No one wants to deal with bad neighbors. it can be a really frustrating situation to find yourself in. Luckily, there’s a lot you can do to ignore them for the sake of your own health and happiness.
Here’s how to deal with bad neighbors
1. First off, make sure you’re not the bad neighbor
It’s easy to see what your neighbor is doing to drive you nuts, but it’s a little harder to understand how your behavior might be affecting them. Because you’ll never get a neighbor to shape up if they think you’re the problem, make sure you’re as close to a model homeowner as possible before approaching them. A few hard questions to ask yourself.
What’s your noise level like? Loud TV, music, or machinery can drive neighbors bananas any time of day. And even normal noise, from say, lawn mowing, shouldn’t be waking them up in the morning or preventing them from enjoying a peaceful evening.
Do you keep things tidy? If your lawn is overgrown or your kids’ toys are strewn all over the place, it can become an eyesore. Neighbors may start to worry about your poor home maintenance hurting their home value.
2. Develop a friendly relationship.
Introduce yourself at the first opportunity so that you have a strong rapport to build upon if a problem arises. It will be a lot harder for your neighbor to keep causing you grief if they see you as a friendly face.
To start a pattern of good communication, tell your neighbor in advance any time you’re having a party, doing a renovation, or anything else that could create noise or commotion.
3. Assume good intention
Don’t go in guns blazing when you approach a neighbor about what’s bugging you. Drop by and approach the subject in a friendly fashion, or, should you need to gently escalate the situation, request that they meet you for coffee. That will indicate that the issue is a big deal to you.
Neighbors often don’t realize that they’re creating a problem, and it’s best to avoid seeming like you’re accusing them. Put yourself in their shoes, and start by assuming that their problematic behavior is not because of any ill will towards you.
4. Be sympathetic if your neighbor complains.
While it’s important to bring up problems to your neighbor in a constructive way, it’s just as crucial to be thoughtful and cooperative when you’re the one accused of poor behavior. The complaint may not make much sense to you for example, leaves from a tree on your property falling into your neighbor’s yard. But it’s more important to be friendly and accommodating than to be “right.” Respond to any complaints or requests the way you’d like them to respond to yours. If you’re willing to try to make their lives better, they’ll be more likely to do the same for you
5. Document everything, just in case.
With luck, you won’t ever need to involve a third-party when sorting out how to deal with bad neighbors, but it’s always possible. While it’s worth doing everything you can to resolve an issue peacefully and willingly, you should also document every step along the way just in case. On the off chance that you need to involve a homeowner association (HOA), a neighborhood group, the city building department, or even the local police or an attorney, maintain a record of relevant dates, times, emails, texts, and even photos, so the facts are at your fingertips if you need them.
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