What would you do if a neighbor needed your permission in order for the city to allow him to build something that might inconvenience you on his property? Would you allow it?

It might depend on how much you like and trust this neighbor.

That’s the situation in today’s story, and the neighbors who need to give permission want to say no.

Let’s see why they want to say no…

AITA for not wanting my neighbor to build a chicken farm next to my house?

My spouse and I moved into our home two years ago and so far, we’ve loved everything about it.

However, we have these new neighbors behind our house that let their kid run around in our backyard (there is a small fence between our yards, but the kid and his six friends squeeze through the fence and just hang out, touching our car, walking up and down our driveway and throwing trash on the side of our house.)

I felt upset about this, but I didn’t want to be the jerk for saying anything because they’re just kids.

Plus, we didn’t normally hang out in the backyard, since we only have a tiny patio that is big enough for a table and two chairs.

The neighbor has a question.

This week I finally bought a small set and we started to enjoy sitting outside.

So now the neighbor came over today and asked if they can build a mini chicken farm which looks like it will only be a few feet away from where our patio is.

They have a gigantic house that is about two times the size of ours and has a giant balcony, with a huge piece of land.

Our house is at the bottom of the hill they live on and our backyard is about 1/3rd the size the size of theirs.

The chicken farm could be a big problem.

If the chickens end up attracting vermin, making noise, or smelling, it will cause a problem on our property and probably not affect them much because they live way up on the hill.

He said they needed our signatures to get approval with the town.

I told him we would have to to think about it and asked him if he could keep his kid from coming into our backyard because we don’t want him to get hurt as we work on the patio and lots of the stones are broken or loose.

His response was, “Well, I mean, we try but he’s 4, he’s going to go where he wants to go.”

OP does not want to sign the form.

I get the gut sense that if they let their 4 year old child roam around the neighborhood with no supervision, they will probably not clean up the chicken coops very well or rat-proof them.

I don’t want to be the jerk that tells them they can’t have chickens, but I don’t have a good feeling about how sanitary they will be and also a bit annoyed that they have so much land, yet still hang out in our yard without permission.

We saved up to finally decorate our small patio, and now I don’t want to deal with smelling (and hearing) a chicken farm a few feet away from me when I go out there to eat or drink.

Is it bad that I don’t want to sign the form?

It seems like the answer is clear. Don’t sign the form.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

The chicken coop sounds like a bad idea.

This reader knows from personal experience that chickens are really loud.

This reader warns not to sign and not to trust the neighbor.

Another person suggests legal advise.

It’s okay to say “no.”

There’s a reason the neighbor doesn’t want the chickens next to his house.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.