Asshole Neighbors Might Make You Run for the Hills As We Did
Sometimes direct confrontation only antagonizes the person. Try doing an end run to solve the problem.
There’s a reason I live on six acres in a rural area. I absolutely enjoy the beautiful views, but if I’m totally honest, I didn’t want to deal with asshole neighbors anymore.
I thought of those neighbors after reading Shamontiel L. Vaughn’s story, “The Walk of Shame: When you’re ready to buy the home” which offers smart tips to check out the neighbors and the neighborhood before moving in.
In the 15 years immediately before we moved to this rural area, we dealt with some real winners. We called the police (although it wasn’t obvious at first that it would involve our neighbor), we reached out to Animal Control, and we dealt with an annoying Homeowners’ Association (HOA) president who lived next door.
I never expected to have such problems with neighbors. I grew up in a sleepy suburban neighborhood mostly filled with retirees who had purchased homes when they were first built. A few neighbors had dogs but they were all regularly exercised and well-behaved, so we never faced hours of nuisance barking. There was no HOA, either, so I wasn’t prepared for nightmarish HOA rules when my husband and I…
