A woman – who’s trying to sell her house – is at a loss over her entitled next door neighbour’s behaviour. Neighbours can make a world of difference as to how you feel in the comfort of your own home. Good neighbours are a gift while bad ones can leave you feeling upset and frustrated, or anxious over what they might do next.
When moving house, it’s a legal obligation to declare any neighbour disputes, whether they’ve been resolved or remain ongoing. In a bid to avoid creating a dispute, one woman has been left feeling like her hands are tied when trying to cope with her neighbour’s antics.
The couple don’t want to jeopardise the sale of their house but after their neighbour’s latest bold move, they’re looking for solutions on how to deal with her.
In a Reddit post titled, ‘My neighbour has lost the plot’, the woman explained she’s had several issues with her neighbour’s behaviour but now she and her husband are trying to sell their house, things have ramped up.
Her neighbour emailed the couple’s estate agent “to say she wants the next owner to know that the garden fence and wall are not [the couple’s], they’re hers”. The woman explained: “To avoid having to label it as a dispute we tried to speak to her, and ask what could be done in order to rectify the situation.”
But this resulted in “an argument” with the neighbour claiming the woman and her husband “haven’t respected the boundary line” in their five years of living there.
She continued: “We were under the impression the wall/fence split the boundary and all was fine, we have never interfered with either. We asked if she wanted two fences, or two walls, but she said she didn’t care, good riddance.
“The next day we received a letter apologising for her attitude, and that as long as the next owners understand the fence and wall are hers, there shouldn’t be an issue.”
The couple decided to “leave the issue well enough alone” and told their estate agent to let anyone interested in the house know the fence isn’t their responsibility. But the neighbour didn’t stop there.
The woman, who lives at number 127, then said: “I’ve gone out today, and have come home to huge ‘129s’ painted on the wall, and all along our garden fence. I’m p***ed off because our garden is private, with a gate, so she’s come onto and into our property to do this.”
She added: “For someone who is terrified at the thought of us touching her fence, I would have expected she would respect our property in turn.”
In a follow-up comment, the woman said: “My personal opinion is that she is unhinged and afraid of change. The threat of new neighbours has unsettled her.”
Reddit users were keen to share their thoughts, with several creative suggestions as to how to handle the neighbour. Many advised her to erect her own fence in front of the one the belongs to the neighbour.
A paramedic offered a sobering thought, saying: “If I am headed to an emergency then I am assuming that you are house 129. Meaning either you get us and your neighbour doesn’t if they need us, or you are waiting for us as we drive around looking for 127.
“Further, if you aren’t home at the time, there’s a chance that your door is going in, in case the person inside is unconscious… which if that is someone laid next door, they don’t want to have all that delay before we work out where they are… so you could argue to remove for ‘safety’ reasons.”