Neighbors

2000 Archive

2001-2002 Archive

My husband and I used to live in a new townhouse development; we were one of the first to move in, so we had no inkling of what our neighbors would be like prior to spending a large sum of money for housing. We left our bedroom window open about an inch year-round for fresh air. We're not loud people; of course we'd shut the window if there was any amorous activity happening for privacy. One of the neighbors' patios, though, was almost directly under our master bedroom window. Her evening entertainment was listening in on our most intimate conversations -- well, at least till we figured out she was doing it. (She would ask us about things in our lives she had no other way of knowing about than eavesdropping on our nightly conversations.) We also started hearing things we'd said to each other coming back to us from other neighbors she'd spoken with. One evening, my husband decided he'd had enough of the eavesdropping neighbor. She was out on her porch again, so he figured he'd give her something to remember. He quietly pushed the window open a bit further, then called out, "Hey! Take these fur-lined handcuffs off me!" I just looked at him. He then broke into a huge grin and called out, "Did you bring the whipped cream and chocolate sauce up here?" He put on quite a show for the nosy neighbor; I could barely contain my laughter!

Sure enough, the doorbell rang the next day. It was the neighbor, and she was obviously agitated. She didn't even wait for me to invite her in. She promptly started lecturing me on my lack of "moral fiber," telling me that there were "children in the neighborhood," and that the neighbors "wouldn't stand for your type of sexual exploits". I was so stunned that she would believe it was any of her business what we did or didn't do in our own bedroom, my mouth dropped open. When I finally recovered my voice, I told her that nothing had been going on in our room the night before besides a performance especially for her. I also told her that if I ever caught her spreading any information about our supposed "exploits," I'd tell the entire neighborhood that she had been eavesdropping on every neighbor bordering her condo, and that she'd been doing it for months. I then shut the door in her face. Interestingly enough, we started shutting our bedroom window every evening, and she found another hobby. neighbors0129-03

When we moved into our apartment (a house divided in half) we had nice neighbors. It was an old farmhouse so the walls weren’t thick, all that meant is we had to be considerate of the neighbors. Simple things like waiting until after four to do laundry if they were working nights. It worked out fine for everyone, unfortunately after a year and a half they had to move.

Enter evil neighbor #1.

"Pam" and her 19yr old daughter "Shelly" were moving away from an abusive husband and father. Both had lived their whole lives on a farm far, far away from their closest neighbors. Apparently they never realized that they had to make some changes when they moved into town. Like get rid of their cats. At one point I think they had over 14 in a small three-bedroom apartment. Most were female none and were fixed so about 70% of the time all you could hear was meowing. Because it would bother them, they put the offending cat in their porch, right next to my bedroom.

While at a friends for the day her husband got the wrong house and tried to break in our window. Fortunately our dog stopped him, but chased after him and we spent all night looking for her. Considering their circumstances, and that it wasn’t their fault, we still tried to be nice. We helped them move half their belongings out of the farmhouse, shared our cable, and listened to Pam when she needed to talk. We worked out an arrangement where if they drove us to the cheapest grocery store (next town over) we would split gas, saving both us money. My mom offered Pam legal advice and set her up with my great uncle, an investment banker/financial planner.

They then called the landlord and complained that we kept bugging them for rides and favors so we stopped talking to them.

Then Shelly got laid off for the winter. My mom worked 9-5 Mon-Fri and I worked nightshift. Shelly would play LOUD music day and night, often we could have our TV on full blast and still not hear it. I even went out and bought new speakers, but they were no match for theirs. We shared a driveway with room for 5 cars and we never had a parking space. After 6mths of this Shelly got called back to work.

Then she would call and say my music was too loud, which meant as soon as she could hear it. I listened to it on the computer and was only two feet away from the speakers; you couldn’t even hear it on the other side of the room. Then they told our landlord that our 2 dogs barked all day and night. They only barked for a few seconds each time someone came to the door, which wasn’t often.

One day the ceiling started leaking and we went up to see if we could help fix it. It had been a year since we were in their apartment and I don’t think it was cleaned once the whole time we were gone. We found the source of the leak though. Apparently it takes a lot of kitty litter to keep 10+ cats. So they used a bedroom as a litter box! Now I don’t mean a bedroom full of litter boxes but right on the carpet. EWW!

Finally after 2 ½ yrs they moved out. The final straw was they told our landlord they had paid us $250 to clean their apartment out.

Because of all the work that needed to be done our landlord decided that he would rent the apartment out to 4 teenage boys while making repairs. Obviously our landlord isn’t too bright.

I’ll give the boys some credit, they were quieter, that is until they got and electric guitar and drum set. They only had one pet, a male dog that they refused to keep on a leash. We had to fence in our back yard to keep it away from our females. One Saturday night, morning actually, we had to call the police because they were snowboarding down the stairs. They lasted four months.

We have a new neighbor who seems nice but thankfully we will soon be buying our first house, where there is more then a ceiling separating us from Neighbors From Hell. neighbors0114-03

Several years ago, I moved into a leased house in the suburbs. On moving day, I was getting settled into my new home as the movers had just brought my belongings from my old home. I heard the sound of water through the pipes. Looking everywhere, in the house, I found no water running. I went outside and found a garden hose attached to my faucet leading to the house next door. As I had to pay for my own utilities, paying for my neighbors water was not in the budget. I turned off the water, unhooked the hose and tossed it into the yard next door. Only then did I meet the neighbors. They said they had a previous agreement to "borrow" water from the previous tenant of my house. They did not have the agreement with me and I asked them keep their water hoses on their own property.

I contacted my Landlord and found out that the neighbors did not have an agreement with the tenant, in fact they were one of the reasons they moved! These deadbeats were so behind on their utility bills that after the water and electric company cut them off for non-payment, they hacked their way into the utility meters, turned electricity and water back on themselves. When the utility companies found out, they removed the meters completely. It got to the point that if I left my home for extended periods of time, I would turn off my water at the meter level to prevent their "borrowing". Calling the utility companies was useless since there was no meter on their property, my neighbors showed up as a vacant lot on their computer system. The local police were just as useless as they would have to catch them in the actual theft act to make an arrest. My word was not good enough for them.

With my Landlord's assistance, they were eventually evicted by their Landlord since they were also several months behind on their rent. When they moved, in the middle of the night, I discovered later they used a portable shop light lit by an extension cord plugged into my patio outlet. Neighbors0116-03

My mother in law lives 800 miles away and comes to visit our family a couple times a year. When she comes, she always takes a couple rolls of pictures of our three boys. She had been at our house for a few hours during her last visit when there was a fire at our next door neighbor's house.

These neighbors have 5 or 6 adult girls from their past marriages who come and go, live there, then don't. One has a small boy who runs rampant through the neighborhood, enters houses without knocking, leaves his wagons, cars, bikes and portable slides strewn throughout our yard, calls people "the N word"... They don't inform him to clean up his toys from neighboring yards when they scream from their back door for him to come home, so we eventually have to drag it all back into their yard when we get tired of looking at it. (Once we trimmed a tree for them which was near the border, but in their yard. My husband climbed our ladder, used our tools to cut it at their request, and they stood beneath and pulled all their branches into our yard, instead of to the curb 20 feet away.)

ANYWAY, their front room begins to smoke and they all ran out of the house. I ran over to ask that boy's mother, who had a new baby, if she wanted to come over and get the baby out of the wind, the smoke, the fire fighters way, etc. I cleaned the baby's face of vomit, and she went back 3 minutes later. I did manage to convince the little boy to stay on my porch so he could safely watch without being in harm's way. Things died out fairly quickly, everything was under control, the fire fighters were chucking assorted smoky items out of the window and the family was just milling around the yard chatting on cell phones and such.

My young son was sitting on our porch swing with a friend and my mother in law decided she had to take this cute picture. She ran inside for her camera and I ran upstairs to change our baby's diaper. A few minutes later she came in, shocked, explaining that one of these neighbor's adult girls screamed at her from their yard as she took the pictures facing their direction.. "DO YOU FIND THIS INTRIGUING??? WHAT, ARE YOU INTRIGUED?" Then held up both middle fingers.

When my husband found out about this he marched over there, despite my pleading that he wait till another day when their lives had settled down. He said to the lady of the house that he would like to think his mother could come take pictures of her grandchildren once a year without being accosted by her daughter. She said "Sorry...maybe my daughter thought she was being a nosy neighbor." Unfortunately, my MIL did not get a picture of the sweety with her fists in the air. I would have loved to blow it up to poster size, signed it "Good Job, Your Idol, Jerry Springer" and mailed it to them. Neighbors0121-03

I have two particular doozies for you! The background is that my boyfriend and I moved interstate, and we were to stay/live with his brother "Keith" and his girlfriend "Jill". When we got there Keith and Jill were both excited and Jill was super friendly and very welcoming, even once saying 'Please don't move out, it's great having you live with us!'.

Fast forward to exactly 8 weeks later. I had recently got my first 'post university' job. Jill had just traveled to her sisters wedding which she had been really excited about, chatting away about the bachelorette party and the dresses. When Jill and Keith returned from the (interstate) wedding everything was different. Jill would no longer speak to us (especially me) and started leaving little notes around the house, which were basically instructions. To this day I have no idea what we did to upset her. There was a note on the lid of the garbage bin stating what could be put in there and what could not be put in there, there was a note in the bathroom stating what MUST be done with the empty toilet rolls. She stopped cleaning around the house (which is something she and I initially did together) and stopped buying 'shared' items (which is something both couples initially did. By shared items I mean things like hand soap or olive oil), and stopped cooking (formerly a loose arrangement where we would take turns). All the thing she decided she wasn't going to do anymore I had to cover (we were guests afterall and I didn't feel I had any right to say anything). I found out through my boyfriend who found out from people they all knew (they were all members of a sports team which I do not belong) that she has started 'talking' to everyone that we had only moved interstate to live with them to sponge off them! Now, in this household of 4 adults, I was the only one employed full time with a career! She worked mornings and afternoons looking after children (a minimum wage job.) (That may sound elitist, distinguishing between 'career' and 'minimum wage job' but as I had worked many minimum wage jobs to put myself through college I feel I can make that distinction.) AND I was the one doing all the cleaning, cooking and shopping! (BTW I later found that she DID shop, but actually hid the stuff from my boyfriend and I in a different cupboard). 

Thinking that we had obviously outstayed our welcome, my boyfriend approached Keith and said 'We think it's time we left. Jill is making us feel VERY unwelcome'. Keith (who didn't seem to have noticed the tension in the house) was astounded and was adamant he did not want us to go, and that he would speak to Jill about her actions. Well, we stayed but nothing changed for the better. In fact, it got worse. Nothing of ours was allowed anywhere in the house except our room (the smallest bedroom in the house). We would put some of our things in the spare room/(her) storage room, but they would be removed and piled next to our door. Thinking there must have been some mistake, we put the things back in the spare room. Nope, they were right outside our bedroom door again. Remember Jill's little notes? Her next one was on the washing machine stating that conditions of the use of the machine were that we had to recycle her dirty washing water! That basically took the cake. I mean, isn't the purpose of washing clothes to get them clean? How can they get clean being washed in dirty water? Re-using your own water is gross, but re-using someone else's water, that is beyond description!

Shortly after that we decided that we had to go. We secretly found a beautiful apartment nearby, signed the lease and told Keith and Jill 'We're moving this weekend'. Since we had moved from interstate we had no furniture, no housewares, nothing. So we proceeded to fill our new apartment with the things we needed. We also had to get a room mate to fill the spare room and help pay the rent (more on him coming up). Well, Jill came over and she is so jealous of all our nice new things and our nice apartment! (All the things in Keith and Jill's house were chosen by Keith's ex-fiancée and not by Jill). When she comes over to our house she still does not speak to me. But that is fine, I can never forgive her for the way she treated us. I have nothing to say to her. What I love too is that the whole of Keith's family (except Keith of course) have also realized what she's like!

The second part of my story on room mates from hell involves our new room mate "Brad". Like I previously explained, we had to fill our apartment with the household things we needed. We have ended up with a very nice set up. Despite the fact that Brad sheds hair like there is no tomorrow, and doesn't seem to understand the purpose of a toilet brush, the thing that really got me was one night (when my BF and I were out) he invites a girl around for dinner. He makes her dinner (using our utensils) and they eat at our new table and then cozy up on our new sofa, watch our TV and DVD etc. Later, we hear from a friend with whom this girl works (Brad also works there) that the girl has been going around telling people what a great apartment and furnishings Brad has. The friend (who knows that Brad is only subletting a room from us and has contributed nothing to the household) then says to the girl (Brad's date) 'That apartment is "Kelly" (me) and "Sean's" (my boyfriend) apartment!' And Brad's date goes 'Oh no it's not! Brad told me that he bought the apartment after finding it through his extensive real estate contacts and that he spend weeks looking around all the shops to find the perfect furnishings. They are only sub-letting from him! The whole apartment and everything in it is his!' Our friend then set her straight, and now she doesn't speak to Brad anymore!

I can't wait for the day when we're financially stable enough to no longer need to have room mates....how sweet and simple life will be! :-) neighbors0206-03

Imagine this-next door neighbors ask me to take care of their kids for an afternoon. I wait for them to comeback and get 'em. They had taken off to a local motel for 3 days without telling me. No thanks, no nothing. I have been kind to various friends who have stabbed me in the back (here's a tip for you-DON'T lend money, EVER) and have given up part of my life, my food, and my apartment to them, including doing them the kindness of letting them stay for a long time. I asked for rent, food money, anything, but nothing was forthcoming. They hogged my computer, drank my coffee, needed busfare home, etc etc... the last step was when a "friend" of mine introduced me to a friend of his who was suffering. Brought him over and introduced him... then this "friend" shows up with no place to stay. I let him stay for a while, on the idea, that he had a certain length of time to get a job, get his act together, and get out. Well, turns out this "friend" of his was a crackhead, and this other "friend" didn't know that. I found out after he offered me some. I gave him until the end of the week to get his stuff together or else. I thought I'd locked up my new bike. I hadn't, and my DVD player got swiped. Another "friend", the same one, and a different one, from next door, both just showed up, and dropped their stuff off at my place, just to store it long term, without a word of explanation or thanks...After much soul-searching, I decided that I was much better off without any of these "friends", and so dumped them. They also got a place of their own to stay at...I just hope that one day, someone treats them as lousily as they have treated me...maybe neighbors0208-03

Hi! I feel bad submitting these stories because I really feel sorry for the two neighbors involved. But they're also funny examples of weird neighbor tactlessness.

First neighbor story happened to my parents, not me. Mrs. C. moved into the house across the street. Mrs. C. is a very elderly lady who suffers from many ailments, including numerous health problems and a daughter she doesn't get along with. I have heard from this daughter that she is very wealthy, and that this comes from EXTREME frugality. Her frugality prompts her to live alone in a mostly unlighted house full of unpacked boxes and suitcases. I imagine it's her loneliness that prompted her activities, which is why I feel bad about the whole situation.

Mrs. C would come over, unannounced, to various neighbors' houses. Once you opened the door, she was inside and sitting at your kitchen table, ranting for hours (yes, hours- totally oblivious to hints- even if you were wearing your coat and were on your way to the store, etc.) about her ungrateful family and her deceased husband. My mother, who has to be the kindest and most non-confrontational woman in the world, let her do this for months out of compassion. The other neighbors, however, nipped it in the bud fairly quickly.

The clincher came when my mother was out of town, and had one of the local boys taking care of the dogs for her. Mrs. C. came over for one of her usual visits when the kid happened to be there, and refused to believe that Mom wasn't home. (She'd spotted another neighbor hiding in the kitchen once upon her arrival and making her husband lie that she wasn't there, you see...). She barged into the house and sat there, waiting indignantly and ranting. The kid was terrified of her at this point (he was only 13 at the time) and finally called his mother, who called our other next-door neighbor. Mrs. C. had at this point gone into the bathroom and locked the door. (The bathroom visits...let's just say bathroom visits lasted much longer than necessary, even for an elderly lady, and were usually accompanied by peeks in the medicine cabinet for medicines that might help her with the open bedsores on her legs. I'm not making this up.) The whole thing ended with both ladies pounding on the bathroom door and finally evicting her. MRs. C. was pretty furious with the neighborhood, and maintained her indignant outrage even after she realized the poor kid (who had suffered considerable abuse at her hands as her ill-fated lawnmower boy) had been telling the truth all along.

Second story concerns our current neighbor, and his ongoing struggle to improve our lawnkeeping habits. So Mr. P has been living next door for about 5 years now. We're not too sure of his background, save that we suspect that he was a landscaper at some point and is now an alcoholic. My husband and I are graduate students living on our meager stipends, which means we have little free time for puttering about the yard. We try to keep it tidy, we try to mow at least once every other week, we try to trim our bushes and rake our leaves and get our garbage to the curb on time. We're not perfect. There's times when we just haven't got around to it yet. I just want it known that our house is certainly not surrounded by a huge jungle of overgrowth, like the house two doors down. 

ANYWAY..... It started with P. raking our leaves for us one day. We found this out when he came to the door and informed us that he had done so, and did we have any garbage bags? Startled, we told him we'd pack the leaves up later. He then asked us if we'd repay him with a beer. Sorry, we replied truthfully, we don't drink beer. He looked disappointed and left, and packed up all the leaves in empty beer boxes which (of course) the trash guy wouldn't pick up, and so they sat in our garage for a whole year. (Not because we were too lazy to pack them into bags. We did that. Philly trash guys do not collect trash bags full of leaves. To this day we're still not sure HOW Mr. P got rid of them...)

Then we started to notice that our bushes were taking on new and fascinating shapes. AFTER we had trimmed them ourselves. Our trimming apparently wasn't good enough the first time around. He made it a point to trim them the same day, once we were finished.

Behind our house is the alleyway which has all the garages- in our case it is a wind tunnel. Due to a little slope of our lot, all the garbage that blows up the alley collects right by our back door. No, we do not go out to pick it up every windy day. Why? Because NOBODY SEES THE ALLEY except for the people who drive it. And Mr. P. Who left us numerous "anonymous" notes telling us to "get with the program" and signing them "the Community Betterment Council." My favorite bit is when he rants about the plastic bags that get stuck in the tree. We have told him numerous times that we don't HAVE a ladder- are we supposed to grow wings to retrieve them?

It's gotten to the point where we will find that our trash has been moved to the curb for us- before we got to it. Our recycling bin is being used for whatever trash/leaves/beer bottles Mr. P. pleases, and of course we've been asked nicely by the trash collectors not to do that anymore. Argh.

We've never confronted him about it. For one thing, he's a little creepy- there's just something a little off in his manner, even when he isn't drunk. We figure it's better for us to just play dumb and try to keep up our yard as best we can, and if he wants to make it perfect, better to let him blow off the steam that way than making a big stink over it. (We've even discussed the possibility of paying him back for his time....though we just can't overlook the insult it represents, so our pride won't let us. Does this put US slovenly students in etiquette hell? *grin*)
Thanks for the rant! Neighbors0210-03

Love your site! It has given me many hours of laughs and tips as to what not to do regarding my upcoming wedding. But I'm not sure where this story belongs. A few years ago, just after finishing 2 years of college, I decided to get my own place for the first time. My parents advised me that it would be best to get a roommate as we lived in a resort city in Florida and the cost of living is pretty steep. So I took their advice and someone introduced me to a friend of a friend who was looking to rent her house out (we'll call her "Christy"). Christy had fallen on hard times (she was 7 or so months pregnant with her first child, and her husband had been killed a few months before. Very sad) and was looking for some help with maintaining her house. I went and met her and we liked each other, so right then Christy started showing me her house, where I would stay, what she would and wouldn't allow, and it was all very reasonable. So we agreed that I would live there, pay rent, help with the upkeep. I was very excited, as it would be my first time living on my own, plus she was very nice so I figured we could be good friends. Plus she'd be having a baby, and I love kids. What could go wrong, right?

Well, we kept in touch and agreed on a date when I would move in. I started packing up my stuff and loaded my car. I made sure and called Christy the day before to confirm and she said sure, couldn't wait for me to get there etc. Ok. I set out, paid at the toll, arrived at her house. Her car wasn't there, but I didn't really think anything of it. But when I got up to the door, there was a note taped to it with my name on it. Completely befuddled, I read the note and it said something to the effect of she was having some problems with her mortgage company and she was very sorry but I couldn't move it.

I was so shocked, I just turned around and got back in my car and drove back home. On the way, anger slowly began taking the place of my shock and I was completely upset and insulted. I realize it wasn't her fault that she was having problems, but I had spoken to her the DAY before and she didn't mention it. Why hadn't she told me on the phone? Or better yet, why hadn't she been at her door and told me in person? Am I wrong, or was that completely rude of her to do? I never spoke to her again and a couple months later moved out of state. I hope she is doing better and is teaching her child better manners than she showed me.
Neighbors0213-03

I live by the motto, "Live and let live." So, when my husband and I finally moved into our first new home, we were over the moon. We had two children and one on the way. 

A few months on, the vacant block of land next door was cleared and a house slowly started to rise. I say slowly, because the owners were also the builders. They were also kin to the "Beverly hillbillies," on a quarter acre block. As the house got to the lock-up stage, they started to move into it, virtually camping in their house. They never actually managed to put any coverings down over the concrete floor as long as they lived there. Every time they took a load of builder's rubbish to the dump, they came back with a load of 'furniture that somebody had been stupid enough to throw away.' Do you get the picture? 

Outside was worse. The yard surrounding the house had grass at least three feet (one meter) high. We had no fences yet, although my husband was spending every spare moment landscaping our block, as we needed somewhere safe for the children to play. We were on a new estate with not many residents and, consequently, there wasn't much traffic, but we still needed barriers. Because of the animals. No, I'm not referring to the two legged ones, but the four legged ones that the two legged variety insisted on keeping in their 'yard.' They had chickens, goats, dogs and/or horses at any given time. The chicken feed was kept at the back of the house in a box. The field mice for miles around moved in next door not long after the chickens did. This then, brought a variety of snakes, some of them nasty. A particularly deadly one was the "Brown snake." It is a snake that all Australians know to fear. Our Siamese cat brought baby ones home to play with, or maybe he thought life was a bit dull in the country and he needed to liven things up a bit! They certainly gave me spurts of energy I hadn't felt for a while. 

We had an old mower that we used to keep down any long grass on our lot, but the "Billies" didn't, so they borrowed ours, along with the fuel to run it, about every eight weeks. I was told, in all seriousness, by his wife that "Mr. Billie" couldn't do heavy physical work like mowing or concreting because it made him "sweat," so she did all the manual labor around the house. After about two years, the poor old mower couldn't cope any more and was laid to rest at the tip. As it was early winter, we didn't miss it much, so it wasn’t till spring that we had a problem. That's when 'Mrs. Billie' came over and suggested the name of a place where we could buy a second hand mower, at a bargain price!

They got the house finished eventually, sort of. I thought that it was a lot of money to spend, to house a lot of garbage. Then, wonder of wonders, they won the lottery. $AU440,000! Mr. Billie promptly went to work and told his boss where he could put his job. The Monday following the win, they had their 'photo's and story in the paper. A week after they won, they invited everyone they knew to a party. You just had to bring your own drink! Three weeks after they won, they bought a truck and took all their furniture back to the dump. Then they filled the truck with all the stuff that held sentimental value and headed off to their Utopia.

As they didn't want to cause discord among their extended families, the Billies sold the house to "friends" of theirs, at very reduced interest. The friends had two boys who were so intimidated by the mother, they wouldn't breathe unless she told them to. Until the mother wasn't around; then they became demons. The eldest boy was the same age as my eldest, so they formed a friendship of sorts, although my son's best mate was a kid up the road, whom he had known since he was about two and a half years old. 

I kept to myself and didn't make contact with the mother for six months. I was a 'fraidy cat. And that's when my peace went out of the window. My cat. . . got locked in their shed over night and made a mess, apparently. "Princess Diana" was telling anybody who would listen, about disgusting animals and what should be done to them, whilst my eldest was one of the listeners. After he finished telling me this, I felt obliged to go over there to apologize. She didn't 'really mean' what she had said, so I was offered a cup of coffee and we made 'nice.' She didn't work, so the next day she came over for a chat.

And stayed. She just went home for changes of clothes from then on. She arrived in her nightdress one day, at 7 am with a cup of coffee in her hand, because she thought I might be busy with the children, and didn't leave until 1am the next day. If I was on my hands and knees cleaning out the closet in the kids bedroom, she would lie down on the bed with a cup of coffee and just talk at me. When I was getting the evening meal ready, she would sit at the dining table and talk at me. By this time I had four children and tea time was a little like bedlam but it wasn't unusual for her to offer to set the table and then set it for her and her sons as well. I don't know what her husband had to eat. One day my husband had to go out somewhere and I had a very interesting two hours, not telling her where he had gone. When he came back and saw her there still, he bellowed, "Are you still here, don't you have a home to go to?" She just laughed as if it was a joke.

I had invited my mother-in-law over for lunch and for a week before the event, I kept dropping the hint that I was getting visitors on that day, thinking that she would take the hint and stay at home. Boy. . . was I stupid. Getting three kids off to school and trying to clean up, I was totally floored when she appeared at the door with the eternal cup of coffee, five minutes after I returned from the school run with all our children, (hers and mine.) She sat at my dining table until Mother-in-law arrived, then promptly took over the lunch. My Mother-in-law thought that I had invited "Princess Diana" too, so she did her British best to be gracious. Five minutes before I served lunch, 'Diana' excused herself and disappeared out the back door. Finally, I thought, she's doing the right thing. Until she walked back in the door ten minutes later with her arms full of clothes saying, "Don't worry about me, I've already eaten."

Mother-in-law and I had snatched a short break when "Diana" had stopped to top up her coffee, and started talking about sewing, which we both had an interest in. Diana had gone home to get some things she had that needed mending. So I offered suggestions about how to fix each problem and went on to have lunch, trying to ignore Mother-in-laws shocked look at my rudeness, I thought. She had eventually become aware that everything was not as it should be, and the look on her face was her realization at what was happening. As she had never experienced the like of it before, she couldn't hide the surprise she was feeling.

My husband decided that we needed to get away for a few days after Christmas, so we asked 'Diana" to look after our cat who had just had kittens, and bring our mail in while we were away. When we got back, we found that every letter had been steamed open and then resealed.

One day, I picked up all the kids from school and when we got home there was no Diana, after not seeing her all day, I was a little concerned. I fed her boys along with my own and kept my eye on them. This went on for nearly two weeks before I was told that she had a job. To go from being told of every pimple she had as a teenager, to not being told that she had a job, or asked if I would mind looking after her sons was a very radical shift. Her kids could get into their house, so I felt no compunction about dropping them off after school and taking my children to a park or something until after she got home.

One day, we got home and my eldest son raced over to his best mate's house, where 'Diana's' son and a much bigger boy were terrorizing the smaller boy. Luckily, my son was even bigger still and, threatening the two bullies, he sent them off without a fist flying. As he walked back home later, he had to cross 'Diana's' footpath and she rushed out to collar him and threatened that if he ever laid a hand on her boy, she would, "toe him up the a....se." When he told me this, I seethed. As soon as his father came home I told him, fully expecting him to right the injustice, but he just thought that it was a silly kid thing and laughed. So I seethed some more, all night long.

The next morning I was waiting. As soon as I heard her leaving her house to go to her car, which was parked on the driveway between the two houses, I stomped out there with all my womanly fury. Never was I so glad that we didn't have a fence yet; climbing over one or going around one would have seriously impeded my stomp. I let her have both barrels of my ire, out in the open and in front of a guest she had with her, whom I didn't see through the red rage filming my vision. We never spoke again. My husband and I sold our house a few weeks later and I have never tried to make friends with neighbors again. Neighbors0304-03

I live in an apartment with two other girls, and we are all pretty close friends with two other girls who live down the hall. This is the week of our Spring Break, and being poor, none of us went anywhere. We still had fun hanging out with our neighbors though. Until last night, however.
After I got off from work, I was bored and lonely (my room mates were at work), so I went down the hall to hang out with "Sandra." We sat around and drew pictures (I said we were bored) and watched t.v. Eventually hunger set in, so we went to the grocery store to buy a pizza for dinner. As we came back to the apartment building, we ran into Sandra’s room mate "Jessica," who was on her way to go tanning. We figured that we would see her later, so we went and cooked our pizza at my place.

As we were eating our dinner, Jessica and another friend of ours "Trina" came over and started to drink. Ok, fine. They were talking about getting together with some guy friends of ours, so I just figured that they would leave. I was wrong. About 15 minutes later, Jess gets a phone call from one of the guys, and she invited them over to my place. She didn't ask if it was cool....she just did it. The guys come over and are wasted. I mean falling down drunk. They could never figure out whose apartment it was they were so drunk. One of the guys brought a friend from work, but he was nice and friendly and sober, and he chatted with all of us. The guys decide that they are famished, so Jess goes and takes them to the grocery store. When they come back, they bring back an even drunker guy, who sat around singing loud off-key versions of popular rap songs. He would stand on our coffee table and take shots and throw glass on the floor. Thankfully, nothing broke. Jess never tried to curb his behavior, and was actually proud that she had brought this drunken oaf back with her. People kept getting louder and louder, and more people kept showing up. 

By this time my roomies were home, and one was trying to sleep. I wanted to go to bed, since I worked in the morning, but I felt bad leaving my one remaining roomie with the drunks. Finally, at 1:30 am, I got up the nerve and kicked everyone out. Jess went ahead and invited the party over to our sorority house, without asking if it was cool with the girlswho live there. I was just angry at Jessica’s behavior. Not only did she invite a bunch of people over to my place to drink without asking, she never offered to move the party down the hall to her place. We had already gotten one noise violation, and a second one would have resulted in a hefty fine. I kept telling people that, but no one would listen. I really don't like it when parties are held at my apartment when my roomies and I aren't up for it. Neighbors0312-03

My family and I have lived across the street from "The Bumpus'" family for about 8 years now. They have a yard that resembles the city dump/auto graveyard, however, not wanting to cause friction, I had ignored that. We sometimes look out our window and make Bumpus comments about their comings and goings. I admit we are not high class, nor are we snobs, but they are to be believed. Once I returned from the dentist with my little one, who told Mr. Bumpus where we had been, He replies with a mouth full of black, green and yellow teeth that all dentists are rip-off artists and I am nuts to "waste my money on it".

My biggest problem has been with their dog. Up until 2 years ago, I was constantly catching their dog, and returning it to their yard, a favor, I figure, since we don't want the dog-catcher getting it, although it is rumored to be vicious. I tolerated the dog until about 2 yrs ago. I don't know if this is a true etiquette problem or not, you decide. ... I get a phone call at work one evening from my two oldest children, 14 & 15 yrs old. The Bumpus dog has been out of his yard again. Oldest Bumpus kid is riding his bike, and Bumpus dog is loose and upon arrival home my kids realize the dog has a dead cat in his mouth. My youngest, 4 at the time is horrified. While on the phone with me another neighbor followed them home and proceeded to confront the kid and dad about how horrible this is etc. 

As time goes by, the next day, I have the Mounties on my doorstep, who ask me what do I know about it. I retell what my kids have told me. The humane society is apparently trying to find the dead cat, and my son tells the Mounties, that he thinks they buried it in their yard. It takes the Humane Society about 4 or 5 visits to seize the dog, and dig up the cat. Mr. Bumpus washed his hands of it, but Mrs. Bumpus would not let them in and it took 4 police officers, and 2 Special Humane Constables to get the dog. The Bumpus's go all over town, including writing a letter to our local papers to say, it is all our fault the dog was seized. A petition went all over town and every one in our general neighborhood signed it to say the dog was a danger to every small child and small animal in the neighborhood. Mrs. Bumpus said it was the CATS fault, because it shouldn't have been out. (apparently the dog had chased it and killed it in one grab)...

We decide to ignore them to the best of our ability. Meanwhile I get a new car and Mrs. Bumpus decides this is the prime time to start parking her rattle trap by executing a U turn about 1 inch from the side of my car, so I start to park on the lawn. She screams at me from her window that I am a snob, buying my car, and displaying in on my lawn. I did not reply.

Eventually this goes to court & the witness room is like a neighborhood block party with about 8 police officers and 4 Humane Society Officers and all the neighbors crammed into a tiny room. Finally the judge rules, that due to a technicality, the dog gets to live and the Bumpus's don't have to pay any of the 500 or so dollar impound fee. NONE of us testified!!!

Upon arrival home THAT day, I receive a phone call from the Humane Society. MY two dogs are barking all night and keeping the Bumpus Woman up and if they receive any more complaints my dogs will be seized!!!??? Now I told the nice lady who called me that firstly my dogs are in all night, and secondly, Mrs. Bumpus works all night and sleeps all day and from 4 to 11 is at bingo, and her bedroom is farthest from my house. She would never hear them. I built an 8 foot fence around my dog yard, so she couldn't see them any more. We still barely speak.. Neighbors0520-03

We live in a historic section of an old northern city. This is a true neighborhood with close relationships between many of the neighbors and it is well known for being a very social place to live. When we purchased our house we did so with the knowledge that we had moved into a very active community. It was 2 weeks later that new neighbors moved in next door. A few weeks passed and we met them face to face. The wife had this unyielding desire to let us know that they had looked at the house that we purchased and she would have bought ours since it was so much larger than theirs except she would just have filled it up with porcelain dolls. I guess she collects them. She also turned and said, "I have no interest in socializing with people around here so they should all just keep to themselves when it comes to us." I simply replied she would have no worries on that score concerning us.

Well, fast-forward a couple of years and they have decided to redo their backyard. The shared fence between our properties was leaning and we gave them a key to our
backyard so that they could have someone come in and fix it. We met with their landscaper previously and told him what he is and is not allowed to do in our garden. 

We came home the day of the big fence lifting and all of our plants had been gutted and removed from the yard. I don¹t mean temporarily removed to work on the fence, I mean gone! We freaked on the landscaper and told him he had to pay us for the plants assuming it was his fault and not theirs. Well he explained they told him that it was fine with us since we wanted to redo that section of the yard anyway. We didn¹t make him pay for anything but let them know that we weren¹t pleased. No apologies on their part.

What¹s the old adage "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me"? Well, call me a fool. The husband stopped us in the market one day and told us that they wanted to put up an iron gate to their backyard to match ours and they were hoping we would allow them to use our existing support post. Reluctantly we told them yes and now our gate won¹t latch. We have to pay someone to come out and pull the support beam back to our side because they put a much heavier gate on and won¹t help fix it. Sure I could get legal on them, but it really isn¹t worth it. I did let them know that enough is enough and from now on the only access they will have to our property will be supervised and on our schedule. They have yet to ever offer to pay for any damage they have caused or even apologize.
Neighbors0602-03

First off, love your site. I found it while doing some wedding research, and it has helped me keep my own wedding issues in perspective, as I don't have anything that bad yet (and hopefully won't). I do have two contributions for everyday hell, though--the first regarding neighbors and the second regarding business etiquette.

I recently moved into a brand new apartment complex with my fiancé. We have an awesome fourth floor walk-up (good cardio) and were only the second people to move into building. We work nights, so we're generally asleep when most people are at work and at work when most people are home or sleeping.

After a month or so, a couple moved into the apartment directly below us. A brief summary of their unneighborly behavior: 

They left boxes and moving trash outside their door for the better part of two weeks. I mean, I know that you get tired when you move, and maybe don't feel like dragging it down to the dumpster that night. But two weeks?

2) They have the most obnoxious dogs who incessantly, by which I mean CONSTANTLY, bark, at which time they just put the dogs on the balcony (all the better for us to hear them) and then occasionally open the balcony door to scream at said dogs to shut up.

3) The initial trash issue is chronic.

4) One night, Mrs. pounded on our door at about 9 PM. My fiancé was asleep on the couch, I had just gotten out of the shower (good for her, I would have been much more blunt than my fiancé). She informed us that we were "stomping around" so much that we knocked a picture off her wall, and how lucky we were that it didn't break. Now, as I pointed out, neither one of us were walking, much less stomping, anywhere at the time. She also stated that we needed to respect other people's work schedules (as if we didn't have jobs, and deal with her screaming at her dogs when we're trying to sleep).

5) When I dropped off the rent check, I stopped to chat with E., one of the girls who works in the office (she is also a resident in our building). She told me that Mrs. had been complaining about my fiancé and I because we were so loud and inconsiderate, and why didn't we have jobs, and what could we possibly do that keeps us out until 6 am. Mrs. also implied that she thought we were doing something illegal, or at least immoral, based on "what little" I wear to work and at the pool (generally speaking, a halter and pants to the former and a regular bikini to the latter). E. said she spoke up for us during the complaint investigation (its a big management company, so they have mandatory procedures for all of that), as did our resident security officer. Mean while, I'm disappointed because after living in cheap college apartments for years (where we had interesting neighbors but no real problems), we can finally afford a nice apartment and have such rude, nosy neighbors!    neighbors0623-03

The second story concerns my graduate school roommate, let's call her "Lilah". She went to bed early. Very early, for a graduate student-- 11pm every night. We were both in the dorms for our first year, and our suite was pretty nice-- a large sitting room, and two separate bedrooms. We got along pretty well for the most part, but our problem arose over her sleeping habits.

The first incident was when she was sleeping in her room, and I was trying to watch TV. Mindful of the fact that the TV was close to her door, I'd actually plugged in my headphones so NO noise would escape at all. So I was sitting there, less than 3 feet from the screen so the cord would reach, all for her benefit, when she comes out and huffily asks me to turn it off, because the light from the TV was coming under the crack in her door and keeping her awake! The next incident was much more severe... Now, I admit that it was 3 in the morning. What had happened was that I had been at a small cast party on Friday night for a show I was in, and it ended while some people had gone out to buy cigarettes. Rather than have the people come back and unknowingly awaken the now-sleeping hosts when they returned, I decided to sit by the window of my dorm room on the ground floor (the party was in my building), and intercept them. I did so, and we stood for a minute or two at the door, talking quietly.

My roommate's door slams open, and out she comes, screaming "get out! get out NOW! I'm trying to SLEEP!" Taken aback, they leave. I go to bed, figuring that anyone would be cranky if awakened at 3 am, and that she'd have calmed down enough by the next morning for us to talk about it. I was wrong.

I woke up the next morning to find a note in the common room. And by "note" I mean "two page, single spaced, typed letter," complaining that I ALWAYS woke her up (if I had, this was only the third time total that I'd heard of it), and that I obviously had no consideration for her as a roommate or as a human being, and how I was immature and selfish to have friends over that interfered with her sleep. She then spent another half page complaining about the fact that I'd used her Scotch tape too often. I was still ready to try to discuss things, and headed down to the kitchen to bake some cookies. When I got back there was ANOTHER "note" posted on the outside of our inner door. This one was addressed to any friends of mine who might be entering the room, and threatened to call the police if anyone were to even enter after midnight, ever again. She said they would be arrested for criminal trespassing, and said the penalty was a $150 fine or 30 days in jail, or both, and that she was SERIOUS. She listed the police department's phone number on the notice.

At this point, I was flabbergasted, and a bit angry. After all, she could not individually threaten to call the police if anyone entered the COMMON ROOM after a specific time (the dorm had no rules about it), especially if I'd invited them, and if they hadn't yet made any noise. Her threat was directed at anyone, specifically saying that it didn't matter if they were being noisy or not. I wrote a "note of my own, saying that while I was sorry for her problem with being awakened, I didn't think threats were a reasonable way to solve it. I said I would contact the housing director to set ground rules. I also apologized about the Scotch tape. I left the note on the table, and went out.

When I get home, my note has been written on in three different colors of ink, mostly in capital letters, about how dense and rude I was being. It has also been crumpled up and left in front of my bedroom door. Over the next few days, she makes several phone calls to her parents, friends, sister, whoever, complaining loudly about me while standing right outside my room (she has a cordless phone and could easily have made the calls from somewhere besides three feet away). She slams her door whenever she enters or leaves her bedroom.

She also does not say a word, not ONE WORD, to me for the following three weeks. She communicates through Post-It note when absolutely necessary. The threatening notice on the door stays there, because I am not about to dignify it with any further response after the crumpling-note incident. She doesn't speak to me until our neighbor's room gets burglarized and we actually need to discuss what precautions to take. I'm SO glad I'm getting an apartment next year... neighbors0725-03

I absolutely love your website and thought I might add an experience I had to your "Neighboors" section. My wife and I lived in an upstairs flat for 3 years in a very nice quiet residential neighborhood. Both of us believe strongly in good fellowship with our neighbors and therefore were always pleasant and friendly towards people in our neighborhood. Living in that neighborhood was a great experience and though we moved very far away, we still maintain contact with several of our former neighbors.

We had one neighbor however, who was absolutely the epitome of the worst kind of neighbor one would care to have. Let's call him "Joel."

On one occasion Joel got into an argument with one of his children, we could not help but here yelling and so forth coming from the house. The argument ended with a slammed door that was so loud and forceful that a storm window of his fell out of its window frame and landed in our driveway. There was broken glass everywhere throughout our driveway and this on a Sunday night around 11:30 PM. Well, a few minutes go by and I am expecting a knock at the door or some kind of communication regarding all the broken glass in our driveway, but nothing. Then a half an hour goes by, still nothing. Both my wife and I have to pull our cars out of the garage and down the driveway to go to work the next day so here I am after midnight ringing Joel's doorbell to have this conversation regarding his broken glass in our driveway. Joel comes to the door and looks at me with a confused look so I have to explain to him that the loud sound of glass breaking a half an hour before was indeed his storm window shattering in our driveway. Both of us make an effort to clean it up.

Given that the first storm window of two has dropped out and broken in the driveway, you would think Joel would try to secure the second one... or replace the first but nothing of the sort. A few weeks later we had a windstorm and the second storm window fell out of the frame crashing into our driveway. The crash was so loud the neighbors on the other side of our house came by to see if we were ok. Did Joel come out to clean up his broken glass? Nope. Once more I had to ring Joel's doorbell and have a conversation with him regarding his broken storm window in our driveway. Joel sent his son out to clean it up this time and my wife and I had to go out later because he had done such a half-way job of it. Neither window was ever replaced, and this is in a state that has very harsh winters.

Joel began work on his backyard installing a new garage therefore his backyard was almost entirely ripped up, and with rain and snow became a muddy quagmire. Joel couldn’t figure out how to park cars with his downstairs tenants so that invariably someone was blocking some else's car in the morning so Joel and his tenants would drive through the mud of the backyard and come over to our driveway and pull out that way tracking mud and gravel across our back slab and driveway, right by our rear entrance, so we were forced to walk in mud when we parked our cars and went in through the back door. This happened several times and my wife was getting frustrated so she placed our plastic waste receptacles on the boundary line so these folks would get the hint to stop tracking mud and dirt through our driveway. We found the receptacles moved and more mud. Once more, I have to go over and have a conversation with Joel, this time about tracking mud and dirt across our drive after which this stopped.

Joel likes to fish a lot. Joel would bring his catch home and clean his fish in his backyard usually on his picnic table in the back yard. I would let my dog out on his chain in the backyard which reached no where near Joel's yard. Joel would take it upon himself to feed my dog guts and fish parts on which my dog would get sick. I had no idea he was doing this until I caught him doing it and told him in no uncertain terms not to feed my dog. Back to the fish. Joel would clean his fish and had a habit of leaving the guts and other nasty bits on his picnic table or on the ground, sometimes in newspapers, sometimes not. Well, sure enough we had problems with raccoons and other pests in his backyard and ours (my mini-schnauzer ended up treeing a 'coon on one occasion). So, fearing the safety of my dog and just not liking having 'coons, possums and who-knows-what-else hanging in our yards I had to go have a conversation with Joel telling him that his fish parts were attracting vermin.

I am a pretty easy going guy, I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and especially a man who is not well educated but trying to raise two teenage children without their mother but this last episode was simply the end.

I was still on speaking terms with Joel at the time, though I was finished loaning him articles or engaging in much small talk with him (I'm sure you can imagine why). But one evening he and his girlfriend were in their backyard as I was letting my dog out and he called over and asked me some questions and invited me to have a coffee outside with him. I consented though I regretted it the moment I stepped over into his yard. Joel knew that I had worked for a national political party before and began asking some questions about that...ok, no problem, though I make it a point NOT to discuss national politics with my neighbors except in passing (especially him). He was more interested in my experiences working on the east coast for a national party. Then he began to berate the current president (this was 1998) and rather than excusing myself (the conversation was going in a direction I didn’t like) I made several points, that given his lack of education, put him on the spot to refute (once again very foolish of me).

His response was to tell me that his daughter had been given a police citation and a call was made to him by the police, because she was engaged in a sexual act in a public place (a parking lot) that paralleled the current president's dilemma of a few years prior, and what was more, she gave an answer to her father along the same lines of reasoning as the president at the time had used.

This was simply too much for me. What he said was wrong on so many levels and what’s more his daughter, of the three in the family, was by far the most polite and personable. For example, if she borrowed a cup of sugar to bake cookies she would always come over with some cookies later to share.

I was so incensed by the whole episode I simply said something to the effect that while the situation was quite regrettable; we had moved away from what we were originally discussing and that it was time for me to go inside anyway. Joel's description of the situation was rather graphic and as he was rather loud about it, I think his daughter must have heard the substance of the conversation because after that night she could never look me in the eye or speak but a word or so to me. It was terribly embarrassing for her and myself.

Needless to say, after this incident I would have nothing to do with Joel and when he would encroach on our privacy or do some other thoughtless act that affected us as neighbors I took to asking his son or leaving a note for him.

This man is the very definition of a rude, crass, and boorish neighbor. We were VERY happy to move away from him and I have yet to ever have a neighbor like him since <knock wood>.  neighbors0728-03

As a young lady on a university exchange program from England, I arrived at my small town, Pennsylvania Liberal Arts College with excitement and trepidation. I was therefore pleased that not only was my allotted dorm "the quiet one" but my new roommate was also a recent transfer in my year and this was all new to her too. I thought that this would enable us to bond and really get to be good friends.

A little bit of background...it is unheard of at English Universities to share a room. It is seen as pretty unnecessary, and single rooms don't cost nearly as much as the shared rooms in the States. So here I am, coming from "singlehood" to "roommate-dom" in a strange country, with a perfect stranger.

I was told what room I was assigned and I let myself in. Big surprise was that I was letting myself into a suite, which was a central communal lounge area with three rooms attached. There I met my suite-mates, "Shelley" my roommate, Abbie and Donna. Donna was actually the RA of our floor so she had got the nice room in this cushy suite. I was really pleased, it was going to be so much fun! Shelley and I bought some basic decoration for the place, sewed a wallhanging, cut our names out in construction paper, you know the kind of things college kids do to brighten up the beige walls. Then Donna began moving her stuff into the suite, not into her room...the suite. First a TV, coffee table, bookshelves etc. We were then informed that we would have to ask permission before using the items, and if she wasn't there we weren't allowed to use them. This included the couch, the cushions...everything! So, if she was out of the room (and face it, who is in their room during a busy day at college?) we could sit on the floor on the suite. We couldn't entertain. Nothing. We'd get glares every time she came in and found us (god forbid) sitting on the couch. I got the hint and simply stopped hanging around the suite. My friends could hang out in my room, right? Not a big deal.

Then I found out why Shelley had transferred to this particular college. Her boyfriend "Amos" went to school nearby and she wanted to be closer to him. Very close, as it turns out. She wanted him to stay over...fine. She wanted him to stay over each weekend...okaaaay. She wants him to be able to be in the room every night. Wait a minute, this is my room too! I started staying over at friends places, on couches, floors even just to avoid being there as Amos changes, uses the computer, sleeps, makes noises. He was even in the room for hours on end when Shelley was at class and I wanted to study. So this gets to be every night. The few nights that I am around, I get glares and snippy words (oh, excuse me, I thought I was paying for this room too). Once, Shelley walks in with Amos while I am studying with two other girls. She asked what we were doing there (again, MY ROOM!) and tells us to get out. I say that we are studying and she explains like a parent to a two year old that this is "her night". What???? We never determined nights, because it was EVERY NIGHT! The few nights I did stay in my own room, Donna would throw wild poker nights in the suite until the early hours. Amos didn't stay because he didn't like the noise, well go figure. Finally, I got up at 3am and asked them to keep it down because they were literally SCREAMING with laughter, and I was trying to sleep. And again at 4am. Finally at 4.30am I start shrieking "Please, please keep it down a bit!". Donna just looks at me and says in the most blood curdling tone "Have you got a problem with me because I'm black?". WHAAAAAAATTT??? I was so floored I think I turned around and walked back into my room.

The next morning, I decided that I wanted out. I arranged to sleep ON THE SOFA of another dorm's common area. It was a few weeks before the end of the year and I just didn't want to cause any more trouble. Unfortunately trouble found me. I was asked to come to an "intervention conference" with my suite mates. I sat down, expecting the worst and I got it. Donna and Abbie started on a tirade about how I was racist and didn't participate in anything they did, in fact I didn't even sleep there anymore which proved how much I hated their race. The fact that I was British obviously made my a bigot and a racist and that they wanted to find out what my problem was. The way I was treating Shelley was also just awful they said, and I should explain myself. First of all, I explained, I am not a racist. I don't spend time with them because of how uncomfortable they all make me feel, especially in my own room. No matter how I pleaded, they didn't listen. Instead, they asked SHELLEY to make a formal complaint about my behavior in the shared room (included the times that I had asked her to please give me some alone time in the room, a couple of days a week that Amos was NOT to be in the room etc. Fairly normal and standard requests). So I had a complaint filed against me, just because I didn't complain earlier about their awful behavior towards me.

My advice is, don't tolerate a situation like this one. Draw up a contract FIRST and don't let a roommate argue that "we don't need one, we're both reasonable adults" because YOU SIMPLY DON'T KNOW THAT FOR A FACT! Honestly, this is just the tip of the iceberg on the events of that roommate, but I simply don't have enough time to write all of it down... neighbors0731-03

Page Last Updated May 15, 2007