Woman Shares Her Struggles With Neighbors Who She’s Never Seen Clean Up In The 8 Years She’s Lived There
Neighbors from hell come in all shapes and sizes. Mostly the kind that make a lot of noise or harbor anyone making a lot of noise. Or the kind that manage to irk you by smoking in the shared hallway or banging on your door at 3AM because they mistook it for their own apartment in a drunken stupor.
But there is a higher degree of hellishness that a neighbor can bring forth. And that is without actually even having to directly affect any other neighbor. Not even be seen, to be honest. But still manage to cause a problem.
A woman has recently shared her struggles online about a very—and I do mean very—messy apartment next door where the inhabitants, seemingly, haven’t ever actually cleaned up. She’s worried it’ll be next to impossible to get her apartment sold at this rate.
More Info: Mumsnet
Neighbors from hell can vary in their degree of hellishness, but none seem worse than the ones who seem to be doing absolutely nothing
Image credits: Alan Stanton (not the actual photo)
So, a netizen by the nickname of ChickyNuggies went to Mumsnet, an English online forum for mothers, seeking the internet’s wisdom on a problem she has.
OP lives in a small-ish building with 4 flats in total—two on the first floor and two on the second one, with each floor having their own separate entrance. All seems to be fine and dandy with the neighbors upstairs, but, sadly, the neighbors next door to her are quite messy.
And OP means that in the literal sense. Actually, she means it in quite the extreme sense.
A woman shared her struggles with an extreme case of doing nothing on the part of her neighbors, which translated into a mess of an apartment
Image credits: ChickyNuggies
She claims that in the 8 years she has been living there, she has never heard them vacuuming there. The whole thing stinks like a literal trash can, while, on the outside, she can see actual mold, thick spiderwebs, and heaps upon heaps of dead moths in a sea of dust.
OP also pointed out that she saw a similar mess in their kitchen. Based on her description, one could assume that the thick layer of tar-like substance is in its final form before developing sentience, and the piles of garbage bags explain the roughly 2 take-out deliveries the apartment gets every day. Presumably the deliveries are because the kitchen is permanently out of order.
OP explained how hopeless she feels about ever selling her apartment when the neighbors next door have about 8 years worth of dust and garbage tucked away
Image credits: ChickyNuggies
The woman also recalled how the neighbor’s garage was filled with garbage bags, describing it as a “rat haven”
Image credits: ⊙ ☂︎♙₪୬〰⋀ℵ⊃△ ⊙ (not the actual photo)
Now, you’d think that it’s their apartment, they’re not really actually bothering anyone, so who cares? Well, sure, but OP explains that they got a letter from the local governing institution regarding a complaint about trash slowly but surely decomposing in one of the garages out back. OP never goes there, but since there was a complaint, she checked it out and, sure enough, what she saw was best described as a “rat haven”. And it all belongs to her next door neighbors. She thought it was worth mentioning that the neighbors were two brothers in their mid 30s.
This isn’t the first time a complaint has been filed, as there was another one about the brothers’ car abandoned on the street. It was left unused for so long that it got covered with a thick layer of green mold and was eventually towed.
To make matters even worse, given all of this, OP is considering selling the apartment and moving to a nicer place. The only problem is, though, who would buy a place with neighbors like that?
Commenters suggested several things, while OP took the opportunity to respond with more context to the situation
Just think about it: you can see through the windows what’s going on in the neighboring apartment, complaints are coming in, the garage out back is an infestation waiting to happen, and the neighbor is doing absolutely nothing about this.
“We are going to be stuck here forever because of them, aren’t we?” concludes OP.
Commenters had a lot to say, ask, and suggest on the matter, though. OP spent some time responding to the comments and providing more details. From there, we learn that there’s gossip flying about the street that the brothers have a sad story and the result of it is that they now live in said one-bedroom apartment.
Others speculated that the neighbors have some mental issues that led to the extreme untidiness in their apartment. Plus, OP added that she can’t recall anyone visiting them ever, save for the delivery people.
Yet others thought it’s best to approach appropriate institutions—the environmental health institutions, adult social services, landlords or building managers, or anyone who has more power and is actually a professional who could help remedy the situation.
OP thanked everyone for the suggestions, pointing out that this is all in Scotland, and that there is no building manager involved—everyone’s a home owner and sorts out their own matters themselves. Or doesn’t, in this case.
The post gained quite a bit of attention—enough, in fact, to stand out on the internet, and to draw in several news outlets online. You can check it all out in context on Mumsnet here, but not before sharing your thoughts and other forms of opinions or messy messy stories in the comment section below!
I would assume that there has to be some sort of management company or such that runs the block. Who is responsible for the care of the property, like lawn care and such. In the US, there's generally an association or management company with multi-family housing. Best bet would be to call the department of health or such. Mold is a serious issue; and garbage attracts pests.
In Scotland, no not all flats (apartments) have management companies, usually just the new builds. These flats sound like the post war ex-local authority I used to live in. There is no leasehold in Scotland so as a homeowner there is no freeholder to complain to only the local council who can issue fines etc for environmental health issues. You would have to build up a case of evidence for the issues though which can take a while.
Load More Replies...My brother and sister-in-law lived through a similar situation, but they and the offending neighbor each owned single family detached houses. The neighbors were friendly, which made the situation more difficult. I believe my brother in law ultimately contacted the department of safety after seeing rats crawling around the mountain of garbage in the offender's back yard. He was able to report it anonymously. This was in California, USA, but I think there would be an authority equivalent in Scotland. I wish the OP all the best.
I know in the US if there's a suspected hoarding issue you can call the city/town and they will do a welfare check and make arrangements to make sure the property is cleaned up. You aren't allowed to create a dangerous situation or unhealthy situation for the people around you. If you want to be messy and gross it needs to at least be contained in your home but even then, if there's a fear of rodents, dead animals or creating a dangerous situation for the surrounding apartments or homes there will at least be fines and threats of eviction or even condemn the home. A lot of the time people who are hoarders are not holding down jobs or are on assistance so it's likely they have not made payments or are in debt so they will be forced to clean up or be kicked out. Especially in an apartment situation because you share walls and if they are created a fire risk, they will be at least fined. But if you find any dead animals in the backyard area, consider calling animal control because, believe it or not, they sometimes have even more power. I'm not sure if that's available in Scotland, though or if it works the same.
I would assume that there has to be some sort of management company or such that runs the block. Who is responsible for the care of the property, like lawn care and such. In the US, there's generally an association or management company with multi-family housing. Best bet would be to call the department of health or such. Mold is a serious issue; and garbage attracts pests.
In Scotland, no not all flats (apartments) have management companies, usually just the new builds. These flats sound like the post war ex-local authority I used to live in. There is no leasehold in Scotland so as a homeowner there is no freeholder to complain to only the local council who can issue fines etc for environmental health issues. You would have to build up a case of evidence for the issues though which can take a while.
Load More Replies...My brother and sister-in-law lived through a similar situation, but they and the offending neighbor each owned single family detached houses. The neighbors were friendly, which made the situation more difficult. I believe my brother in law ultimately contacted the department of safety after seeing rats crawling around the mountain of garbage in the offender's back yard. He was able to report it anonymously. This was in California, USA, but I think there would be an authority equivalent in Scotland. I wish the OP all the best.
I know in the US if there's a suspected hoarding issue you can call the city/town and they will do a welfare check and make arrangements to make sure the property is cleaned up. You aren't allowed to create a dangerous situation or unhealthy situation for the people around you. If you want to be messy and gross it needs to at least be contained in your home but even then, if there's a fear of rodents, dead animals or creating a dangerous situation for the surrounding apartments or homes there will at least be fines and threats of eviction or even condemn the home. A lot of the time people who are hoarders are not holding down jobs or are on assistance so it's likely they have not made payments or are in debt so they will be forced to clean up or be kicked out. Especially in an apartment situation because you share walls and if they are created a fire risk, they will be at least fined. But if you find any dead animals in the backyard area, consider calling animal control because, believe it or not, they sometimes have even more power. I'm not sure if that's available in Scotland, though or if it works the same.
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