Neigbours-to-be - how would you guys deal with this???!!!

I'm going to the block again on Saturday arvo - we'll see if anything has changed but I'm confidently expecting it won't have done.

We're also almost definitely going to build in a position that will be preferable to the next door neighbour, so we have the opportunity to tell him either - we moved it for you, now you owe us one, or - we were going to build there anyway!!!

Thanks for all your input guys.... support is appreciated!

Simon

Am I reading this correctly? You're going to build your house to keep your neighbour happy? No offence but I think you're mad if you build in a position that's preferable to anyone but you and your wife. It's not just a house, this is your home. Don't let a couple of bullies get the better of you. And what are they going to owe you? Agree not to kill YOUR tree?

No, sorry I didn't make myself clear.

We're building the house where it suits US, in one of three positions we picked. It happens to also be the position that suits the neighbour best.

So everybody wins.

Simon

hear,hear

Never quite understood why some people like to go through life putting people offside on purpose. Also don't know why people like chopping trees down so much. One house on our street was sold last year and the first thing they did was chop down all the trees (peppermints) around the house.

I was thinking your neighbour could just be testing you to see what you are made of, if he can intimidate you or not. If you stand up for yourself well enough he may back down and leave you alone.

Hope it works out well.

Em

I drove past your block today that is a big tree. I’m guessing from what I saw doing a drive-by your neighbour is somewhat concerned about the branches hanging over the fence.

Without being party to the conversation or knowing any of the parties concerned I’d say they were making suggestions that if you wanted to get rid of the tree they would not make mention of it, and were offering suggestions on its demise.

Of course the trees will be marked on your plan of the block, plus will also appear on your site plan.

In all honesty I’d say it was just making concerns for the tree from their perspective, although they could’ve addressed the situation better. But then again I could be wrong; it won’t be the first time.

Thank you - now I know the tree is still there! Saved me a journey .

I think the neighbour is more concerned about 1. losing his light to his rear living areas 2. Tree falling on his house.

In fact I think 2. is unlikely as not only did the tree withstand the recent high winds, but the prevailing wind is from the West, therefore the tree would probably fall on ours, not his.....

hmmmm.......

Simon

I'm sure your tree will be safe, any damage that it might incur will be from the elements.

I just wanted to sympathise. We just sold our dream home in January because our neighbours over the back fence were the most horrible people on Earth. They owned many cars including a hot rod and would rev the crap out of them even at 11pm at night, about 5m from my son's bedroom window. We asked them one day if they could quieten down (they'd been revving for over 20 minutes and our baby was trying to have an afternoon sleep) - and we were gentle and polite - and he threatened to kill us and called us the "f" word and the "c" word. Charming.

They made our lives hell with their doof doof music all night every Friday and Saturday night. It got so bad that I'd even see the flash of color through the gap in the fence indicating a car arriving home and I'd feel panicky in the stomach as we'd never know when they'd start up their noise.

Needless to say, we sold, and are currently living with my parents whilst we build another house - and pray like hell our new neighbours are nice and quiet.

Long story short my advice is to not make enemies of your new neighbours. Some people are just repulsive. But that's the only advice I have. And I know that it's not very helpful. Good luck. And I know exactly how your wife feels!

Been there, you were lucky to sell your house! I know exactly how you felt.

In the UK, where we came from originally, you have to declare if you have had any neighbour issues on a form when you sell your house, so that any potential buyers know the history. Luckily I don't think you have to do that in Australia.

The neighbour issues we have are nothing compared to what you went through....

Simon

hmm i wonder what percentage of people who sell up do so because of neighbours. Both times we've sold it's been because of annoying neighbours. Our first nightmare neighbours caused a lot of havoc in what had been a very quiet street. The night after we moved out they pushed someone too far and the person lost it and trashed their car etc. phew.. we came back the next day to do a clean up to what looked like a war a zone complete with police, and every tv news channel there. This time we've deliberately bought a larger block so we can be further away from neighbours. Something tells me that it won't make us immune to annoying neighbours but at least we'll be further away from them.

Here's hoping that once they see you won't be intimidated they'll settle down.

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Neighbours are crucial to quality of life. When buying I always looked at the garden. Usually a neat and tidy garden - especially one with pretty flowers - indicates a more "gentle" and reasonable sort of person. Not foolproof, but a good indicator.

Cabinfever You could be on to something there. neighbours were fantastic in our first house. In the second it was a new estate and we did have terrific 1st neighbours. After 19 years the suburb was changing though. A lot more rental properties. A lot less care.

Unfortunately in both the cases that have caused us to sell up the original owners had moved.
Both were rented and in the first case with no prospect of a change as the investors and their rental agent didn't give a damn about the deterioration of the quality of life for the rest of us as long as they got their $.

They did burnouts until 3+am from the first weekend they moved in.
Partied loudly from 5pm friday evening until about 5am monday morning.
Threatened the single lady and her teenage son on the other side of them when they complained, ( this included killing/maiming their pet ducks),
Threatened and harassed the guy across the road from us. ( this was the guy that lost it) when he asked them to turn their music down. This included sitting on the kerb in front of our house, drinking and just staring at the house across from us.
The final straw from what I understand it was burnouts in the street, their standard drunken loud street partying and finally throwing all the pot plants around the neighbour across the roads front garden area at 2am and calling for him to come out. Yes the police were called. They claimed to have driven down the street at a certain time and that all was quiet. Another neighbour who we spoke to said he was in his front yard at that time and they didn't come down. The guy across the road finally cracked.
Hence the war zone.

The newspaper reports used phrases like " the quiet neighbourhood", " it was so bad one neighbour sold up" ( that was us), " from heaven to hell in 6 months" etc you get the idea.

You got that right. On weekends, ours would fastidiously maintain his gardens, wash & detail cars, and generally put a large effort in making his place look spic and span. By tea time he would already be under the influence and then, he'd do a 'night shift' in his shed, which lines up with our bedroom.

We're no strangers to the gut-churning feeling that oztish described. Our neighbour is not the sole reason we are moving, but he has certainly made the decision easier for us. Maybe bad neighbours are more prevalent than many think.

PS Isn't it strange that the ones that scream the loudest at always being in trouble with the law, are the ones that draw the most attention to themselves?

It certainly made us anxious when at our last house neighbours and nearby home owners sold to move on. We were one of the last "original" house owners in our small street. There are now 2 left. A neighbour but 1 on one side and the person 2 doors down from them are all that are left.
Out of 22 houses in the entire street.
I gather there are now only 6 houses in the street that are not rentals. It doesn't seem a good trend.
................................................................


ANYWAY let's get back on track. No more doom and gloom everyone.


Hang in there and just show you are not going to be pushed around.
I did read you are in a semi rural area. does that mean bigger than normal blocks? Hmm Plant more trees!!! heeh oops sorry

As someone who rented for many years, I hate to "bag" renters, but a lot of rentals in a street does seem to lead to problems. In Brisbane (as a renter myself) we watched the street turn from owners into renters and it was terrible.

Within a year there were problems everywhere with petty crime, damage, noise, doof doof music until all hours and one particularly annoying neighbour who seemed to spend most of the weekend revving up his smelly jetski in his frontyard.

When we finally complained to him he was incredibly indignant and complained that we were trying to "destroy his freedom" and that he had "the right" to make as much noise as he liked. He really squawked like a done-wrong victim.

What do you with such people ? They are so pumped up with the notion of their "rights" and seem to equate freedom with do-what-you-want anarchy. When my partner pointed out to him that he was in fact part of a neighbourhood and that we all had to live together he was stuck for words and just walked away mumbling. I'm sure he'd never considered the concept.

He was a bit better after that, but only marginally.

Worse was the block of flats across the road (a three story brick block inexplicably plonked in a row of old Queenslander houses). The flats appealed to young people, one in particular would really BOOM out the doof doof music. It was bad enough for us, but for anyone else in that apartment block it must have been sheer torture. The sub-bass just rumbled the entire atmosphere in a radius of about two or three houses.

exactly cabin fever. it tends to get worse when the balance tips. Despite the ruling that the estate required all to be people did not own other properties there were 3 investors in our street from the outset. It wasn't a problem.

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We bought an established house about a year ago. One of the things we did was drove around past it at different times of the day & night & the weekend that we found it. We also parked the car & walked the street & surrounding streets. We knew 2 nearby neighbours, so we asked them for honest opinions too.

My father-in-law was a little more bold..... when we had the 2nd look at it with the rellos, he's straight over to the next door neighbour, introducing himself, and asking what the neigbourhood is like! They noted a few small things, but nothing to worry us.

The funny comment was "yeah, about 5 years ago this hoon in a commodore spun his tyres all the way up the street" F-I-L joked to me that I'd better not invite any mates around....(my mates are a lot more mature than that!) The only other negative was the pervert who watches us from across the road, but my wife dealt with him here:
https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=6327

When we moved in, I made an effort to meet the immediate neighbours.
We have a dog, so I told them about her, and explained that she's in at night, so all-night barking won't be a problem.

That was when I was informed of the clown diagonally behind, who would stagger in drunk, wander his backyard to find a tree (or c/bond fence) to loudly pee on, upsetting the neighbour's dog, who would then bark at him. The next week they'd receive a council letter with "problematic dogs" as it's heading. I was a little concerned about this, and wondered if it may turn into a 2 year war with us, as it had for next-doors.

Within a month of moving in I witnessed the 2am howling..... I'd come home late, our little pup growled at the back door, so I went out (on my own) to find him muttering to himself, banging the colorbond fence, and peeing against the corner of the fence - which has enough gap so the stream could enter my yard (now fixed with a piece of angle rivetted in place!). I shone the torch on his face & told him to "stop snooping around in the night peeking over neighbours fences or I'll call the police" - he apologised profusely....with a very slurred voice!
The next morning I went around & knocked on the door. A very red-faced neighbour appeared. I told him I don't care if he gets smashed at the pub, but he's to stop trying to get into my yard. He then mentioned, very sheepishly, that he didn't remember what happened last night, nor does he remember any nights, Turns out he sleeps in the garage when he comes home drunk, as she won't let him in the house! I told him matter-of-factly that his behaviour was upsetting the neighbourhood dogs, and he then admitted that his wife made him write the letters to council!.

We haven't had any problems since! So there can be happy endings!


And while on the topic of hot cars.... I own a couple of fairly loud 'weekend' toys, and I also have mates who visit in very loud V8s as well. I make sure I never run the cars for any length of time except 9-5 on weekends, and in the morning & evening hours, if I have to move one, it is started, moved, and shut off immediately. One night I had a mate leave late. I apologised to the next-door neighbours, who informed me that they didn't hear it (dunno how!) and then proceeded to tell me they didn't know I had 2 noisy cars as it never bothered them.

We're also apparently the "best neighbours we've ever had" as far as never knowing if we're home or not unless they see the lights on! Our nosy neighbour at the previous house for 8 years said the same thing, but a little more un-nerving. He commented once that the only way he knew we were on holidays is that the sequence of toilet & bathroom light on/off pattern wasn't happening when we were away.

I'm quite proud of the fact that I can have my hobbies, and not annoy the neighbours.

All it needs is a bit of give & take - but the noisy neighbour must have consideration for others first.