Ok, we all have them or have had them at some time in our life. The next door neighbors from hell. But how exactly do you deal with bad neighbors? If you are anything like most of us, you grit your teeth, mumble to your spouse and dream about how to  confront them. Or better yet…how to send them packing!

I have "a friend" who has experience in this department - two times over. Prior to moving to her current home, She had a neighbor who let their dog stay out until midnight and later. That dog, tied to a post would bark constantly and would ring in her ears as she retired to bed every evening until her sheer exhaustion would take over and allow her to sleep. She hated that dog and couldn’t understand why such seemingly nice people would be so inconsiderate. Her other neighbors had it even worse as they were within 50 feet of the barking dog with their bedroom window level with the pooch. They just had a newborn baby and sleep was a precious commodity. She was so happy when she moved at the thought of resting her head without the background noise from Fido. And it was nice…until a year later when her new and quiet neighbors decided to move. Enter bad neighbors number two.

Having three kids herself, she was excited to hear that triplets were moving in next door. More kids for her darlings to play with, she thought! She was picturing little toddler triplets all cute in their matching cloths as sweet as pie. But to her surprise, they were 13 year old triplet boys with another 13 year old brother and a 15 year old sister. Yikes!!! Thats a lot of teenagers hanging outside her bedroom window. And we all know how rowdy teenagers can be!

It wasn’t long before the midnight basketball games began with the thumping of every dribble vibrating her from her bed. Then came the new puppy in addition to the other two dogs who would be let out very late at night left to bark for long periods at a time. Then started the 3:00a.m. and 4:00a.m. morning  potty outings that was accompanied by the extreme barking that shook her from a dead sleep. As well as everyone in the entire household, even her newborn baby. Just when you think it can’t get any worse…school started and the carpool would pull up every weekday between 6:20 - 6:30a.m and would honk their horn a few times just inches (or so it seemed) from all of their windows. The basketball practice would now start at 7:00 a.m before school. This was affecting their life! But they were afraid that confronting them would only make matters worse and make them the target of teenage harassment. What was the lesser of two evils??? Then one afternoon they had no choice, the new demon puppy took a chunk out of her daughters leg. There was no more stalling…It was time to talk. But they decided to only address the bite incident hoping that the neighbors would be on their best behavior to get into their better graces. Needless to say, the neighbors were not very receptive and blamed the attack on her daughter as "she was probably harassing their dog" they said. So what are they to do from here???? Why is it that the injured party feels like the bad guy in this type of situation? Since the incident, they act as if they don’t like my friend and are very stand offish because THEIR DOG bit her kid! How did the tables get turned? So what can you do about bad neighbors???

Apparently there are websites and blogs popping up all over the place that give you the opportunity to vent about your neighbors. RottenNeighbor.com is one of them that was recently featured on the Today show last week. I also ran across the website The Neighbors From Hell and Stupid Neighbour that all give you the opportunity to share your neighbor horror stories. Although this sounds like fun, as a Realtor I must give you a word of advice here from a re-sale perspective. You may not want to register your address and name to be forever recorded on a site about bad neighbors as it could severely affect your re-saleability. Who would choose to pay big money to move next to a known bad neighbor!!

These sites are fun and provide an opportunity to vent which is a much better idea than to keep things pent up inside. Those feelings will eventually erupt making it nearly impossible to repair that relationship.  The bloggers over at Gaulard  in their post titled How To Deal With A Bad Neighbor blame much of the problem on "people letting little things fester". He suggests that we all go the extra mile to lend a helping hand, to remember how we were when we were kids and ease up on the judging until you take a good look in the mirror. Here are a few tips on being a good neighbor from Mr. Manners in his post Good Neighbor Relations (we could all use a refresher course)…

• Don’t play loud music or make excessive noise late at night (or at times when you know they are home and might be disturbed).
• If you or your guests smoke, make sure that the smoke doesn’t waft into your neighbor’s home.
• Offer to pick up their papers and keep an eye on their place when they travel.
• Contact them if you see anything awry or suspicious near their house.
• If you have outdoor space, make sure that plants or animals don’t cause a nuisance for them.
• Consult them on decisions that might affect their quality of life.
• Be prepared to make compromises for the sake of good neighbor relations.