Tiny neighbor vent - share yours?

I think we've all dealt with "Mayor of the Block" types. Ugh.

My small-ish vent is that we live in an HOA. I made sure to get a copy of my CC&Rs when we moved in and read them to know what to expect for the rules and regulations. My HOA Management company is not super strict, but I digress. You have not been "allowed" to park on our private streets for over a decade. The HOA paid for signs to be posted "no parking, towed at owner's expense". There is plenty of parking in your garage, driveway, or along the public street.

Without fail, people park in the private street. I drive a minivan and backing out of our steep driveway is already a slow process so I don't scrape the underside of my vehicle. Then the neighbor across the street has friends over and they park in the street. So, now it takes longer. Will the HOA fine them? No. They have now gotten a sticker sheet and put 7,000 sticker notices instead of the "immediate" tow.

Now, I'm not saying I want people to have to pay the high tow fees to get their vehicle back, but I am saying it would be nice if people would have some common courtesy. /vent off

My neighbors have lights lining their driveway that look like an airstrip. They often do not turn off the lights that are on their house overnight, in violation of our town's 'dark skies' ordinance. When they built the house, they decided to position it in such a way that the front of their house faces the back of our house (in conflict with the original development plans which had it positioned to face the road). So all those lights shine into the back of my house all night long. Yes, I have blinds in my HUGE windows; but there is a small transom to allow airflow which has no blind and of course, light leaks in through it. I will survive; but it's irritating to say the least. 

Yes, we had a neighbor who kept multiple bird feeders and suddenly rats appeared where there had never been any as well.

Of course if your yard with a variety of plants (as opposed to cementing it over as in the case of the OP's neighbor), you'll likely find that birds show up in your yard to enjoy the benefits of those plants instead.

Dows he think most people pave their yards? What a weirdo.

My neighbor vent is that when a package of mine gets mis-delivered to the condos next door, they keep it. There are three units and no-one answers the bell to their gate, ever, so I can’t know who keeps the packages. I’ve left notes before, but no one ever responds. So far the vendors have been willing to refund or replace, but it’s really gross to do that to your neighbor!

Well. I live in a city neighborhood, though it is pretty suburban looking. There is a population of unhoused folks living in the shadows here, so they are my neighbors.

Lots of stories related to that, though I think we try to be reasonably tolerant as a neighborhood. We do tend to draw the line at human excrement deposited in our yards/on our cars/sidewalks. No one is wild about dog crap either, but human excrement is kind of a no-go. Good way to spread plague and the like, if I recall my history correctly. It seems like most people without access to bathroom facilities prefer to use the woods--or at least bury it like when you're camping.

I also am pretty spicy about folks who steal property. There's a surprising amount of tolerance for that but I draw my own personal line there also. You steal my stuff and I catch you? You'd better run as fast as you can because I'm not going to let that go. Same with vandalism. Smash my car window, you little asshole? I find out it's you--I will wait for you in the tall grass. I don't know what I'm going to do when you pass by but I will devote a lot of time to thinking about it.

Other than that, my neighborhood is awesome, as are my neighbors. I couldn't always say that (I once had a literal order of protection against my next door neighbor in another neighborhood/state/lifetime and pressed charges against him for assaulting me--we ultimately moved because of it after a policeman told me the whole police force knew about the issue and they were all worried they would have to come arrest me or my husband one day for snapping and that everyone would know whose fault it was but we would still be in trouble), so I am grateful for what we have. There's an old curmudgeon guy who posts on our FB group and he is incredibly annoying but I honestly don't even know where he lives so he's clearly not intrusive of my personal space/property. We have a new baseball stadium in close proximity and they shoot off fireworks on weekend nights, so that is the current controversy. We are salty about fireworks.

Good Lord I also have a neighbor that has SO MANY battery or solar powered strings of lights in their yard. I live close enough to an airport I fear a plane mistaking it for the actual airport. That’s not even the worse—the mother of the owner lives in a frigging motor home parked in the yard just off their driveway and between the house next door. And multiple yard art type crap in the yard with some wrapped in lights. Two drivable vehicles always parked in the street or in the culdesac with two driveable and one non drivable in the driveway and one old ElCamino on blocks in the street in front of their house. Three single men and the girlfriend of the owner and a very large dog live in the house. They have chickens and possibly ducks in the fenced side and back yard. The owner’s school aged daughter and two cats also are there. The house next door to them is recently for sale. Good luck with that. They have lowered the value of every house on this street. This used to be the nicest street in the subdivision. I have my house in a trust for my son so no moving for me. Nothing can be done about any of this because we are in the county. Less is more and just because you can doesn’t mean you should evidently means nothing to them. Pray for me! LOL

We had neighbors who cut down all the pines on the hill out back behind their house. I was sad because the cardinals prefer pines to the other stuff like sweet gum, which we have a lot more of behind our house. The cardinal numbers dropped substantially at our feeders after that.

Looks like the new neighbors are going to let nature reclaim that part of the hill though, I hope. I've been tossing pine cones over there on the sly. 🤭

I love the wooded hill behind us as it's home to so many animals. I can't wrap my head around wanting to cut down all the trees when it's not really a usable yard or space anyway due to the grade of the hill/ridge. Owls, hawks, possums, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, turtles, deer, coyotes, all have been seen and heard back there. Not everyone enjoys nature the way I do though.

Years ago, DH was talking to a neighbor about rats. Neighbor indignant that DH said he saw a rat go into the man's garage. (DH just wanted him to know the rats were in there.) Neighbor said "We don't have rats!" DH asked, "What is that?"--a rat was on the porch with them. Neighbor huffed away.

We’re so lucky both here and at the cabin, all of our neighbors in both places are wonderful. There’s an oddball who lives next door to our renter though. Dude is just goofy. He likes to do stuff like mow his grass so short that it quickly turns yellow/brown at the slightest level of drought. DH has told him that if he adjusted his mower blade up to leave the grass a bit longer, it would tolerate the warmer, drier times better but he just won’t do it. So his lawn always looks like dried up crap.

Also, every year he holds this big thing in his yard with a bunch of yard games, a dunk tank (!!) and other similar things. A couple years ago the lawn was too soggy in his yard that weekend because it actually rained, so he wanted to know if he could put the dunk tank on our property. Um, no thanks, we didn’t want to have anything come back on us liability wise if some drunken fool got hurt at his party.

I have two sets of crappy neighbors. The family to the left side of my home has 5 kids 2 daughters in their middle 20's who live there with their boyfriends, and 3 sons still in school who are just plain awful. The HOA does nothing in our subdivision. They shoot guns all the time, have yappy dogs, ride mopeds and motorized scooters,drones over the houses and cars and they are supposed to be banned. They ride their stuff up our driveway all the time it does no good to say anything they just do whatever they want. The sheriff has been to my home many times asking if I by chance have any videos of them coming and going because their sons have been caught going around the neighborhood destroying the park(ripped up benches and threw in lake, broke into new homes being built etc.) But they never do anything to them. The boys are kicked out of school all the time, kicked off the bus by second week of school.
Our new neighbor is a single mom who has a boyfriend that keeps coming everyday and parks blocking our mailbox. We don't get our mail on those days. When she first moved in we came home one night and she has parked her large SUV blocking our driveway. She refuses to use her driveway. My husband didn't want to upset her because she is a single mom. But the boyfriend came out one night to get in his truck and my husband finally told them nicely it's against the law to block our mailbox and driveway. The guy just nodded. A couple of days later there he was blocking our mailbox again, my husband pulled in from work and the mailman happened to be running late that day so my husband marched across the street beat on the door and the boyfriend came to the door and with her standing behind him and he told them both you block my mailbox or driveway again I will have you towed and my husband asked what was wrong with parking in their own driveway and they answered it's a tight fit with two large vehicles and they like the driveway free so the kids have a place to play. He just shook his head and said I will have them towed start using your driveway.

I get so upset with the HOA because they do nothing but sure do take huge fees from all of us. Except the family with 5 kids and boyfriends living there we found out they don't pay the fees they are 6 years behind.

Anyone else reading the subject as a rant about a tiny neighbor rather than a tiny vent about a neighbor? 😂😂 (there is nothing grammatically wrong with the subject, it is just the way my brain chooses to see it)

I'm so very grateful for my current neighbours - the across the road neighbour is very nice and friendly. The neighbour over the side fence is also - we had a tornado take out that fence last fall and he and his grandson have been re-building it (we pitched in money towards supplies). The neighbour over the back fence was nice too -I don't care for his politics (he's employed by our congresswoman who is dreadful) but he was a fine neighbour. The house has recently been sold and I'm hoping the new neighbours are also nice - they've been renovating so haven't moved in yet.

Yes, every time I pop back in I get a giggle out of it 🤭

My neighbors' house is STILL decked out like it's the day before the election and that is all I will say about that.