Imagine paying a premium to work your way into this crazy housing market, purchasing a house from someone who paid a quarter of that amount for it 15 years ago. You're probably still going to be coming to grips with the weight of your new mortgage when you're confronted by your new neighbor, a “lifetime” resident, who regards you with disdain because, for one reason or another, they don't think you're worthy of replacing their longtime neighbors whom they had grown fond of. The reality is that…

In life, it's not worth worrying about the little things, especially when there are much bigger things to worry about… Yet, each neighborhood somehow manages to have that one neighbor who has nothing important to worry about and spends their days obsessing over petty details and perceived slights, plotting about how they're going to hold their neighbors accountable for that single blade of grass that went unmowed, or that leaf that blew over the property line that one time three summers ago.

HOAs are determined to keep their neighborhoods looking pristine , no matter what. If you happen to live a neighborhood rules by a home owner's association, you don't always have a lot of choice about how to keep your home. For example, you might want to paint your home a nice warm yellow color, but lots of HOAs have a strict color palette you need to choose from. So the HOA could easily reject your request , and insist you paint your place a boring gray color instead.

Moving house is a stressful affair that is capped off by the uncertainty of who your new neighbors will be. It's like you're spending your entire life savings to get a single roll of a D20, which could very well end up in a critical failure. After all, nothing makes or breaks the enjoyment of a peaceable existence like ending up next to the wrong people; you could have the most perfect abode that you'd ever dreamed of and still be more miserable than you were in your little old decrepit one if…

When you come home to find a strange car parked in your driveway or assigned parking space, there really isn't much more to be done than to go through the proper procedure for having that car ticketed and towed. Of course, if you're feeling generous and know your neighbor owns the car, it might be the neighborly thing to do to give them a heads-up or a reminder that they've parked in your space. You never know. There could be some kind of emergency going on, like they could have really needed t…

Sometimes, your petty actions go much further than you had originally intended, and without realizing it, you're pulling on a thread that will continue to unravel, causing a cascading effect that knocks over the first domino in a chain that "Rube Goldbergs" into a house of cards and sends the whole thing crashing down. Well, it turns out that when you accuse your terrible neighbor of being a serial cheater, sending anonymous messages pretending to be his mistress, that might be pretty upsetting…

As we age, we have a tendency to become less tolerant of those around us. We might even feel bad about that waning tolerance, yet we find it happening all the same. For example, I, now in my 30s, don't care at all for the screeching sound of children. Am I a Karen? Maybe—but regardless of that, it remains a certain fact that I would never intentionally buy a house adjacent to a park or a school as I can not abide by loud noises like the screeching of children. But here's the trick when it comes…

They say, “You are what you eat." Who are they, you ask? What do they want, and why are they saying this? What are they eating? And what does that, consequently, make them? While all these answers remain unanswered maybe they should change what they're saying from “You are what you eat” to “You are what you throw over the fence into your neighbor's yard.” Still, whatever you're throwing, and no matter what that makes you, throwing something over a fence is always going to make you trashy .

There's no greater nightmare than purchasing what seems to be the perfect home only to move in and realize the reason the previous owners wanted out… The neighbors. The realization might dawn immediately on the first fateful meeting, or it might be a slow burn, with the realization dawning over time.

Some people don't know how to pick their battles, like these next door neighbors . U/PipeOrganTransplant shared their neighborhood drama , which all started with a hedge. The OP loves their forsythia hedge, while the neighbors think it blocks their view . But the rules and regulations around them state that the neighbors can't do anything about the plants. So instead, they got creative, and tried to find other ways to bring the OP down a peg. There are some people in life that you just can't pl…

Sometimes on a warm afternoon, the local kids will hold a bake sale . Maybe in your neighborhood they sell lemonade and chocolate chip cookies, and in others, kids sell baked goods , like breads or slices of bundt cakes. Of course, lemonade is a bit easier to make than baked goods. So parents might volunteer help out with that part. It's really sweet to see kids get excited about being little businesspeople for a day as they sit outside and play store keeper. Plus, if you live in a bustling are…

It's not worth getting worked up about minor slights. It's, quite frankly, a waste of time and energy. Usually, the advice here would be to take the high road and get on with your life, but you might also choose, instead, to go away and plot a petty act of meticulous, calculated revenge that will exact itself repeatedly over the course of years following. As the revenge takes its course , the target will be repeatedly wondering why on earth this is happening to them, having long since forgotten…

Feuds over imaginary and (often) invisible lines are one of the cornerstones of human society. The problem is they become increasingly difficult to resolve when no one can agree on where that imaginary invisible line should actually be—or whether or not it actually exists in the first place.

You should be careful what you wish for… You might get your wish, but it might not go exactly as you had pictured. In order to avoid joining the HOA of the development that was being built around them, this couple decided to establish their own, joining with their three original neighbors to form their own organization that would see them protected, with the husband of the couple as head of the HOA of their single street in the development. Things were peaceable for a short time until a meddlin…

Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean your neighbor has ten dogs ? This person shared a malicious compliance tale, and buried that rather surprising fact in the story. Owning one or two dogs is pretty usual. Lots of people adopt one dog, decide the pup has been getting lonely during the day while they're alone, and then they'll get a second dog to keep that one company. Owning ten dogs is certainly out of the ordinary! That must be a full time job to feed, groom, walk, and play with an whole squad…

Sometimes, it feels like the whole purpose of an HOA board is for them to find the little things that bring people in the neighborhood joy and then take them away just for the demented fun of it all. When it comes to holiday decorations, what is the point of enforcing bogus policies? Unless neighbors are displaying dangerous material as a part of their decorations, no one is getting hurt. And if no one is affected, then folks who are members of the HOA can learn to mind their own business! This…