Had this neighbor move in 4 years ago. Seemed polite enough at first - young guy in his 30s who just bought his first house. I noticed after a few weeks that his yard was unkept. I politely pulled him for a chat, talking about pride of ownership and even offering him help with the yard work.
The guy flat out tells me “I’ll take care of whatever the town enforces, but I don’t care about the aesthetics. If it bothers you, I’m sorry.”
What an attitude, right?! At that point, I couldn’t really so anything except call the town whenever his property gets overgrown. So he does take care of it now and then, but that doesn’t change the fact that it looks unsightly 75% or the time.
Things start to get worse as this neighbor’s hobby seems to be accumulating mechanical trash… lawn mowers, 30 year old cars, even a non-running tow truck! He has a trailer for a crappy “racecar” that he parks in his driveway with all the junk (even though he could hide said trailer next to his garage).
He also did a burnout in his driveway (I’ll admit not long - it was however long it takes for a garage door to open ) which woke up my wife, but apparently is okay since it was 5 PM.
Things took a turn for the worst when he was working on his race car one day (which apparently involves idling incessantly).
I politely asked him to refrain from doing this (it’s illegal in New Jersey), explaining how the fumes bother my wife and I when we’re trying to enjoy our backyard. The little twerp immediately got nasty with me, telling me to call the police and that it’s “his property.” I tell him it’s a residential neighborhood and he should find somewhere more suitable to repair vehicles.
The police did come (multiple times now), but they told him that he’s not breaking any laws since he’s working on the vehicle (WTF?!) Apparently it’s okay to make both noise and air pollution if it’s a “hobby” now ?
Now my neighbor will talk badly about me and my wife to our other surrounding neighbors, even if we’re outside and clearly in earshot.
The neighbor has also made multiple Wi-Fi names “Eyesore Junkyard” and “Socialist Property Value Destroyer.”
The neighbor decided to double down on this “junkyard look” by adding signs typically seen in public or industrial buildings (No Idling, Caution, No Mechanic Work etc). Stuff obviously in retaliation to us calling the police…
I feel like we are being bullied passive-aggressively at this point and have no recourse. The police won’t do anything about it and our neighbors are friendly with the guy.
It’s one thing when people are trash and breaking laws/social norms out of ignorance, but this guy is a stereotypical liberal brainwashed millennial going out of his way to lower his property value, just to spite us and anyone that doesn’t agree with his beliefs.
Here is to hoping that he isn’t a bigger problem when it comes times to selling our house. Who wants to live next to a residential junkyard owned by a pot smoking degenerate?
Rant over !!!
*edit* lol I’m actually the neighbor with mechanical trash but I’m glad the comment section went the way it did