple cash advances to handle the ambulance fees. When "someone" decided to leave a mess on our doormat, we had reached our limit.
Finally, we decided to break our lease and pack our bags.
6. Cat Napping Nitwit
I used to live right beside a boys' foster home. Because my mom was allergic to our pet cats, we had them live outside. It became my routine to step into the morning sun, call out to them, give them breakfast, and play around with them a bit before I left for school.
This was the norm for around half a year or so until one day, one of our cats didn't respond to her name. At first, I didn't worry, assuming she was off on a cat adventure. That weekend, I was off studying at my aunt's house with my cousin. Despite returning home without hearing from her, I tried to stay positive.
Nonetheless, I started scouting the neighborhood, calling her name and asking anyone if they'd seen her—but all in vain. Around the same time, our other cat began having seizures and was noticeably sluggish.
We decided it would be best to keep her indoors so we could monitor her closely. Two weeks passed, and it dawned on me that our missing cat might now be living with a new owner or had met an unfortunate end.
Out of the blue, we hear a knock on our door. My dad opens the door and his jaw just drops. A young boy from the foster home was holding a bag, our missing cat inside, claiming he found her in their hedges.
He had a suspicion that a particular new kid, who he implied was "off-balance," was involved with this. My dad decided to speak to the person running the foster home after recalling someone had odd behavior around our house—someone had even tossed a fish over our fence recently.
It turns out, this foster child had been causing problems, and had a history of poisoning pets. Regrettably, our other cat didn't pull through either.
7. What A Bunch Of Bull
I grew up on a farm, and we had this neighbor who was a total pain. He'd sneak off with our sheep. Sometimes, he'd sheared them, selling the wool, and then sending them back (although we suspected he was eating some of them too). He had the nerve to insist that we pay for repairing our shared fence, refusing to chip in on the expenses.
Not only that, but he also allowed a stranger's bull to wander onto his property and used it to mate with his cattle for two years. When the bull's owner finally found it, our neighbor had the audacity to demand the cost of looking after it before he'd return it.
His audacious antics didn't end there. He owned a house on his land, which he rented out to his hired farmhand. This worker discovered him rummaging through his personal belongings one day, and then was told he wasn't permitted to leave the property while he was in his employ.
As you can probably imagine, it didn't take long for the poor farmhand to quit on the spot and seek employment with us instead.
8. Doo Not Use Our Lawn
So, my neighbors had a pair of dogs that they let roam outside twice a day. The dogs weren't exactly a nuisance—they were pretty friendly and didn't make much noise. However, they always ended up doing their business on our grass.
We've even caught our neighbors coaxing their pets to use our yard instead of their own. After enough of this, I reached for my trusty garden digger and shovelled all of those dog droppings back onto their own yard.
The worst part? They pretended as if everything was perfectly fine.
9. The Show Must Go On
During my college days, I had some neighbors who had a peculiar habit. Whenever they held a party, an old-fashioned tube TV would invariably be tossed out just from a window or balcony. It's not your sleek flat-screen TVs, but the hefty, vintage tube ones. Imagine this—it would descend with a thud and burst into pieces.
The sound it made was akin to a car collision. Within one semester, alone, this bizarre scene occurred as many as four times.
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10. She Was Fast And Furious
For about three years, we lived next to these neighbors without any major issues, even though we noticed some strange patterns. The husband was a bit of a recluse but I got along well with the wife and absolutely cherished their daughter.
One evening, the couple got involved in a nasty altercation right in their front yard, with the husband going as far as smashing his wife's head into a porch post made of brick.
The military police arrived, along with the firefighters—it was a full-scale emergency response. Our entire street was illuminated with the flashing lights from the emergency vehicles, and both husband and wife were taken away.
As soon as I realized what was happening, I immediately secured my home by shutting the blinds and locking all the doors. But that wasn't the end of it – the drama continued a few weeks later, once they both got out from wherever they were held.
We were out of town when we received a distressing call from a coworker to check on our safety. It turned out that the wife had come back and yet another argument ensued between the couple. She got into her car, rammed into their shared home, reversed out, and engaged the military police in a high-speed chase within the neighborhood.
She scraped a police car while making a turn onto a road that led to a base gate. The authorities attempted to seal the area by raising barriers, but she showed no signs of slowing down. Such an intense and chaotic situation was a first for me.
11. She Annoyed The Living Daylights Out Of Me
Some folks act as if they're singlehandedly preventing society from falling apart. Six years ago, I had a downstairs neighbor who thought she was this type of person. She came off as distant, a little paranoid, and tended to imagine dangers around every corner, which made her self-image as a makeshift secret agent even more frustrating.
This neighbor constantly tried to push me out of my apartment building. She'd put on a show with rowdy phone conversations with her imaginary "headquarters," discussing the scandalous actions of us residents, like how I’d dare get home after 9 PM. She also often scolded those who would smoke on the corner.
One day, I overheard her arguing about a flowerpot placement in a window – something she saw as a surefire sign of drug dealing. Another day, a pathetically forged FBI document appeared on the bulletin board in our building.
Lousy grammar, shockingly bad use of Photoshop and no official contact details whatsoever were qualities that screamed fake. However, since her aim was obviously to intimidate, I decided to give her a taste of her own medicine. Using her dramatic phone call stratagem, I stood outside her apartment conducting a phony conversation.
"You won't believe this notice; it's laughable. Yeah, they apparently didn't know pretending to be a federal officer is illegal! Anyway, the actual FBI are en route, ready to find some fingerprints. Whoever created this notice is in for a hefty prison sentence!"
After this performance, I retreated to my apartment. Seconds later, I heard my neighbor's door swing open and the sound of frantic footsteps headed toward the staircase, followed by a hasty return. Upon investigation five minutes later, the faux document was long gone.
I've since moved from that building, but for the rest of my stay, that woman left me alone.
12. I Doubted Mr. Fire Was Sane
The first time I lived alone, I stayed in a tiny complex mainly populated with elderly folks. One day, on my way to catch a bus to class, I spotted a garbage bin smoldering outside our building. It wasn't ablaze, but it was burning a hole through itself, with melting plastic surrounding the scorched area.
The spring had been unusually dry, so there was a genuine fear of a potential fire. My former partner bolted inside and brought the apartment supervisor. Once she emerged with the maintenance guy, who promptly disposed of the bin, she hollered at my neighbor's window, "HEY! What's going on?"
Surprisingly, our neighbor, an elderly man suffering from early-stage dementia who lived across the hall, was behind the fiasco. We couldn't believe what he was up to—he had been frying a steak in his home.
When the steak caught fire, he panicked and tossed the burning pan into the bin. When the bin started to melt, he decided to chuck it out of his window into a garden swarming with wooden chip mulch. Hence, we christened him as Mr. Fire. He was infamous for shooting me dirty looks and grumbling when I was out and about.
He detested my cat and consistently presumed I was a smoker, often saying, "These youngsters with their cigarettes. Make sure not to smoke around here. Your neighbor needs oxygen to breathe, and she can pick up the scent."
Eventually, he was taken to a retirement home after he flooded the laundry room by flushing his adult diapers down the toilet, causing a pipe to burst.
13. This Baby Is Crying No More
There was this neighbor I had who seemed to have a revolving door of guests every weekend. It wasn't unusual to catch the distinct sounds of romantic escapades frequently interrupted by bouts of mirth. That was all bearable until he decided that playing loud German techno music at the crack of dawn was a great idea.
Needless to say, that was the last straw. I tried to discuss the situation with him, but he basically brushed me off. So I decided it was time to take things into my own hands to seek retribution.
The next time he blasted his music in the middle of the night, I went and found a video of babies crying out loudly. I cranked the volume all the way up on my speaker, positioning it right against our shared wall. I think it goes without speaking, that brought an end to our saga.
14. No Field Of Dreams
In my childhood neighborhood, there was a house that had newly changed hands. A seemingly friendly family moved in—a couple and their two young children. Despite their kids being a bit of a nuisance, we older kids on the block tolerated them due to their tender ages—six and nine.
Unexpectedly, the young ones began hurling insults and objects our way. To avoid any trouble, we just distanced ourselves from this somewhat eccentric family. Still, the kids told their mom we were being rude to them. Reacting to this, the mom took to cycling around the street, airing out our supposed wrongdoings to our parents.
Despite her claims, our parents weren't convinced and often suggested she move along. The situation was escalating far beyond what we could've predicted.
There was an empty lot on our street, our chosen spot for digging tunnels and setting up paintball arenas. But we'd wake up each morning to find our constructions ruined. On closer examination, we discovered amateurish traps and other odd sights around the lot, including boards with nails under my neighbor's car tires.
We were pretty sure that the mom was sending her kids on clandestine missions to exact revenge on us and our parents. This vexing and untraceable destruction continued on for about a year before finally coming to an end when the family moved away. After their departure, tranquility was restored, and life returned to normal.
15. Fenced In
Back when I was younger, our nextdoor neighbor constructed a huge deck on his home that crossed over into our property—it was so big it intruded over our fence! We finally decided to report this to the city authorities who compelled him to reduce its size.
We had a family gathering to attend shortly after, and upon our return, the neighbor had hung up a cheeky sign on his fence glaring at us. Its message had me heated: "Peekaboo, I see you." We were astonished to see several security cameras on his property, all pointed towards our home.
After that incident, we kept our distance from him until my parents went their separate ways and let go of the house.
16. Dream House Drama
Around the same time we built our dream house, our next-door neighbors built theirs. Initially, everything was fine. However, tensions began escalating over a fence issue. They wanted the fence panels facing their side; that was fine with us since the support beams on our side made great climbing grips for my siblings and me.
But then, they wanted a pricier fence. We had some money left over from the house construction, so we agreed to this, too. The next demand, though, was a bridge too far. They asked for the fence to be moved slightly onto our land. We put our foot down and refused. Their response was far from pleasant.
Petty acts ensued, like tossing pebbles over the fence while we were in the garden, or the neighbor's wife tapping on the fence then denying it was her.
Things seriously escalated when she started yelling at us. We had to wait for the garage door to completely close before leaving the car after school, else risk her yelling and waving of broom or rake from our front yard.
She was unstable, to say the least. She even attempted to drill a hole in the fence to spy on us. Sadly, we had to vacate our dream home soon enough, trying to escape the escalating hostility.
17. She Was Loaded With Problems
Once upon a time, I was really close with the girl who lived next door, from being ten years old up until the start of high school. She came from a home where her parents had a serious problem with alcohol, so more than anything, I felt a lot of sympathy for her.
One day, my younger brother, who is autistic and has difficulty with speech, accompanied me to her backyard. Unfortunately, he lost his footing and bumped into their rear patio door. This was a colossal blunder.
Her mom, tired from always drinking, was awoken from her daily nap by the noise and came storming out, and when my brother didn't react to her yelling, she reacted horribly. She ended up burning him on his arm with the cigarette she was smoking.
18. Karma’s A B—oxer
Our next-door neighbor, who owns two dogs—a boxer and a rottweiler—has a tiny backyard. Despite their energetic nature, she rarely finds the time to walk them, so they aren't used to being around others. This lack of socialization causes quite a racket every time someone or another dog passes by.
They aggressively jump and paw at our shared wooden fence that divides our properties. This relentless behavior meant we had to replace the fence every year.
My parents were the ones to bear the costs each time because our neighbor didn't want to share the expenses. Moreover, my dad preferred to avoid conflict. There's a towering tree in her backyard that we asked her to trim regularly.
We feared that a severe blow of wind might cause the branches to drop and damage nearby houses or hurt pedestrians.She never took heed of our warnings. Karma, however, had its own way of teaching her a lesson. One particularly breezy day, a massive branch from the tree broke off and unfortunately landed on her boxer.
19. Just Pivot
On a certain day, as I was heading out for work, my neighbors had gathered out front. I secured my front door and started moving towards my car. But all of a sudden, a couch came crashing down in the parking lot right ahead of me. My neighbors had concluded that hauling their couch down the stairs was simply too taxing.
Since they planned to get rid of it anyway, they thought it best to toss it over the balcony; unfortunately, they didn't consider alerting anyone standing below.
20. Where The Grass Was Not Always Greener
Our neighbor was the epitome of a clutter-collector. His front and back porches were literally jammed with stuff, so much so, even the door could not budge open. His grass always resembled a miniature forest as he never cut it.
After years of the city letting his lawn care slide, the neighbors to his left and right felt the need to take over the mowing duties of his front yard. There was one problem, though—his backyard was off-limits though, thanks to his two big dogs who took commands only in Polish.
The backyard which suffered from wild, tall grass and excess junk was a hotspot for mosquitos. They clustered near the fence especially after it rained, making it impossible to enjoy our beautiful shade garden.
There was this one time he was secretly using our water supply and we noticed a spike in our bill. We also had reasons to believe he was living without electricity.
21. Not So Fragrant Feline
Once upon a time, a lady lived just above me on the third floor. The presence of her cat was unmistakably noticeable throughout the building—you could smell what had to be cat urine everywhere. It often infiltrated my own apartment, causing me much discomfort.
Every time I bumped into her in the hallway, I literally had to hold my breath—the smell was just too overpowering! For two long years, I endured this malodor, lodging frequent complaints with the property management.
Unable to bear it any longer, I decided to involve animal control. What they discovered was genuinely nightmarish—she was sheltering a whopping 30 cats in her tiny apartment! It wasn't long before the cats were relocated for their own welfare, and the lady was given the boot from the building.
22. No Pets Allowed
I used to reside in a flat that had a firm 'no pets' policy, unless they were service animals. A woman moved in and misled everyone, claiming her dog was a service animal. In reality, this dog was anything but a trained dog, lacking rudimentary obedience skills.
Moreover, she allowed it to roam freely all day in the communal, closed courtyard. She seldom picked up after it, leading to a situation where the dog, desperate for attention, began chasing and bothering everyone.
Despite numerous complaints against her, she managed to avoid consequences by repeatedly insisting that her dog was a service animal. The final straw came after she brought home a second dog, allowing it to run wild and create an unsanitary environment. She was eventually evicted due to these ongoing issues.
When she moved out, it was discovered that she had a hoarding problem. Among other things, her apartment was filled to the brim with all sorts of garbage, including bags of clothing she had been secretly taking from charity donation bins at night.
23. Living Next To These Guys Was Ruff
I used to live in this apartment where peace was a given. I was a good tenant: always paid my rent promptly, didn’t damage anything, and was friendly with everyone. Everything changed when a new couple moved in, along with their dog.
The girlfriend wasn't keen on playing or walking the dog, so she'd leave the poor thing out on their balcony the whole day. As a result, it barked incessantly, and this racket continued for around two months.
The city I lived in did have a noise ordinance, but nobody seemed bothered to enforce it. The property manager reassured me, saying, "we've had a chat with them, and the dog isn't really out during the day as much."
At my wits' end, I decided to take matters into my own hands and reached out to the property owner. I explained the situation, detailing my longstanding reliable history and concerns over the new neighbors' dog.
I expressed that the unbearable smell from the dog's waste left me unable to relax on my own balcony. He heard me out and instructed the property manager to either evict the couple or relocate them somewhere else.
But before they left, the guy got drunk and assaulted his girlfriend. I intervened and called the police. They arrested him, and eventually, the couple moved out.
24. This Guy Needed To Get Cleaned Out
There was a notorious guy on my floor; he was not well-liked in the community. The irony was that he lived with his mom, who worked as our building's janitor. She brewed moonshine in their bathtub, which didn't sit well with the other residents--the smell often seeped into their units.
Her son developed a taste for this moonshine at an early age and became a troublemaker by his teenage years. Before long, he dabbled in stronger substances and began mistreating his mom to get his hands on her meager janitorial pay.
He once pushed her to the point of near unconsciousness, but still, she wouldn't report him or throw him out. But this wasn't the end of his shenanigans. He even broke into a neighbor's apartment once, leading to a two-week jail stint. He was known to vandalize the building walls and often urinated around it indiscriminately.
His reckless actions caused significant water damage to the apartments below. His living standards got so terrible that the flat had to undergo a complete overhaul for the next occupants.
In the end, they couldn't keep up with their bills and had to downsize to a smaller place somewhere else in town.
25. These Guys Belonged On Jerry Springer
When I made the choice to leave behind the bustling city for quieter, smaller town living, I stumbled upon a fantastic deal for a lovely home and I snapped it up immediately. For the most part, I had fantastic neighbors who were very friendly. However, there was one pair of neighbors that were an absolute nightmare.
Their yard was filled to the brim with assorted items, including a large above-ground pool and an array of children's toys. The lady of the house had a distinct appearance, with no teeth and a unique build, while her partner seemed like a small, downtrodden man. I'd often hear her shouting obscenities at him throughout the day.
Sometimes, I'd see him escaping her, sitting in his truck at the park for hours. Two weeks after I moved in, I witnessed her arrest and him bleeding from the scalp.
She had apparently swung a lawnmower part at him. In a surprising turn of events, he asked everyone for bail money to free her. They even asked the neighbors for water to fill their giant pool.
When we all refused, they covered their water bill to get the water reconnected, only to fill their pool. Afterwards, they let their water supply get cut off again for about nine months, using the pool water for flushing the toilet.
This became an annual occurrence. The neighbor residing beside me caught wind of their antics when he found out they were stealthily drawing water from his house. They thoroughly rigged a hidden hose to his main water supply underneath his house.
They used similar tactics for stealing electricity and even cable. Eventually, the cable company had to dig up my yard in order to locate their underground cable connections.
One day, as I was relaxing in my own pool, I was startled by the sound of glass breaking and the woman's shouting. She had taken to throwing their kitchen equipment, even the cabinets and counter, out onto the lawn, causing her partner injury.
On another occasion, she was spotted stealing Christmas decorations from other yards and displaying them at her own home. Police officers arrived soon after.
She attempted to attack an officer with an oversized plastic candy cane and got a face of pepper spray for her efforts. Living next to them was like being in a constant reality TV show episode.
Pxfuel
26. Tossed Out With Their Trash
Our living arrangement was similar to a mansion, only divided into three apartments, with my family calling the ground floor home. Perched above us was a bustling family of six—mom, dad, and four young daughters ranging in age from four to 13.
The crack of dawn always boasted their noisy game of stomping elephant feet, their method to rouse each other and get ready for school.
However, more often than not, the girls would resolutely resist heading out to school. They'd belt out screams loud enough to deter their parents from dispatching them to school. Since we occupied the ground floor, we were the caretakers of the backyard. The others couldn't have cared less about it.
The routine included them haphazardly tossing litter and assorted items from their balcony into our backyard, a visual eyesore they never cared to tidy up. The daily chore of maintaining a clean yard for our two dogs and outdoor cat was on us, turning our living situation into a bit of a nightmare.
Eventually, the landlord had enough and evicted them. The shocking state he found their apartment in solidified his decision. The apartment looked more akin to a dumping ground for soda bottles with foul-smelling mold taking over multiple rooms.
27. Garden Grump
I moved in, expecting to live in a student dorm. Instead, it was a regular house which had been altered to create private rooms with a shared kitchen, and the like. I ended up sharing kitchen and bathroom space with two others staying downstairs, while around eight more lived upstairs.
Living above me was a weird pair: a man, looking like he was in his mid-forties or fifties, sporting a handlebar mustache and long black hair, and an elderly woman in her seventies who I initially thought was his mom but turned out to be his partner.
The woman had mobility issues and frequently relaxed outside, smoking and watching the world pass by. Not long after settling in, I started to face unexpected troubles. I had tidied up the garden after moving in, hoping to enjoy it when the weather was nice.
But soon, cigarette butts and pieces of trash began appearing, presumably tossed from one of the several balconies overlooking it. One day, as I was studying, I heard a noise in the yard. I found a full garbage bag near the door, clearly tossed from the balcony directly above mine.
I tried to confront my neighbors about it, but they seemed indifferent. So, I threw the bag back onto their balcony. That got their attention, but instead of apologizing, they argued that I wasn’t using the garden, so why couldn't they dump their trash there?
I warned them that if they kept it up, I'd call the authorities. As soon as he heard that, the man backed off. Fast forward a few days, I decided to host some friends for casual chat and video games. At around 9 pm, there was a loud banging coming from the ceiling.
They were trying to shut us up after 9 pm, which seemed unreasonable to me, but I was open to discussion. Unfortunately, attempts to discuss the issue were met with more persistent banging noises.
About a week later, I was reading in the peace of my room when I heard a sound in the garden. Upon inspection, I found a half-eaten roast chicken thrown from the balcony. I tried to confront the man again, but he simply ignored me.
Finally, I threw his chicken back onto his balcony, leading to another heated discussion. According to him, it wasn't trash, but food for neighborhood cats.
I tried to explain the issues with drawing stray cats and other animals to my clean yard, suggesting he adopt a cat or volunteer at an animal shelter instead. Instead, he called the authorities. And then, one day, I came home and found a chicken loose in my yard.
The man admitted to keeping chickens in my garden citing lack of balcony space. Fed up, I threatened to cook the chicken if he didn't immediately remove it. This finally seemed to get through to him, and he stopped throwing things onto my property.
Eventually, the elderly lady fell ill and they stopped paying rent. They were evicted to reveal an apartment resembling a scene from the TV show "Hoarders." Cleaners found piles of trash reaching the ceilings, including phone books dating back more than three decades.
It took them two weeks to clean it all out, turning my tumultuous stay in the student house into a memory.
28. Time To Blow This Joint
When I was younger, our neighbors had teenage kids. The girl frequently had different guys over multiple times a week. They were so noisy that my parents once alerted the police because they were concerned for her safety, but it was a false alarm.
Her brother was a successful dealer of illegal items and often had people waiting in their driveway to buy from him. Their folks were completely oblivious and boasted about his apparent success in a "construction job" as he'd gifted them a new car and a boat.
The girl was supposed to babysit me once—but she had other plans. She left after an hour, and her brother took over babysitting duties, and I enlisted him to help me sort all of my stuffed toys.
I can't recall if he was under the influence, but he certainly did a thorough job of arranging my toys. We moved out of that locality as soon as drive-by incidents became more common.
29. Double Headaches In That Dump
My initial apartment was quite shabby, nestled in a sketchy setup. I had two pretty tough neighbors. The first one was a lady upstairs. She let her tiny dog use her balcony as a bathroom, which resulted in an unbearable smell, making our usage of the back door in summers nearly impossible.
In addition to this, she constantly smoked weed and asked me for some cash on various occasions. When she vacated, the apartment had to undergo a major cleanup, including carpet replacement and deep cleaning. The other neighbor who lived a few units away wasn't any better.
One evening, through my window, I could overhear him arguing with his girlfriend. Initially, my girlfriend and I couldn't help but listen in until we heard a loud slap. Promptly, I dialed law enforcement, and consequently, he ended up in jail.
30. They Caused Havoc At The HOA
My mom's Homeowners Association (HOA) for our small community of 41 houses was pretty colorful. After about a decade there, my mom decided to step up, run for the board and work towards improving the community. She won the presidency.
Among the community's residents, there was this older family; a husband, wife, and their middle-aged daughter, who were infamous for their bossy attitudes and abrasive behavior.
The wife, who wasn't even an HOA board member, thought it was her right to control how the community funds were utilized. She believed she could simply create rules for the community as she pleased.
As with most HOAs, we had certain standards for the appearance of the houses, including colors, decor, yard protocol etc. This family, however, had their own rules. They stole water from their neighbors, installed artificial flowers, and added unauthorized decor.
They got caught tampering with the water supply, retaliated by vandalizing it, and accused their neighbors whom they were stealing from. This family's toxic behavior extended to verbal and written harassment of their neighbors, the HOA board, and the entire community. Their yard was usually filled with garbage, and they planted aggressive, non-approved plant species.
Shockingly, they hadn't made a single payment towards their HOA dues and owed around $7,000 in fees and penalties. When their actions came to light, they were barred from all meetings, which they didn’t take very well.
In response, the wife started tormenting my mom, who was now the president of the HOA board. She even served my mom with a fake legal notice. When our panic subsided and I investigated, the lawsuit was indeed real, but it was against the wife filed by her ex-neighbors from her previous residence.
She had cunningly edited the original document to implicate my mom instead, complete with a replicated signature of the lawyer. As expected, the law firm was entirely disturbed when we informed them about the woman's underhanded actions.
31. Snatched
We previously owned a beautiful Pitbull/Boxer mix who was taken from our backyard by our neighbors and given to a local pit bull shelter. We searched high and low for our dog, day and night, for several weeks.
Just when we were losing hope, my mom decided to check local pet adoption ads and surprisingly, she found our dog! The shelter she had been taken to was just a block away from our home.
They told us it was our neighbors who had dropped her off there. Even though we got our dog back, our neighbors kept trying to have her removed again. They called animal control, falsely accusing us of neglect, even when we were clearly playing and bonding with her in our yard, showing her nothing but love.
32. Rock N’ Roll Couldn’t Save This Guy
The dude from the opposite apartment had a knack for blaring rock music and belting out tunes all weekend, day and night while enjoying a drink or two. Not only that, he'd often stagger into the hallway, shouting at fellow tenants over imagined offences.
Here's where it got REALLY frustrating. Despite my best efforts to quieten down the circus—calling the cops on him twice and lodging complaints with the landlord again and again at least twelve times—no actions were taken. Ultimately, I had no other option but to pack up and leave.
33. We Gave Her Cookies, But She Was A Monster
After settling into our new place, my roommate decided to introduce ourselves to the neighboring lady, offering her cookies, our contact information, and our names. We reassured her she could reach out to us whenever necessary, with her best interest at heart.
Her answer took us by utter surprise: "No. I would rather contact the authorities". And she sure did -- never failing to surprise us. For instance, one Friday night, around 7:00 pm, I was watching TV in my home with the volume turned off, relying on subtitles, windows closed and blinders shut.
Despite this, she phoned in the authorities, stating I was causing a disturbance.
34. Midnight Madness
Once upon a time, we shared our peace with a neighbour who was quite the party animal. A party now and again wasn't too disruptive, but our neighbour cranked it up a notch, turning every night into a wild fete.
His parties had become daily noise marathons, with the booming music and rowdy friends raising the roof until dawn. I was constantly losing sleep, which was even affecting my performance at work.
Then enough was enough. After days of tolerating the raucousness and fruitless conversations with him, we decided to pen a letter. It was hand-delivered to his house, timed perfectly to meet his mother's return home.
Apparently, she was the unwitting party-timer, her arrival at 7 am signaled the end of their shindigs. Once she got wind of the letter, there was finally some peace. Her loud scolding of her son was music to my ears.
In our letter, we had suggested a simple solution to keep both parties happy- keep the parties downstairs. That seemed reasonable to us. And it seemed to have worked, the never-adjusted-volume parties gradually died down and eventually, the party pioneer left us with our tranquility.
35. He Can’t Bail Himself Out Of This One
When I was little, we had some fantastic neighbours, a couple who sadly had to move away after their house was repossessed by the bank. Their replacements, a disagreeable man and his wife, were a stark contrast.
Common sights included arguments in their yard and an immediate wall erected around their property. After a few years enduring their disruptive behavior, something unexpected occurred.
They accused my dad of property damage, suggesting we'd somehow wrecked their fence. He was brought before the court, where they produced clearly doctored photos of an entirely different fence as their proof. My dad, on the other hand, presented accurate photos of their actual fence.
The judge then commissioned independent evidence by sending a sheriff to capture his own images. Their contempt for court procedures shone through when they verbally abused the judge and brazenly manipulated evidence, which resulted in them facing further charges.
They crossed the line when they threatened the judge and were promptly arrested on-site. In response to this ordeal, my dad decided to sell our home and relocate us. There was a surprising silver lining in the end though...We sold our house to the bailiff from the confrontational couple's trial.
This led to a delightful twist of fate—their new neighbour was none other than the man who arrested them.
36. The Manager Got Miffed
Our new downstairs neighbors moved in, complete with a property manager, his family, and a couple of small dogs. It was quiet before they arrived, but once football season hit, our weekends became loud due to their late-night parties. We ended up lodging a complaint.
Bizarrely, we started getting noise-complaint letters from the leasing office shortly after—funny to us as tech geeks who spent most of our time gaming on our computers or watching TV. We occasionally had creaky floor issues, but nothing that compared to their boisterous parties ending at 1 am. Things only spiralred from that point on.
Next came unwelcome "random inspections" and threats of eviction over supposed "safety or cleanliness" issues. Simple household noises, like accidentally dropping something, had the manager banging on our ceiling or coming upstairs to scold us.
The manager had quite the temper. After a particularly loud night—their music blaring till 1 am—one of my roommates finally snapped, yelling for them to quieten down. The next morning, the manager warned us not to confront him like that again, to which we retaliated, "Should we call the cops?". To our surprise, he agreed.
The next time their music volume soared, we reported them. An officer drove past which prompted a momentary respite, but once he was out of sight, they cranked up the volume again. The officer caught onto their game, quietly returning on foot.
As this happened, they banged on our ceiling and hurled insults our way, even telling the officer they were having us evicted. The next day, while passing their balcony on my way to the store, I overheard them talking about us invoking the police. Disgruntled, I stopped at the leasing office to lodge another complaint. I couldn't believe it...
I found out another roommate had also complained, which led to the office offering us a different unit. Arriving home, I saw my roommate documenting their ongoing harassment, which he forwarded to his superior. A few days later, our noisy neighbors had been moved two buildings away. At last, tranquility was restored.
37. Neighborhood Creeper
My neighbor always found a way to strike up a conversation, typically when I was scrambling to get to work on time. It wasn't so bad, except for the fact he seemed to be watching for me, always conveniently stepping outside as I walked by. I'd always have to end the chat by telling him I was running late, at which point he'd retreat indoors.
One late night around 11:40 pm, I was fixing a new sticker on my car, my neighbor popped out and practically jumped in to offer his help. Even after that, he tried to engage me in a chat. There was another occasion when I was pulling out of my parking spot and he was maneuvering out of his, situated in my blind spot.
He tooted his horn and I immediately halted to avoid a collision. But, rather than driving off as expected, he'd parked his car, ambled over, and rapped on my driver-side window. He grilled me about whether I'd checked my rear view before reversing, in an unusually confrontational manner.
The absolute worst bit? He dared to jest about the number of male guests he'd seen me entertain in my apartment. I had such a strong dislike for this man. He was truly disturbing.
38. Stray Cat Stuck
There was an old lady living next door who pretended not to understand English whenever my dad and I complained about her actions. We knew she could actually speak English because we had heard her chatting fluently with the landlord. I even brought my girlfriend, who speaks her language, to talk to her.
But it ended up with my girlfriend being insulted. She had this annoying habit of watering the housing complex plants around 5 am daily, using a tap precisely underneath my bedroom window, disturbing my sleep.
Just an hour later, she'd retreat to her apartment and keep busy by constantly banging on something till almost noon. She also had a weird thing for Christmas lights, keeping them lit all year round till 1 am every night.
But what irked me above all else, was her tendency to feed stray cats. When the landlord asked her to stop and even threatened to evict her, she craftily started leaving the cat food outside MY apartment.
The landlord caught on after mistakenly blaming me a few times, but he claimed he couldn't do anything since he couldn't prove she was the one leaving the food out. Consequently, I ended up with a handful of stray cats frequenting my doorstep, hoping for food.
39. Speculating Scammers
To be honest, my childhood neighbors were the absolute pits. I spent my early years in a well-to-do community, which was established just before the economic downturn. One of these families overreached financially—couldn't afford their home loan payments and, consequently, had to file for bankruptcy.
This family had several unruly kids who'd tear around the neighborhood from dawn till dusk, causing all sorts of chaos. One of their little rascals waltzed right into our home uninvited.
Equally annoying was the time when their kids decided to use a neighbor's car for target practice with rocks. When confronted, the parents shrugged it off, stating they were broke. Their house was perpetually listed for sale at half the price of other local properties.
They had an interesting gimmick, though. Whenever someone showed interest in buying their home, their realtor—a friend of the family—would inform them the property was already under contract. This deceit carried on for years, driving down everyone else’s property values. As the cherry on top, they neglected their home.
They had disheveled holiday decorations up until almost mid-year, and despite the neighborhood's complaints, our HOA couldn't intervene due to their bankruptcy.
40. The Screaming Banshee
My neighbor from across the street constantly raised her voice at her children, her pitch akin to a wailing banshee. Her kids zip about the neighborhood on their motorbikes, at all hours, and have noisy gatherings.
And that's not all—she had this habit of using her car to travel even short distances, like to her parents' house across our road, which sadly is next to mine.
This means, as we live in a duplex with flimsy walls, I often find myself having to endure the sound of her voice penetrating through.
41. She Fought With The Fuzz
It seemed like my immediate neighbors didn't prioritize their children. They would frequently forget to feed them or give them baths. Usually, when I returned home, I'd find the kids playing in the street—barefoot and with empty stomachs. Then, one day, the mom decided to pick a fight with our other neighboring family over a parking spot.
Her reaction? She tossed dog poop over the fence at them. Not the best decision, considering the family's father is a police officer.
42. He Wanted To Fight For His Right To Party
In my lifetime, I've only lived in two separate apartments. I recall when I was 24 and had these really noisy neighbors upstairs. They'd throw energy-packed parties lasting till the odd hours of the morning, around three or four AM. The sound of their drinking games and booming bass music was simply too much.
I politely urged them on multiple occasions to lower the volume, but the guy plainly declined. He held his belief that he could do whatever he liked in his own home.
However, fortunately for me, they eventually moved out.
43. Her Family Caused Me Friction
My daughter was five when we moved into the top apartment of a duplex. The owner's sister, who had some problems, lived downstairs. One day, my daughter's tricycle disappeared, and an hour later, we saw her children riding it.
When I challenged her about this, she reacted by saying my daughter was overindulged and our family didn't deserve possessions her family didn't have. She kept teasing my daughter and taking her stuff, prompting us to end our lease early.
44. Night Shift Nag
There was a young pair that lived downstairs from me who had a baby. In the midnight hours, when they worked, they created quite a bit of noise. Whether it was blaring music or heated arguments, they were anything but quiet. Oddly enough, I never raised an objection about this.
But that didn't stop them from being ruthless towards me. Strangely, they found the time to complain about me running the vacuum cleaner at 2 in the afternoon. On numerous occasions, their music was deafening during the late-night hours, yet I stayed silent.
Then one day, around 10 in the morning, I was simply watching television, and this infuriated them. They even threatened to bring in the authorities. Soon thereafter, I had to find a new place to live.
45. Bathtime Boozers
We lived next to a family of four. The parents often drank a lot and their kids were quite bothersome. It seemed like they hardly ever left their house. The son would continually tap on our window to entice us to come outside and engage in games.
On one occasion, he even dared to reach his hand inside our home through the door, attempting to gain entry. As if that wasn't enough, there were instances when my sister was asked by their mom to bathe their youngest child, who was only two years old.
46. Not Worth A Whistle
The family living above me was incredibly noisy. Once, their child was playing so roughly that the vibrations made the bathroom mirror come loose. It fell and cracked my sink! When I first moved in, their dog would sit outside my bedroom window every morning, barking non-stop for around 30 minutes.
I eventually had to buy an electronic dog whistle to deter him. What made things worse was our living arrangement—our apartment was at the basement level, and the neighbor's dog had a habit of urinating on our window air conditioning unit.
47. Time To Get Rid Of This Cancer
There was a woman living next door who pretended to be ill from cancer and its treatment, just to avoid getting into trouble with the landlord regarding her overflowing trash bins and unkempt lawn.
Her act was so elaborate that she even shaved her head, faked a limp, and used a cane. My mom naively baked cookies for her and offered to help with her trash and lawn maintenance. That's when she revealed what she was up to.
My mom, now fully aware of our neighbor's deceptive games and fed up with her trash littering our yard, decided to inform the landlord. This didn't sit well with the neighbor who, in retaliation, played loud music at odd hours disrupting our sleep.
My mom, who had to hustle late hours and leave early for work, was particularly disturbed. So, we went ahead and filed a noise complaint with the local authorities.
The police turned up and were hit by a wild accusation from the neighbor—she claimed that my mom, a petite elderly woman, had physically assaulted her. However, when she presented our security camera footage as evidence, it ended up showing her own outrageous behavior; she had locked her young child outside in the chilly night.
The footage showed the little girl, only nine years old, knocking desperately at her door at 2 am, sobbing uncontrollably. Eventually, the neighbor was escorted away and the girl was sent to stay with her father.
48. This Neighbor Had Some Bad Juju
From the moment our new neighbor moved in, something about him just didn't sit right with my roommate and I. It was an instinctual unease, without any obvious cause.
For a whole year, nearly every time we left our house, he'd show up, seemingly wanting to socialize. Even a simple task like crossing the street to check our mail couldn't be done undisturbed.
His intrusive behavior escalated. He'd regularly loiter outside our house, either pacing or standing aimlessly on the road in front us. Middle-of-the-night knockings on our door began, but we never entertained it.
On several occasions, we'd arrive home to find him perched in a chair in our yard as if it was his property. His invasions extended beyond home as he started appearing at the same stores we frequented in town, obviously tailing us.
This constant surveillance reached a level where stepping outside or spending time in our yard became unbearable because it felt like we were constantly being monitored. We lodged multiple complaints to our landlord, prompting him to issue several warnings to our neighbor.
However, these interventions proved futile as his behavior persisted. Then, a miracle—fortunately, he fell behind on his rent and was evicted. His rental house was left in such a state of disrepair that it needed months of refurbishment.
The property was covered in squalor, holes in the walls, damaged floors, and an appalling amount of litter; hundreds of empty bottles, charred foil, and discarded needles.
49. Ripped Off
Several years ago, our neighbors were evicted because they hadn't paid their mortgage in eight months. In the week leading up to their departure, they removed everything they could—bathroom equipment, the stove, doors, even paving slabs—with the hopes of making some money from selling these items.
You could say that if it wasn't nailed down, it was taken. When they were finally gone, astonishingly, all that was left behind was their dog, their cat, and their child.
50. Upstairs Upset
I had these truly awful neighbors. My apartment had a ground floor location with a front door and yard, and they coveted it. Their favorite trick? Stomp as loudly and as often as they could, at any given time, hoping that would push me to move out.
On top of that, they would huddle on their balcony above me, hurling insults every time I went in or out of my place. Eventually, their actions started to take a toll on me. The mother of the family even encouraged her children to damage my apartment and harass my dog.
Their antics were driving me up the wall. I somehow managed it, but my roommate wasn't as resilient. We'd been living quite peacefully in that apartment for months before this obnoxious family made their appearance upstairs. And then, troubling whispers about our apartment began to circulate.
Our apartment, it was rumored, had a very grim history. Allegedly, the previous occupants were victims of a fatal fire. We were clueless about the fact that the tragic event had taken place within our very walls—no one bothered to inform us. Our landlord acted as if nothing had occurred.
To our horror, the room that my girlfriend and I called our bedroom had been the scene of this terrifying incident. Coupled with our neighbor's harassment, it was simply too much to bear; it led to my roommate suffering a mental breakdown.
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