When you have someone that lives by you that is rude and uncooperative with basic unwritten rules for a neighborhood.  These Neighbors live and go through their life as though they are the only ones living on the block. If you questioned them about their behavior they get mad at you and tell you to mind your own business.

 America is a free country, but there are limitations on your freedoms when things you do are affects other people. How do we deal with these bad neighbor problems without making the situation worse?

When we walk outside our house or apartment, and we see the person who lives across from us or who lives parallel to us or just in are lane are called neighbors. It is a widely used term and a word that the majority of us are familiar with.

A neighbor can evoke multiple sentiments in you, depending on your relationship with them. It can be happy, sad, neutral, annoyance, and anger.

So, to keep the environment towards happy or neutral, both parties must act in a friendly manner so that no hostility arises in the other. On the other hand, some eccentric people cannot be a source of a nice and happy environment no matter how many efforts you try.

We all want to have a friendly relationship with our neighbors, hang out with them, and have a partner to create happy memories with.

Neighbors are someone that can prove to be your best friend and a helper in your time of need. But sometimes neighbors can be neighbors from hell and destroy your peace.

In this article, we will tell how to identify them and how to deal with the bad neighbors.

What Is The Difference Between A Good Neighbor And A Bad Neighbor?

When you move into a neighborhood or a new neighbor moves into yours to make sure that peace remains the property lines, you must play your part in being a good neighbor.

Neighbors come in all shapes and forms, and you can identify a bad neighbor by a different sign. The table below will help identify the good neighbors from the bad ones.

A bad neighbor doesn’t have all the characteristics mentioned in the table. Neither does a good neighbor has to have all of the characteristics mentioned in the table. But these mostly help in identifying a good neighbor from a bad neighbor.

A major factor that separated the two is their behavior towards others. The people who have generally good behavior and create a homey environment are the ones that are considered to be good neighbors.

They might be some neighbor’s nemesis, but overall, they have good behavior.So except the nemesis, a bad neighbor has a very bad attitude with everyone in general, and they create a bad environment around them.

They do not necessarily have to be dealing in illegal activities as some of them just might be exceptionally annoying.

Types Of Bad Neighbors And How To Deal With Them?

Having a bad neighbor can create an unpleasant environment overall. They can make the whole neighborhood unhappy and miserable. So, first, let us see how many types of bad neighbors there are. And how to deal with them.

Dealing with the neighbors should be different, depending on the level of annoyance a specific neighbor cause. Obviously, you cannot change the person, but the way you deal with the neighbor can have a lot of effects.

As it can change the neighbor from being intolerable to tolerable and sometimes even good. So, your actions can also influence how bad the neighbor behaves as a counteract.

To keep things reasonable in the neighborhood, it is necessary that you also behave in a manner that does not provoke a war with the bad neighbor.

It is necessary that if you want to keep your sanity that you avoid any drastic actions that might create an unhealthy environment. Always try to deal in a friendly manner.

So, here are the three types of neighbors that a person can experience and ways to deal with them.

Slightly Annoying Neighbors

These neighbors are the ones that exhibit the following traits:

• The parents of the kids that scream all day, their kids are not well behaved
• The people who have no parking sense
• The people who are irresponsible pet owners and do not know how to take care of their pets
• The overly friendly ladies who want to sit and talk for long hours and sometimes repeating their stories multiple times
• The people who borrow things extremely often

These are some of the traits that can get on your nerves and make you miserable.

Nice ways to deal with such neighbors are:

• Get to know your neighbors
• Tell them what annoys you after creating a friendly relationship with them. By telling them, they might realize their mistake as sometimes they just do not know when they are annoying others.

• Make sure you use a non-accusatory tone and just tell how you feel as accusing might worsen the problem
• Try to bring it up in a friendly conversation and try to find the root cause of the problem. Also by offering them the help that causes them to behave like that might help
• You can mirror their behavior if you are on the path of seeking revenge. This may help them realize their mistake or might aggravate the situation. It is best to avoid the revenge technique
• You can also find a mediator who can help solve this issue and make sure that a solution can be found to your problems. This discussion can help in solving your issue as it might make the person aware of the situation.
• If there is still no solution giving them a concrete warning might help to deal with the difficult neighbors. A warning like going to the landlord or going to the local precinct might help.
• To solve the issues it is best to keep open communications as they can resolve the issue without needing to file complaints

Annoying Neighbors

These neighbors have the following traits:

• They are party animals, so they dance and drink all day long
• They are huge gossipers and might spread rumors and false information’s
• They might have a rock band in the garage and have a self-made studio
• They might be causing major disruptions and misbehaving with others

These traits can truly make a living next to them annoying, so ways to deal with them are:

• Seeking neighbors support helps in these cases more as join support help eliminating the problem as these might annoy others too. Also, this helps if you are planning to file a complaint or report it to the local precinct. The joint effort will help reach your desired goals.
• Consult with your neighbors and look for online support in how to deal with such situations
• If you want to avoid complaining a call to your neighbor’s landlord might help too as long-term tenants do not want to be evicted
• If you have issues with noise, referring to the law about noise can help as it prohibits unnecessary noise and excessive levels of noise.

Extremely Annoying Neighbors

These neighbors have the following traits:

• They are sneaky stealers
• They can be psychotic
• They can be into illegal activities
• They can be making criminal businesses right in front of your home
• They can be verbally and even sometimes physically abusive

These neighbors can be dangerous, so the ways to deal with them are:

• First, you have to collect substantial evidence if your neighbors do not lie in the dangerous category and then force them to move after having a petition signed by many other residents and present it to your landlord
• If they are in the dangerous category and can harm you, you should move to a different neighborhood as your life is precious. Also, report it to the police once you have moved
• If you have abusive neighbors, it is best if you have witnesses or people who support you complain and the best solution is to leave the area and then file a complaint

So, all in all, three kinds of neighbors are present; you can take revenge from your neighbors by playing tricks and such.

However, revenge never solves any problems it only exceeds them, so negotiations and dealing in a nice logical manner is the only way to deal with bad neighbors. In extreme situations shifting from the neighborhood might be your only resort.

How To File A Complaint Against A Neighbor?

When you are unfortunately the neighbors or extremely annoying or dangerous neighbors and all the other methods of finding a solution fails, you are left with the last resort, which is to file a complaint.

There is a proper way in which you can file the complaint that is:

• First, talk to your apartment manager and tell them how the neighbor is breaking specific rules or regulations. Fill out a complaint form if the apartment manager or your homeowners/ neighborhood association asks for it.
• File it at your local police department if your neighbor has broken the law. Provide them with the incident’s information, and if others file a complaint with you will help support your case more. This might then lead to hurt or anger from your neighbor.
• When the complaint goes to court, you might need to hire a lawyer to help you with your complaint and tell you how to deal further. Make sure that you consider those costs as well when you are suing someone.

Judge Yourself First?

Before you take any measures regarding your neighbors, you must judge yourself first. Do not be a hypocrite and judge your actions before complaining about anyone else.

Make sure that you are not the one who is instigating the bad behavior of your neighbors.

Judge your actions and see if your behavior towards your neighbor is reasonable or not. When judging yourself answer the following questions:

• Are you taking care of your pets?
• Are you keeping the environment clean enough?
• Are you making a lot of unnecessary noise?
• Are you disrupting someone else’s life in any way?
• Are you friendly and inviting with your neighbor?

Try changing your actions as it might result in a positive result. As said before, make sure that you try being friendly and nice before and try to understand the root causes of their behavior.

After you have analyzed yourself and have made a general assessment of the situation, work on your actions before making a complaint against your neighbor.

In dangerous situations, you should avoid face to face interactions, and the best solution then is to leave the neighborhood.

Conclusion

Neighbors come in all forms and sizes, and they might be the people who might become your best friends with their attitudes and behaviors, but sometimes the opposite can happen too.

When you are subjected to the bad kind of neighbors, make sure that you first try and analyze your actions to make sure that you are not the instigator.

Try solving the problems by being friendly and helpful, which might help in improving the problem and possibly eliminating it. Negotiations are the best way to solve a bad neighbor situation. Make sure that you don’t resort to drastic measures such as complaints and more until you have tried all the methods possible. CWP

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References

• Rentberry Blog. (2020). 3 Types of Bad Neighbors (And How to Deal With Each One). [online] Available at: https://rentberry.com/blog/bad-neighbors [Accessed 14 Feb. 2020].
• America Magazine. (2020). Bad Neighbor, Good Neighbor. Available at: https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/665/article/bad-neighbor-good-neighbor [Accessed 14 Feb. 2020].
• Legal Beagle. (2020). How to File a Complaint Against a Neighbor. [online] Available at: https://legalbeagle.com/8710582-file-complaint-against-neighbor.html [Accessed 14 Feb. 2020].
• Legalnature.com. (2020). What You Can (And Cannot) Do About A Bad Neighbor | LegalNature. [online] Available at: https://www.legalnature.com/guides/what-you-can-and-cannot-do-about-a-bad-neighbor [Accessed 14 Feb. 2020].