How to handle these three common neighbour disputes

We all want to have Mr. Rogers as our neighbour, but not all of us are lucky enough to have a picture-perfect neighbour who brings over homemade pies and mows their lawn without being asked. If you unfortunately find yourself living beside a neighbour from hell, then we’ve got some solutions on how you can peacefully co-exist.

The course of action you take all depends on what the situation is between you and your neighbour. Are they having parties well into the night? Are they not cleaning up after their pets? Are they being buzzkill? We’ve rounded up some of the most common neighbour disputes and how to resolve them.

The Loud Neighbours

One of the most common problems between neighbours is noise. Everyone is entitled to their birthday bashes and Saturday night soirées, but it stars to become an issue if the noise is excruciatingly loud or goes well into the night and keeps you up. If your neighbour’s loud activity is a very rare occurrence, then the easiest thing to do is to suck it up. But if this becomes a regular thing, then you’ve got a good reason to take action.

First, check your local quiet hours to see if the noise is taking place outside of reasonable hours. If it is, then you need to ask yourself whether this noise is excessive and if it’s affecting the quality of your life. If it ticks off all the boxes, you have every right to ask your neighbour to keep it down. If they don’t listen, keep a log of all their offending noise activity and file a noise complaint with your city.

The Lazy Neighbour

These neighbours are probably very friendly, but for whatever reason they never mow their lawn, they leave their garbage bins out on the curb for days, or they never pick up after their pets. Not only is it unsightly, it could be bringing down the curb appeal of your property.

The good news is you’re most likely not the only one who has noticed these messy habits. Your other neighbours may all feel the same way, which means you can band together to figure out what to do next. You can have someone talk to the neighbour in person and explain the situation. Who knows? You might find out that there was a perfect legitimate reason for their lack of upkeep: a death in the family, a physical disability, a recent divorce, etc. If that’s the case, your neighbours should come together to help take care of the lot until you neighbour can get back up on their feet.

“If you’ve got one of these neighbours in your area, the best thing to do is to avoid retaliation and emotionally charged confrontation.”

The Tattletale Neighbour

“No one likes a tattletale,” as the saying goes. These are the people who, instead of speaking to you directly, immediately tell the authorities when you’ve broken a minor rule, whether it’s letting your pet off leash on your property or having a party that got a little to rowdy. These people are entitled to call the police of your actions have actually caused a serious disturbance, but sometimes they may just want to stir up drama for its own sake.

If you’ve got one for these neighbours in your area, the best thing to do is to avoid retaliation and emotionally charged confrontation. Instead, have a conversation with them to understand what their issue is. Maybe they really are annoyed by your activities, or maybe they just didn’t know you well enough. Having a face-to-face interaction could prevent them from snitching on you in the future.

This information should not be relied on as legal advice, financial advice or a definitive statement of the law in any jurisdiction. For such advice, please consult your own legal counsel or financial representative.