Bloody Neighbours... A Rant

babaduck

I'm fit to be tied right now. Our adjoining neighbours (we live in a semi) are absolute nightmares & have been since Day 1. You know the type who are all friendly when you move in but then you discover that if you lend them something, it either comes back broken or not at all? That's them.

About 3 years ago, herself (lets call her Tango in honour of her orange makeup) has the brainwave of creosoting a hit & miss fence with a feckin' paint roller and destroyed our fence, our garden furniture, our BBQ & our newly laid patio. I went into them to let them know about the damage & after a guarantee of an immediate cleanup by them, was told to clean it up myself & they'd pay for the new paint to repaint the fence. Himself (let's call him Trash) was in a sling.. as a result of a late night drunken fight with Tango & he put his fist through the kitchen door.

Anyway, we gritted our teeth, did the cleanup, even bought the paint in a sale & I dropped the receipt into Tango. She never apologised BTW (I would have been mortified if I had caused the damage to them) & took the receipt. Trash came home a few hours later & hammered our door down shouting "what the hell do you think you're doing giving this to Tango - I never said we'd pay for it". He was v. aggressive in a real turkey-necked fashion so we shut the door on him & have barely exchanged hellos since.

They were (apparently) v. pissed off because we didn't invite them to our wedding last year... hello?? Three weeks ago they bought a big trampoline for the kids in the back garden which has been duly squeaking morning, noon & night ever since. We've no problem with the morning & noon bit, but it's gotten to the stage where we can't actually have the windows or patio door open at night because all we can hear is that damn trampoline. Our friends on the other side can hear it too & she mentioned it to Tango the other day about the noise.

Last night it was going on till 10.30pm. I asked Junior Tango would she mind calling it a night at 10pm. Not a chance. This morning, I called next door & very politely asked Tango if there was any way that they could stop the trampoline at 10pm - we've no problem with it at any other time, but there should be a cut off point. She apologised, claimed she didn't realise there was a problem and flat out denied that friends next door had said anything to her too...

This evening the agressive Trash came knockin' on the door & told us we were nitpicking. They didn't have a problem with noise & suggested that we turn up our TV. My v. quiet & shy husband stood his ground & told him that it was causing problems for us and that 10pm was a fairly reasonable hour to stop the trampoline. Trash stomped off because he didn't get the confrontational response he so obviously wanted.

I'm so pissed off with their lack of consideration & pray to God every night that we'll come home from work & find a For Sale sign next door!!!

p.s. Nice friends next door are speaking to her tomorrow AGAIN about the noise... wonder what type of response they'll get?

Bluetonic

Have a read of this and see if anything is relevant to you.

http://www.oasis.gov.ie/environment/noise_regulations.html?search=noise

MorningStar

They could be worse if that is any consolation. They probably see you as really fussy and always on their case and why don't you just leave them alone. The truth is unless you move or they move.
I used to think everybody wants a easy life but some people just want to fight with people. Our dogs started barking al lot and our neighbours complained (very politely)which was fair enough untill I realised what started them off. THe neighbour who complained was spraying water on them every now and then. The child that couldn't sleep "because" of the dogs was banging on the window to make them bark. It seemed to be the husband that was the problem with the wife not knowing. He just disliked dogs.
When we were selling up we added a bathroom with a power shower which in fairness can be noisy. Used one morning and they flipped out bagging on the walls and waiting to catch me as I went to work. Went nuts about the noise and how theri child was crying because it was so loud. I said we'll sort it later when I had the time to have a better later that day. He was furious I wasn't removing it. Came back later called in put on the shower and listened. I couldn't really hear it or could they (there was a sound but it wouldn't wake a mouse). The said I must have done something different. I brought them in and showed them the shower. THey were claiming I put it on the shared wasll so I had to show them. I said I can get my wife to have a shower and I will listen on the other side to see if that makes a difference. It didn't so I told them I don't see any problem so I am not going to do anything. They weren't happy and gave some abuse. So I told them I was moving anyway so they can take it up with the new people. They seemed happy so I told them I might rent the house out for a while before I really decide as I had friends who were in a band who were coming to Ireland for a while. It was just to wind them up.
Neighbours are always some sort of issue some good some bad. Try dealing with your own neighbours, tenants and the neighbours there.

babaduck

MorningStar wrote:

They could be worse if that is any consolation. They probably see you as really fussy and always on their case and why don't you just leave them alone. The truth is unless you move or they move.

To be honest, this is the second occasion in almost 4 years that we've had any sort of dialogue with them - the first one was the paint incident. They are just plain ignorant & aggressive

MorningStar

babaduck wrote:

To be honest, this is the second occasion in almost 4 years that we've had any sort of dialogue with them - the first one was the paint incident. They are just plain ignorant & aggressive

It sounds like they are but I am sure they don't see it that way is all I am saying. If it's only the second problem in 4 years I think you are doing really well to be honest. They could be a lot lot worse. I know of neighbours who set off fire works at neighbours windows every now and then!